The University of Southern California is a private research university in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1880 by Robert Maclay Widney, it is the oldest private research university in California. The university is composed of one liberal arts school, the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and 22 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, enrolling roughly 21,000 undergraduate and 28,500 post-graduate students from all fifty U.S. states and more than 115 countries. It is a member of the Association of American Universities, which it joined in 1969.
Norman Milton Lear was an American screenwriter and producer who produced, wrote, created or developed over 100 shows. Lear created and produced numerous popular 1970s sitcoms, including All in the Family (1971–1979), Maude (1972–1978), Sanford and Son (1972–1977), One Day at a Time (1975–1984), The Jeffersons (1975–1985), and Good Times (1974–1979). His shows introduced political and social themes to the sitcom.
The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television; Interactive Media & Games; Media Arts + Practice; Peter Stark Producing Program.
Martin Kaplan is an American professor and former studio executive and writer. He teaches at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and is the founding director of the Norman Lear Center for the study of the impact of entertainment on society. His career has also spanned government and politics, the entertainment industry and journalism.
Everett M. "Ev" Rogers was an American communication theorist and sociologist, who originated the diffusion of innovations theory and introduced the term early adopter. He was distinguished professor emeritus in the department of communication and journalism at the University of New Mexico.
Entertainment-Education (EE) is a communication strategy that aims to alleviate a social issue or educate the public through a custom-tailored piece of entertainment. It is defined by a set of techniques and methodologies which all aim to use various levels of mass media to communicate social and behavior change.
Willow Bay is an American television journalist, editor, author, and former model. In 2017, she became dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism having earlier served as director of USC Annenberg School of Journalism. She was previously a senior editor for the Huffington Post and a special correspondent for Bloomberg Television.
Neal Gabler is an American journalist, writer and film critic.
The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). Starting July 2017, the school's Dean is Willow Bay, succeeding Ernest J. Wilson III. The graduate program in Communication is consistently ranked first according to the QS World University Rankings.
The Annenberg Foundation is a family foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world. Some of the Foundation's core initiatives are the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) project, which funds many educational television shows broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television in the United States as well as The Annenberg Community Beach House, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Metabolic Studio, explore.org, Wallis Annenberg PetSpace and the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts.
The Annenberg School for Communication is the communication school at the University of Pennsylvania. The school was established in 1958 by Wharton School alum Walter Annenberg as the Annenberg School of Communications. The name was changed to its current title in 1990.
Bonnie Arnold is an American film producer and executive who has worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios and DreamWorks Animation. Arnold was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and rose to prominence in Hollywood during the initial wave of computer-animation.
Ernest James Wilson III is an American scholar. Wilson was the Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication, and Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, California from 2007 to 2017. He stepped down as dean in June 2017 and was succeeded by Willow Bay. Dr. Wilson is the founder of USC Annenberg's Center for Third Space Thinking, which is devoted to research, teaching and executive education on soft skills in the digital age. Through the center, Dr. Wilson's most recent research focuses on critical workforce competencies and talent and skills development in the 21st Century. As a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, he currently is writing a book on utilizing competencies via the framework of Third Space Thinking.
The academics of the University of Southern California center on The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the Graduate School, and its 17 professional schools.
Josh Kun is an American author, academic and music critic. Kun is Professor of Communication and Journalism and chair in Cross-Cultural Communication in the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. He also holds a joint appointment at USC's Department of American Studies and Ethnicity. He is the director of USC Annenberg's School of Communication, director of The Popular Music Project at USC Annenberg's the Norman Lear Center and co-editor of the book series "Refiguring American Music" for Duke University Press.
Geoffrey Cowan is an American lawyer, professor, author, and non-profit executive. He is currently a University Professor at the University of Southern California, where he holds the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership and directs the Annenberg School's Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. In 2010, Cowan was named president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, a position he held until July 2016. In this role, Cowan was commissioned with the task of turning the 200-acre estate of Ambassador Walter Annenberg and his wife Leonore into "a venue for important retreats for top government officials and leaders in the fields of law, education, philanthropy, the arts, culture, science and medicine." Since Sunnylands reopened in 2012, Cowan has helped to arrange a series of meetings and retreats there. In 2013–14, President Barack Obama convened bilateral meetings at Sunnylands with President Xi Jinping of China and with King Abdullah II of Jordan. In 2016, President Obama hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the site, where they released the Sunnylands Declaration. Prior to his time at Sunnylands, Cowan was appointed by President Bill Clinton as Director of Voice of America.
The Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd) aims to engage and inform a worldwide audience about the benefits of knowing one's genome as well as the ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) and dimensions of personal genetics. pgEd was founded in 2006, is housed in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and is directed by Ting Wu, a professor in that department. It employs a variety of strategies for reaching general audiences, including generating online curricular materials, leading discussions in classrooms, workshops, and conferences, developing a mobile educational game (Map-Ed), holding an annual conference geared toward accelerating awareness (GETed), and working with the world of entertainment to improve accuracy and outreach.
Nicco Angelo Mele is an American academic, writer, and businessman. He is one of several managing directors of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. From 2016 to 2019 he was the director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, an academic research center in the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University that examines media policy and innovation. Mele was previously a senior executive at the Tribune Media Company and deputy publisher at the Los Angeles Times and, prior, the founder and chief executive of Echo&Co, a digital and political consulting firm born out of the presidential campaign for Howard Dean. Earlier, he was the head webmaster for Dean's campaign.
Good Energy is a non-profit organization and creative consultancy that advocates for and advises on the inclusion of climate change in Film & TV entertainment, arts and culture.
Doe Mayer is an American filmmaker, academic, and author. She is the inaugural holder of the Mary Pickford Chair in Film and Television Production as well as Professor Emerita of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
