Peter Bhatia, the fifth and final candidate for the position of dean of the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications, will give a public presentation 2 p.m. Dec. 17 in the Sheldon Museum of Art auditorium.

Administrators, faculty, students and staff are encouraged to attend the presentation and provide their thoughts at the following link: http://go.unl.edu/peterbhatia.

Bhatia is editor and vice president/content of The Oregonian in Portland. He came to the paper as managing editor in 1993, became executive editor in 1997 and became editor on Jan. 1, 2010. With the paper’s transition to a digitally focused media company in October, he became vice president/content. He is president of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. He was president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 2003-04. Projects in newsrooms he has helped lead have won seven Pulitzer prizes, including four in Portland. He is a six-time Pulitzer juror. Previously, he was executive editor of The Fresno Bee, managing editor of The Sacramento Bee, editor of the York (Pa.) Dispatch and Sunday News, managing editor of the Dallas Times Herald, deputy managing editor of the San Francisco Examiner and a reporter and editor at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash.

He serves on an advisory board to Stanford magazine and on the board of Stanford Associates, an organization of the university’s top volunteers. He serves on the professional advisory board to the Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University and is a past chair. Bhatia holds a B.A. from Stanford University.

On Nov. 25, the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs announced five finalists for the position. In addition to Bhatia, they are David A. Craig, Maria B. Marron, Roger M. Lavery, and Derina Holtzhausen. Learn more about the candidates and the search here.