Past Fellows and Visiting Faculty
Fall 2007 Fellows
Geoffrey Cowan is a professor at the University of Southern California, occupying the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the Annenberg School for Communication. Cowan also directs USC’s Center on Communication Leadership and, from 1996 until July 2007, was the dean of the Annenberg School. Before joining USC, Cowan served under President Clinton as director of the Voice of America and director of the International Broadcasting Bureau. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, Cowan has authored several award-winning books, including See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television and The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America’s Greatest Lawyer. Cowan will spend his time at the Shorenstein Center examining new business models for news. Paper PDF
Tom Fiedler is recently retired after a 35-year career at The Miami Herald. During those years, Fiedler worked as an investigative reporter, political columnist, editorial-page editor and as the Herald‘s executive editor from 2001–2007. Having covered nearly every aspect of government, Fiedler has won several awards throughout his career. In 1988, he received the Society of Professional Journalists’ top award for his coverage of the presidential election. In 1991, the Miami Herald received a Pulitzer Prize for a series that included Fiedler’s investigative report into a religious cult’s political tactics. Fiedler’s research at the Shorenstein Center will examine the impact of new media on the 2008 presidential campaign. He is a Goldsmith Fellow. Paper PDF
Nguyen Anh Tuan is chairman of the VietnamNet Media Group and the editor-in-chief of VietnamNet. Nguyen is also the founder of the VASC Software and Media Company and VietNet, the first Internet service provider in Vietnam to provide email and Web access. Nguyen began his career as a faculty member at the University of Dalat before embarking on his business and journalism career. As a journalist, Nguyen covered Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s 2005 visit to the United States and founded an interactive interview format, the “VietnamNet Online Roundtable,” that enables readers to participate in interviews. As the Shorenstein Center’s Sagan Fellow, Tuan will research key trends in the development of electronic media in Vietnam. Paper PDF
Robin Sproul, vice president and Washington bureau chief of ABC News, will be a Kalb Fellow at the Shorenstein Center. Responsible for the editorial supervision and management of the network’s bureau, Sproul oversees news coverage of all Washington beats and serves as the network’s liaison to the federal government on news policy matters. Sproul has earned broadcasting honors for her contributions to the planning and production of local and national news coverage. A member of the Washington, D.C., Newseum Advisory Committee, Sproul has also served as president and vice-president of the board of the National Press Foundation. She will investigate an economic and editorial model for the future of exit polling. Paper PDF
Fall 2007 Visiting Faculty
Carol Darr is the director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University, where she is also an associate research professor. She has spent most of her career in national politics and government and served as the General Counsel to the Democratic National Committee in the 1992 presidential election. During the Clinton Administration, she served as the acting general counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce and as associate administrator of the Office of International Affairs in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. She was the chief counsel to the 1988 Dukakis/Bentsen Committee and deputy counsel to the 1980 Carter/Mondale Presidential Committee. She received a JD and a BA from the University of Memphis. As an adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School, Darr will teach a module titled “New Media and Contemporary American Politics.”
