Ernest James Wilson

Dr. Ernest J, Wilson is the Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Walter H. Annenberg Chair in Communication at the University of Southern California. Through scholarship and service to the public and private sectors, he is a leading figure at the intersection of public policy and global communications. Wilson has held various positions and appointments under three U.S. presidents, including Director of the International Programs and Resources and White House National Security Council and also policy advisor to the Obama transition team in 2009. One of the first African-American deans of any journalism or communications school. Wilson champions the importance of racial diversity in information delivery in a world where the consumers of information are of many different colors. His work on information innovations-and challenges to those innovations-in China and Africa provides some of the foundation for this field, where public policy and governmental practice must adapt instantaneously to keep pace with lightning-quick developments. His service on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting helped articulate terms of the national debate on equity in access, delivery, and consumption in the digital age.