The Annenberg Public Policy Center has tapped a new director to succeed renowned communication professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson.
Amy Gutmann Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor Dolores Albarracín assumed the position on July 1. Jamieson, who led the center for over three decades, will remain on as a director emerita.
The center examines “public opinion and the effects of fact-checking” in the fields of politics, climate, and health research. It houses FactCheck.org and the Annenberg Center for Advanced Study in Communication, as well as two institutes that examine civic engagement and communication.
Albarracín, who specializes in the effect of communication on human behavior, currently directs the Social Action Lab at Penn, as well as the communication science division at the APPC. In the release, she wrote that directing APPC was “important” in “upholding evidence-based practices.”
“Today we’re confronted with challenges to communication policy, to the values that hold us together, to how public health operates in the U.S.,” she wrote. “We’re witnessing the public undermining of behaviors we always believed were good practices, like vaccination.”
The center was established in 1993 with a $20 million donation from 1931 Wharton graduate Walter Annenberg. Jamieson was named director at that time and held the position for over three decades prior to Albarracín’s appointment.
Albarracín wrote in the release that she plans to develop a communication policy initiative to examine how “policies are communicated to achieve their goals.”
“If a policy subsidizes low-income families, how is it communicated, and when does it fail to reach its intended users?” she added. “If arts funding becomes available, how should that information be communicated to maximize participation and support creative work?”
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APPC plans to fund the project through a new grant program.
While Jamieson will no longer serve as director of the center, she plans to continue her work leading the Science of Science Communication Institute and the Annenberg Science and Public Health survey, both of which explore questions related to science communication. Jamieson will additionally keep working with FactCheck.org and SciCheck, which is dedicated to researching scientific claims.
In the release, Jamieson wrote she was “delighted” to “concentrate my time on those areas of primary interest to me.”
“The center’s director and other leaders will chart their areas’ paths forward while remaining true to the founding mission sculpted by our founders – conducting research that explains the human impacts of communication and translating it into engagement that matters,” she added.
Jamieson previously served as the dean of the Annenberg School for Communication from 1989-2003. She will continue to conduct research at and teach at the school.
