Ernest James Wilson III, Ph.D., is Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication 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 and an adjunct fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

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. Most recently he served 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 the journal Information Technologies and International Development.