Maureen Shubow Rubin was appointed Associate Dean of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at California State University, Northridge in 2010. She served as Director of Undergraduate Studies from 2006 to 2010. Prior to this position, since 1998 she served as founding director of the Center for Community-Service Learning where she helped to develop and secure funding for over 300 new service-learning classes. She has written and implemented successful grant proposals to help students on her campus participate in projects centered on gang prevention, school readiness, computer literacy, self-help legal assistance, and bringing English and citizenship skills to immigrant elders, among others. An experienced faculty trainer and peer mentor, she has published widely about service-learning pedagogy, civic engagement, community collaboration and effective outreach. In 2001, she was awarded the Richard E. Cone Award from California Campus Compact for excellence and leadership in cultivating community partnerships in higher education.
Rubin joined the University in 1984 as a professor of journalism where she specialized in teaching law, public relations and media ethics, all of which have been subjects of numerous articles she wrote for both scholarly journals and mainstream media. In 1993, she was voted Outstanding Journalism Educator in the State of California by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Prior to joining the university, Rubin was Director of Public Information for President Carter’s Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs in the White House, and held similar positions for a U.S. Congresswoman and Consumer Federation of America. Rubin is a graduate of the Catholic University School of Law In Washington, D.C., holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Relations from University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Boston University.