Experts

Our Legal and Policy Experts

Benton supports legal and policy experts who preserve and strengthen the public benefits of America’s communications environment, who can nourish and protect democratic values, and who can communicate to the public why this all matters. 

Andrew Jay Schwartzman
Benton Senior Counselor
2014-current

Andrew Jay Schwartzman is recognized by many as the “dean” of public interest communications attorneys. From 1978 through 2012, he headed the Media Access Project (MAP)....

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Gigi Sohn
Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate
2018-current

Sohn is one of the nation’s leading public advocates for open, affordable and democratic communications networks. For nearly thirty years, she has worked across the...

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John Horrigan
Benton Senior Fellow
2021-current

John Horrigan is a national expert on technology adoption, digital inclusion, and evaluating the outcomes and impacts of programs designed to promote communications...

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Past Experts

Colin Rhinesmith (he/him)
Benton Senior Fellow
2021-2022
Benton Faculty Research Fellow
2015-2017

Colin Rhinesmith (he/him) is the Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. He is

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Christopher Ali Benton Foundation Faculty Research Fellow
Benton Faculty Research Fellow
2019-2020

Christopher Ali started as Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia, in 2013 after completing his PhD at the

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Consultant, United Soybean Board-Benton Institute project, Rural Broadband and the Future of American Farming
October 2020 - April 2021
Benton Senior Fellow
March 2017- March 2021

Jon's work focused on policies to support FCC actions to promote broadband access and deployment, and to advance competition, including through

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Denise Linn Riedl
Benton Fellow
2017- 2020

Mayor Pete Buttigieg named Denise the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of South Bend (IN) at the end of January 2019. Previously, Denise was

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Jim Kohlenberger
Benton Senior Policy Fellow
2004-2008

Jim Kohlenberger strengthened the Benton Foundation’s collaborations in the field and guided the media policy work, including advocacy for

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Richard Somerset-Ward
Benton Senior Fellow
1997-2002

Richard is an author and broadcast media consultant. He authored Connecting Communities, a report funded by the Ford Foundation and released in

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Donna Lampert
Benton Fellow
1989-1990

Donna analyzed policy in the children’s television area. She coordinated Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission filings

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Jerry Berman
Benton Fellow
1989-1990

Jerry focused on research and policy project development relating to public access to electronic government information and consumer interest in

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Adam Echelman (he/him/his)
Benton Fellow
2022-current

Adam Echelman is a journalist and long-time practitioner of digital equity. He is the former Executive Director of Libraries Without Borders US

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