Communication professor Barbara Cloud has been named interim director of the Hank Greenspun School of Communication at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, according to Provost Douglas Ferraro.

Cloud, who will serve as interim director of the school while a national search is conducted for a permanent director, is also a new member of the Commission on Colleges of the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, the agency responsible for accreditation of colleges and universities in seven western states, including Nevada.

A former journalist and public relations consultant, she is a graduate of Stanford University and has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Since 1979, she has been a member of the UNLV communication faculty. She teaches communication history and law.

Cloud edits the scholarly journal, "Journalism History," and is the author of "The Business of Newspapers on the Western Frontier." She is past president of the American Journalism Historians Association and a member of the Nevada Humanities Committee and the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as numerous scholarly associations.