Learning visual aesthetics at St. Lawrence is helping Nancy Kohart Cornwell ’81 in her new job in college administration. The new dean (as of July 2012) of Montana State University's College of Arts and Architecture says, tongue-in-cheek, “I cannot draw or play music, other than the song I learned to impress my SLU boyfriend, but Steve Papson in sociology did teach me visual aesthetics, so St. Lawrence singlehandedly prepared me for this career move.” 

Cornwell had been vice president for academic affairs at Stephens College, chair of the Department of Television-Radio in the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, and chair of the Department of Mass Communication at Linfield College. Her professional media experience includes:

• Producer and director in the Republic of Panama, where she directed a live weekday newscast and produced and directed a monthly live public affairs program;
• Programming more than 150 cable franchises in New York, Massachusetts and Florida
• Photo coverage of the Kenyan parliamentary campaign of Philip Leakey.

Cornwell's research interests focus on freedom of expression, media law and emerging media technologies. She holds a doctorate in media studies from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a master's degree in telecommunication management from the Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University. At St. Lawrence, she was a Faculty Scholar, majored in psychology, studied on the University’s semester program in Kenya, was a Resident Assistant in a student housing unit and was on the riding team.