The Faculty  The MASCOM faculty consists of a core group of instructors headed bythe Director. Guest faculty is selected from the best in the media. Director K Thomas Oommen has been teaching aspiring journalists from many countries for more than three decades. He has been on the faculty as Head of Department or Dean at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, the Times Research Foundation’s Institute of Journalism, the University of Swaziland and the Asian College of Journalism. He has also been a visiting Professor at the University of Kerala and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. As a professional journalist, he has worked as a reporter or sub-editor for the Free Press Journal, the Ethiopian Ministry of Information, a number of newspapers in the United States, The Associated Press and as managing editor of Down to Earth magazine. A native of Kottayam, Prof. Oommen has returned home to undertake on behalf of the Malayala Manorama group, the task of running a world class school of journalism training. Faculty Geoji T Samuel capped a 25-year career as a journalist with the Malayala Manorama by switching to teaching journalism at MASCOM. He is primarily responsible for journalism instruction in Malayalam and for coordinating the adjunct faculty. Prof. Samuel holds an MA Degree with fi rst class from Kerala University, Karivattom Campus, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism awarded by the Trivandrum Press Club. After brief stints with the Deepika Daily in Kottayam and Thrissur, Prof. Samuel joined the Malayala Manorama in 1981 as a sub-editor trainee and rose through the ranks to head the paper’s Local Desk. He continues to write a regular column for Manorama Online. Prof. Samuel is the author of “Snehathinte Pinvili” and was the first winner of the Kerala Government’s development journalism award for his 1983 series “Velicham Thedunnavar”. Visitors Eminent visitors to MASCOM last year included former Supreme Court Chief Justice K T Thomas, former Indian Ambassador to Kuwait BMC Nair, Kerala State Right-to-Information Commissioner V V Giri, former Principal Secretary of Tamil Nadu Industries Department PC Cyriac, former Vice-Chancellor of MG University Cyriac Thomas, Research Fellow at the Centre for Development Studies (Thiruvananthapuram) V Santhakumar, Kannur Superintendent of Police S Sreejith, Marine Scientist and member of the Indian research station in Antarctica K J Mathew, Kerala Pollution Control Board Member K P Joy, Reader in the School of International Relations at M G University A K Ramakrishnan, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent in Tokyo John Northcott, former Dagens Nyheter (Stockholm) foreign correspondent Ingvar Oja, Nanda Lakshman Bandara and Thevagowry Mahalingasivam, members of the faculty of the Sri Lanka College of Journalism, Colombo, and San Jose (California) Unifi ed school district officials Sally Mathew and Ron Bottoni. Manorama School of Communication 2008