After seven years at the helm, Pam Johnson will step down as head of the Western Kentucky University School of Journalism and Broadcasting at the end of the school year.

“When I came here, I thought five years would be good,” said Johnson, who will be 65 in April. “Then I really wanted to finish bringing our multimedia programs up to speed.”

Johnson said she believes that has happened now.

“So I felt this was a good place,” she said.

“I decided that I wanted to do some research in the area of multimedia, which was my biggest legacy,” Johnson said. “That is changing so fast, I’d like to keep pace with it.”

Johnson will take a sabbatical for a semester for research, which will focus on media literacy and various forms of journalism, including advocacy and entertainment, which in her opinion aren’t legitimate forms of journalism. She plans to search for fellowships to support the research.

When she returns in spring 2011 as a professor, Johnson said she will have the latest information available to bring to her students, who she will likely be teaching in beginning news writing.

“I probably also will be teaching something that has to do with media literacy and maybe gender issues and multimedia,” she said.

Prior to arriving at WKU, Johnson taught news and feature writing, newspaper management and gender issues and the media at Kansas State University in 2002 as the R.M. Seaton Visiting Professor.

Johnson said David Lee, dean of Potter College of Arts and Letters, would immediately appoint a search committee.

Johnson said she believes there are internal candidates who are qualified for the position, but she would not comment on who.

Lee could not be reached for comment, but in a brief phone message, he said, “I’m sorry that Pam is leaving.”