Geoffrey Cowan
Geoffrey Cowan is a University Professor at the University of Southern California where he holds the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership and is the Director of the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. He is a former Director of the Voice of America who serves on multiple boards, including the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics & Public Policy, the Berggruen Institute, Common Sense Media, Democracy 21, and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Cowan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the Walter Lippmann Fellow of the Academy of Political & Social Science.
After serving as Dean of the USC Annenberg School from 1996-2007, Cowan was the inaugural president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands from 2010-16 which hosted three presidential summits during his tenure. Mr. Cowan is an Emmy Award winning producer, the author of several books, and a play about the Pentagon Papers case that has been performed around the United States, including a five week run in New York City, and toured China twice. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.