Ernest J. Wilson III
Dean
Walter H. Annenberg Chair in Communication

Curriculum Vitae

Ernest James Wilson III, Ph.D., is Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California. He is also a professor of political science, a faculty fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, a member of the board of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and a member of The National Academies Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. He was elected chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in September 2009.

Dr. Wilson’s experience at the intersection of communication and public policy spans the private and public sectors. He has served as a consultant to international agencies such as the World Bank and the United Nations, worked in government at the White House National Security Council and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, led research centers and academic departments at premier institutions of higher education, and held positions with media companies and other corporations. He served as a policy advisor on the Barack Obama Presidential Transition Team.

With an academic focus on the convergence of communication and information technology, public policy, and the public interest, Dr. Wilson is a student of the “information champions,” the leaders of the information revolution around the world. His current work concentrates on China-Africa relations, global sustainable innovation in high-technology industries, and the role of politics in the diffusion of information and communication technologies.

In addition to his most recent books – Governing Global Electronic Networks and Negotiating the Net: The Politics of Internet Diffusion in Africa – Dr. Wilson co-edits the MIT Press series The Information Revolution and Global Politics and an MIT journal, Information Technologies and International Development.

Nominated by President Bill Clinton and reappointed by President George W. Bush in 2004, Dr. Wilson is the longest-serving member of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As chair of the corporation, he has set an ambitious agenda for the nation's public media. He is founding chair of the board’s New Digital Media Committee and was founding chair of its Public Awareness Initiative Committee. He is also a member of the Carnegie-Knight Commission on the Future of Journalism Education and The National Academies Board on Research Data and Information. He was deputy director of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission from 1994 to 1995.

Dr. Wilson’s other government experience includes service as director of International Programs and Resources on the National Security Council at the White House (1993–94); director of the Policy and Planning Unit, Office of the Director, U.S. Information Agency (1994). He advised President Obama's transition team on matters of communication technology and public diplomacy (2008-09).

Prior to his appointment at USC Annenberg, Dr. Wilson was a professor of Government and Politics and a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park.  From 1995 to 2002, Dr. Wilson was director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at Maryland.  He previously served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Wilson is the recipient of numerous research fellowships and awards, including the Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Communication section of the ISA, an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Originally from Washington, D.C., Dr. Wilson earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Harvard College. He is married to Francille Rusan Wilson, Ph.D., a labor and intellectual historian. They have two sons.