Gabriella Stern is Director of Communications at the World Health Organization. Based at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Gabby is in charge of the organization’s global communications strategy, manages a team of communications professionals, and serves as spokesperson for the Director-General. Gabby joined WHO in March 2019 after more than three years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Based in Seattle, she was the Director of Media & External Relations. Before moving into communications in early 2016, Gabby was a journalist. She spent almost 25 years at The Wall Street Journal in various editing and reporting roles in the U.S., London (during which she and her family became naturalized UK citizens) and Asia. Prior to joining the Journal, she worked for the Omaha, (Neb.) World-Herald. Born in New Jersey, with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Yale University, Gabby is married, with two adult children (and a cat named Oscar.)

Gabby SternDirector of CommunicationsWorld Health Organization

Patricia Riley is a specialist in global and organizational communication and internationally known for her work on institutional politics and organizational culture change. She directs The Global Communication Dual Masters Degree Program jointly taught with the London School of Economics. Her research group, the USC Scenario Lab, investigates alternative narratives of the future with projects that range from the entertainment industry to terrorist organizations and big data analytics. She also directs the Annenberg -World Bank Summer Institute on Reform Communication, which is jointly taught by faculty from the Annenberg School for Communication at the U of Penn, the World Bank Faculty, and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the USC, which brings strategic communication skills and narrative capacity together to solve wicked problems in global development. Her recent research focuses on the role of vision and narratives in startup organizations in the US and China with a focus on women led companies (funded by a grant from Shanghai Jiao Tong University), and a project on polarizing messages in social media about the future of global warming and climate change in the US and China. She is also investigating the impact of virtual reality and 360 technologies on news storytelling (funded by the Gates foundation, 2016-2018) and completing a project for USAID on human trafficking, and a big data project on terrorism.

Her work has appeared in such books as Organizational Communication and Change, Organizational Culture, Advances in Leadership Research and the Handbook of Organizational Communication, and in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, China and Media, Communication Quarterly, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Journal of Management, Argument and Advocacy, New Management and Communication Reports. She is the former Director of the School of Communication and a past President of the Faculty at USC. She teaches graduate seminars on global communication, power and politics in organizations, organizational communication and culture change, and the role of new technology in organizations. An expert in research methods, she also teaches graduate seminars in field research methodology, multivariate statistics and time series. In addition, she is a Senior Fellow in the Norman Lear Center, a Fellow in both the Institute for Public Diplomacy and the Center for Communication Leadership and Policy, an associate member of the USC Leadership Institute, and a member of the East Asian Studies Center.

Dr. Patti RileyAssociate Professor of Communication

Director, Global Communication Master’s Degree ProgramUSC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

An experienced organizational consultant, Dr. Riley conducts workshops and seminars for top executives in areas such as strategic communication, leadership, advocacy, knowledge management, organizational learning, reengineering and managing change. She has been a lead faculty member for executive leadership in the US Navy in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School ‘s Strategic Communication Workshops. She has facilitated structural reorganizations, developed transformation programs, quality programs, empowered work teams, and designed numerous attitude and marketing surveys. She has also assisted both technical and human resources training programs with large-scale interventions by developing multi-million dollar state and federal grants. She consults with universities and organizations on creating diverse environments, workplaces of the future, women in leadership and university strategic planning. Her clients include both profit and non-profit institutions: ALCOA, Baystate Health Systems, Boeing, 3M, Qualcomm, Raytheon, California State University Los Angeles, Hewlett Packard, Los Angeles Times, Lockeed-Martin, NewsCorps, Santa Margarita Water District, Sony Pictures, Treasure Chest Advertising, Twenty-first Century Fox, the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations, the University of Southern California, Warner Bros, the World Bank Group and Wavetek Corporation. In addition, she has worked with numerous Japanese companies including Kyocera, Mitsubishi and the Japanese National Railroad, and developed narrative strategy programs for the China Development Research Foundation and numerous Chinese State Owned Enterprises.

Ernest J. Wilson III, Ph.D., professor of communication and political science, is founder and director of the USC Center for Third Space Thinking, devoted to research, teaching and executive education on soft skills in the digital age. Through the Center for Third Space Thinking, Dr. Wilson’s most recent research focuses on critical workforce competencies and talent and skills development in the 21st Century. He was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2017–2018), and he currently is writing a book on soft skills via the framework of Third Space Thinking. He was on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from 2000–2010, the last year as chairman, and served as dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism from 2007–2017.

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, the FAO, UNDP, and the Economic Commission for Africa. He was an advisor to the governments of China, Nigeria, and Poland on economic policy, and led research centers and academic departments at premier institutions of higher education.

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.

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-founded and co-edited the MIT Press series The Information Revolution and Global Politics and the journal Information Technologies and International Development.

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) and 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.

Dr. Ernest J. Wilson III Professor of Communication and Political Science

Former USC Annenberg DeanFounder of the Annenberg Center for Third Space Thinking USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

Formerly a professor and senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park, Dr. Wilson was director of that university’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management from 1995 to 2002. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania.

In May, Dr. Wilson addressed a session of the Annual Forum of the OECD in Paris, on workplace readiness, and also prepared a paper on the importance of interactive soft skills for the future trajectories of the diffusion of Artificial Intelligence.

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.

Shellee Smith is the Executive Director of the USC Center for Third Space Thinking andExecutive Education at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

At the Center, she leads a team that has developed a new, communication-driven methodology to help organizations unlock innovation, drive collaboration, create higher performing cultures, and enhance organizational performance. She also manages Annenberg’s executive education programs with the World Bank, the China Research Development Foundation, Shanghai Media Group, and other companies.

Shellee is an experienced management and communication consultant. She headed an international consulting firm for six years that provided expertise in executive coaching, strategic communication, crisis management, media relations and digital storytelling before joining USC.

Shellee has worked on both sides of the microphone, as an award-winning newscaster and a company spokesperson. She served as the Director of Communications for Zecco Holdings Inc., an online investment firm which she helped launch on Wall Street, providing media training for senior executives and acting as the company spokesperson. Prior to joining Zecco, Shellee was a national correspondent for NBC News based in Los Angeles, London, and Tel Aviv. She covered breaking news stories and in-depth features for the Today Show, Nightly News, MSNBC and CNBC, reporting on national and international stories.

Shellee has garnered the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism, including seven Emmys, the Alfred duPont Columbia University Award, the George Foster Peabody Award, two national Edward R. Murrow Awards, an Iris Award, and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award. She was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show as one of the top investigative reporters in the country. Shellee earned an Executive MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business. She has bachelor degrees in journalism and German Area Studies from the University of Missouri in Columbia. She also studied German at Trier University in Germany.

Shellee SmithExecutive Director

USC Center for Third Space Thinking & Executive Education USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

Sumir Lal is Director for External and Corporate Relations at the World Bank, Washington, DC. He heads a department that advises the World Bank’s Global Practices and operational units in strategic communication, advocacy, reputation management, stakeholder engagement, and leadership communication. He also leads implementation of the Bank’s Access to Information Policy, considered the gold standard for international financial institutions.

Sumir has a special interest in the politics of development, and on matters related to governance, right to information, and stakeholder engagement. His paper “Can Good Economics Ever Be Good Politics” (2006) on the power sector in India remains a benchmark. He has published a number of other papers on the political economy of reform.

Sumir has previously been the Bank’s Manager for Operations Communications, its head of Internal Communications, and its External Affairs Advisor for India. Prior to joining the World Bank, Sumir was an award-winning journalist in India. He was Deputy Editor of The Telegraph, Kolkata, from 1993 to 1998, and Associate Editor of the Hindustan Times, Delhi, from 1998 to 2000. During his journalism career, he reported and commented on Indian and South Asian politics, conflict, and development issues.

Sumir holds an advanced degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Sumir LalDirector

External and Corporate RelationsThe World Bank Group

Masud Mozammel is a Senior Communication Officer for External and Corporate Relations at the World Bank, Washington D.C. He specializes in strategic communication, advocacy and stakeholder engagement concepts, tools and techniques that contribute to socio-economic growth for better development results. Masud has advised and provided technical assistance to governments, national and international development organizations, bilateral and multilateral agencies for more than 20 years across the world. He has worked on a range of development projects/programs and policy/strategy initiatives in the areas of poverty reduction and national development plans; public sector reforms; governance, transparency and accountability; and community driven development. He has published books, article and chapters on issues related to communication, poverty and development.

Prior to joining the World Bank in 1999, Masud worked as a journalist and has served as media and communication specialist with different national and international organizations. He holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Dhaka University in Bangladesh, a Master’s degree in International Communication from School of International Service at American University in Washington D.C., and has been trained at the Poverty Action Lab in Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Masud MozammelSenior Communication Officer

External and Corporate RelationsThe World Bank Group

Rebecca Weintraub has spent more than thirty years in the field of strategic communication,executive coaching, facilitation, change management, and organizational behavior. She began her career as an assistant professor at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) where she was also the Director of Forensics. She then joined the Hughes Aircraft company, which became Hughes Electronics, where over a fifteen-year period she held a number of positions in communication and total quality in the satellite manufacturing division before becoming Director of Corporate Communications for the Corporation, a position she held for five years. In that position she was responsible for communication strategy and tactics for the corporation as well as providing executive coaching for a variety of Hughes executives.

She left Hughes Electronics to join the consulting firm of Towers Perrin where she focused onstrategic organizational communication, health and welfare benefits communication strategy, and change management. Her clients included Northrop Grumman, MGM, Mazda, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, WellPoint Health Systems, and the L.A. Times.

Dr. Weintraub is currently a Clinical Professor of Communication at USC in the AnnenbergSchool for Communication where she is both the Director of the Communication Management Master’s Degree Program and the Director of the Center for Corporate and Community Education. She teaches strategic organizational and corporate communication classes in that program. Her Strategic Corporate Communication course was Annenberg’s first on-line course.

Dr. Weintraub was awarded the 2004 Best On-line Teaching award for higher education by the US Distance Learning Association. In addition to her teaching, she provides strategiccommunication planning, presentation, executive coaching, management training, andfacilitation consulting services to organizations in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.Her clients have included such organizations as Toyota Motor Sales, Fox Networks, the Dental Health Foundation, Mindjet, the County of Los Angeles, and the Redondo Beach Unified School District, the US Navy and Department of Defense.

Dr. Weintraub received her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA and her Master’s and Ph.D. degreesfrom USC.

Rebecca WeintraubClinical Professor of Communication

Director, Master of Communication ManagementUSC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Dr. Sheila Murphy is a Full Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication andJournalism at the University of Southern California. Trained in social psychology, Dr. Murphyspecializes in identifying the individual, interpersonal, community, ethnic and cultural levelfactors that shape people’s knowledge, attitudes and practices. She is also an expert on the use of stories or narratives – in contrast to more traditional interventions – to change individual and normative beliefs and behavior on topics ranging from human trafficking, condom use, stereotyping, cancer screening, water conservation, and acceptance of marginalized groups such as Muslims, undocumented immigrants and transgender individuals.

For the past 25 years, Dr. Murphy has designed and/or evaluated persuasive interventionsusing a wide variety of methodological tools including experiments, large-scale surveys, focus groups, content analysis, social network analysis, multilevel analysis and field observation in order to paint a more complete picture of a particular problem.

Dr. Murphy has received the American Public Health Association’s Public Health EducationAward, The Top Translational Research Award in Health Communication and the NationalInstitutes of Health Common Fund Award. For her work on persuasive narrative Dr. Murphyrecently received the 2015 Everett M. Rogers Award given to “an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to advancing the study and/or practice of public healthcommunication” by the American Public Health Association. 1n 2018, Dr. Murphy was elected a Fellow of the International Communication Association for her achievements in the study of human communication.

Sheila MurphyProfessor of Communication

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Robin Stevens, PhD, MPH is a health communication scholar working to achieve health equity in African American and Latinx communities in the United States. Stevens uses digital epidemiology to investigate youth well-being, sexual health, mental health and substance use in the context of the digital neighborhood. She uses interdisciplinary community-engaged approaches to improve the health and well-being of Black youth. Her work is supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Stevens is the director of the Health Equity & Media Lab. She received her AB from Harvard College, MPH from the University of Michigan, and PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. She is a proud Philadelphian.

Robin StevensAssociate Professor of Communications

USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

Director of the Message Effects Lab, Annenberg School for Communication and Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Fishman is a behavioral and social scientist who directs the Message Effects Lab (asc.upenn.edu/mel), which works with interdisciplinary teams, nationally and internationally. She holds a joint appointment at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Center for Mental Health and a Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, both at the University of Pennsylvania. She also provides scientific consultation to governments, non-profits organizations, and industry.

As director of the Message Effects Lab, she helps teams empirically identify the most promising behavior change strategies for a particular population of interest. The Message Effect Lab supports efforts to change various behaviors, ranging from sanitation habits to vaccination uptake. To combat vaccine hesitancy, we increased the percentage who were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by approximately 20% (compared to controls, in a randomized controlled test). We guide teams who want to empirically determine the ideal type of behavior change intervention, including which message content will be most effective.

As Co-Director of the Outcomes Measurement and Methods Core within the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Award, and ongoing collaborations, Dr. Fishman provides teams with standardized, validated methods for measuring and analyzing the factors key to behavior change. These data allow teams to scientifically identify solutions.

Fishman is the recipient of many awards. She received degrees from Stanford University (with University Honors and Departmental Distinction) and the University of Pennsylvania.

Jessica Fishman, PhDDirector of the Message Effects Lab, Annenberg School for Communication and Perelman School of

Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Eric M. Eisenberg is Professor of Communication and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida. As a global authority on effective leadership communication, Eisenberg has worked closely with executives and employees from organizations across a wide variety of industries, including Baystate Health, Big Y Markets, The World Bank, State Farm Insurance, Hughes Aircraft, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Time Customer Service, Ned Davis research and Hillsborough County Government. Most recently, he has been offering workshops on strategic communication to members of U.S. Special Operations Command. He is an internationally recognized author, researcher, teacher, facilitator, consultant and executive coach specializing in the strategic use of communication to promote positive organizational change.

Dr. Eisenberg received his doctorate in Organizational Communication from Michigan State University in 1982. After leaving MSU, he directed the Master’s program in Applied Communication at Temple University before moving to the University of Southern California. Over a ten-year period at USC, Dr. Eisenberg twice received the National Communication Association award for the outstanding research publication in organizational communication, as well as the Burlington Foundation award for excellence in teaching. He is also the recipient of the 2000 Ohio University Elizabeth Andersch Award for lifetime contributions to the field of Communication. Dr. Eisenberg is the author of over 70 articles, chapters, and books on the subjects of organizational communication, health communication, and communication theory. His most recent academic work focuses on handoffs in health care and how improved communication can reduce the likelihood of medical error.

Dr. Eric M. EisenbergDean

College of Arts and SciencesUniversity of South Florida

Nicholas J. Cull is Professor of Public Diplomacy and is the founding director of the Master ofPublic Diplomacy program at USC. He took both his BA and PhD at the University of Leeds.While a graduate student, he studied at Princeton as a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York. From 1992 to 1997 he was lecturer in American History at the University of Birmingham in the UK. From September 1997 to August 2005 he was Professor of American Studies and Director of the Centre for American Studies in the Department of History at Leicester.

His research and teaching interests are inter-disciplinary, and focus on public diplomacy and -- more broadly -- the role of media, culture and propaganda in international history. He is the author of two volumes on the history of US public diplomacy: The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989 (Cambridge 2008), named by Choice Magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Texts of 2009 and The Decline and Fall of the United States Information Agency: American Public Diplomacy, 1989-2001 (Palgrave, New York, 2012). His first book, Selling War, published by OUP New York in 1995, was a study of British information work in the United States before Pearl Harbor. He is the co-editor (with David Culbertand David Welch) of Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500-present(2003) which was one of Book List magazines reference books of the year, co-editor with David Carrasco of Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2004). He is an active film historian who has been part of the movement to include film and other media within the mainstream of historical sources. His publications in this area include two books co-authored with James Chapman: Projecting Empire: Imperialism in Popular Cinema (IB Tauris, London, 2009) and Projecting Tomorrow: Science Fiction in Popular Cinema(IB Tauris, 2013). He has published numerous articles on the theme of propaganda and media history. His most recent volume (co-edited with Francisco Rodriguez and Lorenzo Delgado),is US Public Diplomacy and Democratization in Spain: Selling Democracy? (Palgrave,New York, 2015). His most recent book is Public Diplomacy: Foundations for Global Engagement in the Digital Age (Polity, 2019).

He has recently completed terms as editor of the journal Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, President of the International Association for Media and History. He is a Board member of the Public Diplomacy Council.

Nick J. CullProfessor of Communication

Director, Master of Public Diplomacy ProgramUSC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Robert Hernandez, aka WebJournalist, has made a name for himself as a journalist of the web, not just on the web. His primary focus is exploring and developing the intersection of technology and journalism — to empower people, inform reporting and storytelling, engage community, improve distribution and, whenever possible, enhance revenue. He is a professor of professional practice at USC Annenberg, but he’s not an academic… he’s more of a “hackademic” that specializes in “MacGyvering” digital journalism through emerging technologies.

His most recent work includes augmented reality, wearables/Google glass and virtual reality — he and his students produce VR experiences under their brand: JOVRNALISM. Their work has won awards from the Webby Awards, the Shorty Awards, the Online News Association, Society of Professional Journalists, among others, and can be seen in Al Jazeera, The New York Times, NBC, NPR, ProPublica, USA Today and in their own iOS/Android app.

He has worked for seattletimes.com, SFGate.com, eXaminer.com, La Prensa Gráfica, among others. Hernandez is also the co-founder of #wjchat and co-creator of the Diversify Journalism Project. He has served on boards that have included Chicas Poderosas, InquireFirst, the Online News Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (where he is a lifetime member). He is also a Journalism 360 ambassador and program lead. He is the recipient of SPJ’s 2015 Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award and the 2018 NAHJ Si Se Puede Award. He has made it to imgur’s front page more than once. He connects dots and people.

Awards and honorsWinner, Online Journalism Awards: David Teeuwen Student Journalism Award (Large), Who We Are: Finding HomeWinner, Mark of Excellence National, Society of Professional Journalists, Immersive Journalists and “Best in Show”

Robert HernandezProfessor of Professional Practice

USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

Winner, The Webby Awards, Reality, Reality (Video Series & Channels), My People, Our Stories: Los Angeles.Winner, The Webby Awards, Advertising, Media & PR Individual Student, People’s Voice Award, The Deported: Life Beyond the Border. Winner, LA Press Club, Best Multimedia Package, Homeless Realities.

François Bar is Professor of Communication and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California. He serves on the Annenberg Innovation Lab research council and is a steering committee member of the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication. His research and teaching explore the social and economic impacts of information technologies, with a specific focus on telecommunication policy, user-driven innovation and technology appropriation. His most recent work examines the potential of information technology for economic, social and cultural development, in places ranging from East Africa to Latin America and South Los Angeles. He is co-Editor in Chief of Information Technologies and International Development (ITID).

Research Group Affiliations:Annenberg Innovation Lab (AIL)Annenberg Research Network for International Communication (ARNIC)Emergent Cities Research GroupThe Spatial Analysis Lab (SLAB)Race, Arts, and Placemaking (RAP)

Francois BarProfessor of Communication

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Willa Seidenberg is the founder and former director of Annenberg Radio News, the University of Southern California’s radio news operation housed at USC Annenberg, and Intersections South LA, a reporting lab and community website for South Los Angeles. Seidenberg was a broadcast journalist for more than 20 years before coming to USC in January of 2000 as a faculty adviser for Annenberg TV News, USC’s television news operation.

Seidenberg started her news career as a public radio reporter, anchor and producer, with stints at WYSO-FM, WBUR-FM and WGBH-FM. She covered the landmark Woburn toxic-waste trial in Boston and contributed stories to National Public Radio. Seidenberg began writing television news in 1987 at WBZ-TV in Boston and later moved to KCAL-TV in Los Angeles.

She is the co-author of the oral history/photo project A Matter of Conscience: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War (published in 1992), which she produced with photographer William Short. A Matter of Conscience continues to be exhibited nationally, along with Seidenberg and Short’s second oral history/photo project called Memories of the American War: Stories From Viet Nam.

She teaches courses on audio journalism and podcasting and she was an inaugural fellow with USC’s Center for Excellence in Teaching.

Willa SeidenbergProfessor of Professional Practice of Journalism

USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

Vince Gonzales, Professor of Professional Practice, is the Coordinator, Master's Programs,School of Journalism. He is also a freelance correspondent/producer for “SoCal Connected” on KCET here in Los Angeles. Prior to that he was a CNN freelance correspondent and, from 1998 to 2007, was a CBS News national correspondent (focusing on Investigative Stories) based in L.A. Gonzales has also worked as a TV news reporter in the Denver, Phoenix, and Dallas markets. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Brockport (with bachelor’s degrees in political science and communications/journalism) and he received a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Gonzales also studied at the Graduate School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia.Awards: three National News Emmys, two Local News Emmys, three Columbia University-Alfred I. duPont awards, four RTNA Golden Mikes, the L.A. Press Club’s Best Investigative Reporting award, the L.A. Press Club’s Best Documentary (TV) award, and honors from Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society for Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, and The National Headliner Awards. Named “2005 Broadcast Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Vince GonzalesProfessor of Professional PracticeAssociate Dean of Student Affairs

Associate Director for Journalism Graduate Programs USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Matthew Le Veque is an associate professor at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where he specializes in integrated campaigns, digital and social media, and emerging communication channels. He has taught at USC for more than 14 years—first as an adjunct professor for nine years and as a full-time professor for the last five years.

His courses include Digital, Social and Mass Media Strategies, a graduate level course about understanding the dramatically changing media landscape and the role traditional, social and emerging digital channels play in communication; as well as Real-Time Social Media Monitoring and Analysis for Converged Communication, in which students learn to run comprehensive social web listening and analytics for Annenberg’s converged media center while focusing on the emerging role real-time marketing plays for brands, organizations and causes. He also teaches a graduate course in Multimedia Content Creation where students learn digital skills and push their creative limits with website creation, image storytelling and video production. Matthew has taught and guest lectured in numerous other courses.

As a faculty member of the media center committee Matthew oversees student integration and helps set policy for the new converged media center in Wallace Annenberg Hall. This includes running the real-time social data desk where he trains students on enterprise software such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Crimson Hexagon to listen and analyze topics, trends and conversations on the social web.

In addition, Matthew has been active with USC Center on Public Diplomacy teaching Digital Tools and Real-Time Analytics for the Practitioner in Washington, DC and at the summer institute in Los Angeles.

Matthew is a partner at Rogers Finn Partners with more than 25 years experience in integrated communication campaigns. He offers senior counsel to the agency’s consumer, health care, government and non-profit clients on digital strategies, social media and emerging media channels.

Matthew K. Le VequeAssociate Professor of Professional Practice

Public Relations Media CoordinatorUSC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

An early adopter and thought leader in digital strategies, Matthew has forged cutting edge digital and social media strategies for agency clients – from website development, online video creation and social network engagement, to search engine optimization, research and complex social web analytics. He is helping clients apply performance-driven indicators to their digital and social media channels. He has counseled and conducted presentations on the use of digital, social and mass media communication for many non-profit, government and private sector organizations. In 2006, he was founder and leader of the agency’s Digital Strategy Group.

Matthew has expertise in creating social marketing campaigns that engage diverse communities, promote public policy change and create long-term behavior modification. From overseeing California’s groundbreaking anti-smoking campaign for 15 years to creating and managing the LA County Department of Public Health’s innovative Choose Health LA obesity prevention and LA Quits anti-smoking campaigns, as well as the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works’ elementary school environmental education program, Matthew’s efforts demonstrate real world results.

As a leader in the field, he has presented at conferences and conducted trainings in social marketing, digital communication and integrated communication campaign techniques across the nation, including for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Center for Non-Profit Management, CDC Summer Institute run by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, American Institute of CPAs, Habitat for Humanity, and numerous corporations and non-profits.

With a unique combination of strategy and creativity, his work at The Rogers Group and Rogers Finn Partners has received more than 60 awards from organizations including the Public Relations Society of America, International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals and the National Public Health Information Coalition.

In addition to the award winning strategic communication work, Matthew’s career has included working in public policy for members of United States Congress and the California Legislature, and intensive political campaign experience where he worked for one of the most successful political campaign consulting firms in the western United States.

Kate Folb comes to Hollywood, Health & Society after working for over 20 years in the entertainment education field. After an early career in television and music production/management, Kate joined the Scott Newman Center as director of special projects. There, she worked with top TV shows and films on issues of alcohol and other substance abuse. Later, she spent nearly 10 years as director of the Media Project, a partnership of Advocates for Youth and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which addressed portrayals of adolescent reproductive health in the media. In 2001 she led Nightingale Entertainment, an independent consulting firm working with foundations and national non-profits including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Planned Parenthood Federation of America on entertainment education and celebrity involvement in national media campaigns. Kate speaks fluent Spanish, holds a bachelor's degree in Spanish from the University of Denver, and a master's degree in education from UCLA. Contact her at kate.folb@usc.edu.

Kate FolbDirector, Hollywood, Health & Society

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He currently directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC and USC's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII). Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC.

Dr. Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. His recent book Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America's Metro Areas, co-authored with Chris Benner (UC Press 2015), argues how inequality stunts economic growth and how bringing together equity and growth requires concerted local action. Combining data, case studies, and narratives on multi-sector collaborations in 11 metro regions, the book offers a powerful prescription not just for metros but for our national challenges of slow job growth, rising economic inequality, and sharp political polarization. He has also recently co-edited the book, Unsettled Americans: Metropolitan Context and Civic Leadership for Immigrant Integration with John Mollenkopf(Cornell University Press 2016), which offers a comparative study and detailed analyses of immigrant incorporation efforts across seven different U.S. metro regions.

Dr. Pastor's previous volumes include: Just Growth: Inclusion and Prosperity in America’s Metropolitan Regions, co-authored with Chris Benner (Routledge 2012), argues that growth and equity can and should be linked, offering a new path for a U.S. economy seeking to recover from economic crisis and distributional distress; Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future (W.W. Norton 2010; co-authored with Angela Glover Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh), documents the gap between progress in racial attitudes and racial realities and offers a new set of strategies for both talking about race and achieving racial equity; This Could Be the Start of Something Big: How Social Movements for Regional Equity are Transforming Metropolitan America (Cornell University Press 2009; co-authored with Chris Benner and Martha Matsuoka) highlights a promising set of organizing efforts across the U.S.;

Manuel PastorDistinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity and

Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change

Staircases or Treadmills: Labor Market Intermediaries and Economic Opportunity in a Changing Economy (Russell Sage 2007, co-authored with Chris Benner and Laura Leete) which offers a critique of current employment strategies and argues for a new “high road” approach to connecting demand and supply in labor markets; and Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (University of Minnesota Press 2000; co-authored with Peter Dreier, Eugene Grigsby, and Marta Lopez-Garza), a book that has become a standard reference for those seeking to link neighborhoods and regions.

Dr. Pastor was the founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has received fellowships from the Danforth, Guggenheim, and Kellogg foundations, and grants from the Irvine Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the W.T. Grant Foundation, The California Endowment, the California Air Resources Board, and many others.

Dr. Pastor speaks frequently on issues of demographic change, economic inequality, and community empowerment and has contributed opinion pieces to such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the Huffington Post, and many others.

Pastor currently serves as a Public Member of the Strategic Growth Council in California, and has previously served as a member of the Commission on Regions appointed by California’s Speaker of the State Assembly, and as a member of the Regional Targets Advisory Committee for the California Air Resources Board.

In 2002, Pastor was awarded a Civic Entrepreneur of the Year award from the California Center for Regional Leadership. In 2012, he received the Liberty Hill Foundation’s Wally Marks Changemaker of the Year award for social justice research partnerships. In 2017, he received the Champion for Equity Award from the Advancement Project for his work with community-based organizations fighting for social change.

His current research looks at the last several decades of economic, social, and environmental transformations in California – and what they can tell us about the road ahead for the U.S.

Education:Ph.D. Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1984M.A. Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1983B.A. Economics / Creative Writing, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1978

Thomas Hollihan is a professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School.

Professor Hollihan publishes in the areas of argumentation, political communication, media diplomacy, contemporary rhetorical criticism, and the impact of globalization on public deliberation. He is the author of several books including: The Dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: How Media Narratives Shape Public Opinions and Challenge the Global Order, Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in a Media Age, Arguments and Arguing: The Products and Process of Human Decision Making (with Kevin Baaske), and Argument at Century's End: Reflecting on the Past and Envisioning the Future. In addition, Hollihan has published in the International Journal of Communication, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Argumentation and Advocacy, Communication Quarterly, Western Journal of Communication, Southern Speech Communication Journal, Controversia, Speaker and Gavel, Debate Issues, and Global Media and China.

Professor Hollihan served as the associate dean for academic affairs in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism from 1997-2007. He currently chairs the Executive Committee of the USC US-China Institute. He has also served as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Debate Tournament, president of the American Forensic Association, president of the Western Forensic Association, chairman of the National Communication Association's Doctoral Education Committee, chairman of the Committee on International Discussion and Debate, and chairman of the National Debate Tournament Committee.

Professor Hollihan has been a visiting scholar at Renmin University and the Communication University of China, both in Beijing and at Meiji University in Tokyo. He is a faculty fellow in the USC Center for Public Diplomacy and the USC Center for Communication Leadership. In addition to his teaching and publishing, Professor Hollihan has served as a consultant to many different political candidates, elected officials, business leaders, the leaders of non-profit organizations, the German Army, and the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency. He is currently coaching senior Navy leaders on strategic communication and also teaches in the USC Annenberg World Bank Summer Institute. Professor Hollihan makes frequent appearances in the media to discuss political issues and campaign strategies.

Tom HollihanProfessor of Communication

Director, Doctoral StudiesUSC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Dr. Fishman is a behavioral and social scientist who directs the Message Effects Lab, which supports interdisciplinary teams, nationally and internationally.

She holds a joint appointment at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Center for Mental Health and a Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, both at the University of Pennsylvania. She also provides scientific consultation to governments, non-profits organizations, and industry.

As director of the Message Effects Lab, she helps teams empirically identify the most promising behavior change strategies for a particular population of interest. The Message Effect Lab supports efforts to change various behaviors, ranging from sanitation habits to vaccination uptake. To combat vaccine hesitancy, they increased the percentage who were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by approximately 20% (compared to controls, in a randomized controlled test). They guide teams who want to empirically determine the ideal type of behavior change intervention, including the most effective communication content and messenger.

As Co-Director of the Outcomes Measurement and Methods Core within the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Award, and ongoing collaborations, Dr. Fishman provides teams with standardized, validated methods for measuring and analyzing the factors key to decision making and behavior change. These data allow teams to identify solutions well-matched to a particular population of interest.

Fishman is the recipient of many scientific awards. She received degrees from Stanford University (with University Honors and Departmental Distinction) and the University of Pennsylvania.

Jessica Fishman, PhDDirector of the Message Effects Lab

Annenberg School for Communication and Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of Pennsylvania