MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A vice president at West Virginia University and former dean of its journalism school has been named president of the newly formed Poynter Foundation.

Chris Martin will help increase philanthropic support for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. The institute is a training center for journalists nationwide and an international media studies think tank.

Martin will also serve as Poynter's vice president for external relations.

She's been part of WVU's senior leadership team for nine years. She joined the WVU faculty in 1990 and co-directed Poynter's College Newswriting and Reporting Fellowship Program from 1997 to 2004.

Martin consults nationally on writing, reporting, emerging media, media technology and mass communications.