For more than 30 years, Geoffrey Cowan has been an important force in almost every facet of the communication world - as a public interest lawyer, academic administrator, best-selling author and award-winning teacher, playwright, television producer, and government official.
From 1996-2007, he served as dean of the USC Annenberg School. In 2006, he was named the inaugural holder of the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the Annenberg School and director of the School's
Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. He holds a joint appointment in the USC Gould School of Law, teaches courses in journalism, and is directly involved in the work and research of a number of major centers and projects at the Annenberg School, including the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, which he founded, the Norman Lear Center, the USC Center on Communication Law and Policy, the Charles Annenberg Weingarten Program on Online Communities and the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future.
An award-winning author, Cowan wrote See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television (Simon & Schuster, 1980), and the best-selling The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer (Random House, 1993).
Prior to becoming dean, Cowan served the nation as director of the Voice of America. He was appointed to the position by President Clinton in March 1994. He served as the 22nd director of the VOA, the international broadcasting service of the U.S. Information Agency, broadcasting nearly 900 hours of programming in 52 languages, to a weekly audience of about 100 million. He also served as associate director of the USIA and as director of the International Broadcasting Bureau, with responsibility for WORLDNET TV and Radio & TV Marti as well as VOA.
Cowan previously taught communication law and policy at UCLA, where he was founding director of the university's Center for Communication Policy. He was honored with several teaching awards during his 20 years at UCLA.
Concurrently with his teaching at UCLA, Cowan was a television producer. He received an Emmy Award as executive producer of the television movie Mark Twain & Me, which was voted the Outstanding Prime Time Program for Children by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
From 1979-84, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, playing a key role in the development of National Public Radio.
He co-wrote the radio play, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, which won CPB's Gold Medal for Excellence in Best Live Entertainment. A major production of the play will be presented at venues around the country next year, along with seminars designed to explore the sometimes delicate balance between the press, public's right to know, and the government's need to protect some vital national secrets.
He served as chairman of the Los Angeles commission that wrote the city's ethics code—cited as a model for the nation—for which he was awarded "Man of the Year" by the Council of Government Ethics Leaders. He also chaired the California Bipartisan Commission on Internet Political Practices.
He serves on the boards of the Center Theatre Group, California HealthCare Foundation, Children Now, Common Sense Media, and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He was recently elected as the Walter Lippman Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He is currently serving as a Special Editor of an issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science on “Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century,” to be published in May, 2008.
He spent four years as principal owner of the Stockton Ports, a Class A farm team for the Milwaukee Brewers. During that time the Ports won two championships and held the best overall record of any team in professional baseball.
He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. He is married to Aileen Adams, former Secretary of State and Consumer Affairs for the State of California and former director of the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime. She is currently director of arts and culture outreach at USC. They have two children.
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