A SLATA & CIS Coproduction

Gigi B. Sohn is the President and Co-Founder of Public Knowledge, a nonprofit organization that addresses the public’s stake in the convergence of communications policy and intellectual property law. Public Knowledge seeks to ensure that the three layers of our communications system — the physical infrastructure, the systems and content layer — promote fundamental democratic principles and cultural values including openness, access, and the capacity to create and compete.

Gigi serves as the chief strategist, fundraiser and public face of Public Knowledge. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, as well as in trade and local press. Gigi has also been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Variety, CNET and the Legal Times and blogs regularly for the Huffington Post. In addition, she has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, The Communicators and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

Gigi is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado and a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Law, Graduate Studies Program in Australia. She has been a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

Gigi previously served as a Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation’s Media, Arts and Culture unit. In that capacity, she developed the strategic vision and oversaw grantmaking for the Foundation’s first-ever media policy and technology portfolio.

Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Gigi served as Executive Director of the Media Access Project (MAP), a public interest law firm that represents citizens’ rights before the FCC and the courts. In recognition of her work at MAP, President Clinton appointed Gigi to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters (“Gore Commission”) in October 1997. In May 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Gigi one of its Internet “Pioneer” Awards.

Gigi currently serves on the board of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) and the Sports Fans Coalition. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Future of Music Coalition. Gigi served on the District of Columbia Bar Board of Governors from 1997-2000.

Gigi holds a B.S. in Broadcasting and Film, Summa Cum Laude, from the Boston University College of Communication and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

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