Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Professor Rita Kirk has been named the incoming director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

Kirk will take the reins on Jan. 1. Kirk replaces Tom Mayo, an associate professor in the Dedman School of Law.

Kirk is an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and a Meadows Distinguished Teaching Professor.

Kirk was also a member of a Peabody Award-winning team of CNN that helped cover the 2008 presidential election.

Kirk received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri in 1986, her M.A. from the University of Arkansas in 1978 and her B.S.E. from the University of Arkansas in 1975.

The Maguire Center was founded by a $2.5 million endowment from Cary M. Maguire in 1995.

The Center is dedicated to “seek to recognize, honor, and model ethical behavior; provide moral reflection on the contemporary issues; and celebrate ethics that reflect SMU’s fundamental goals throughout the campus and in the Greater Dallas community,” according to its website.