Four leaders from media and public policy have joined the advisory board of the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. The new board members are Ina Coleman, managing director, Feminist Majority Foundation; Clothilde Hewlett, a partner in the San Francisco office of Nossaman LLP; Gary Pruitt, chairman of the board, CEO and president of The McClatchy Company; and Robert H. Tuttle, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Short biographical sketches of the new board members are provided below.
“Each of these board members will make an important substantive contribution to our work – Gary Pruitt to our efforts to explore the changing face of journalism; Ina Coleman to our work on women and communication leadership; Bob Tuttle to our programs with the State Department and in global public affairs; and Cloey Hewlett to our work on civic engagement,” said Geoffrey Cowan, USC University Professor and director of the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. “We look forward to their insights and guidance as we confront some of the most challenging issues in the world of communication.”
The advisory board of the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy meets regularly and is co-chaired by Mickey Kantor, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer Brown and Norm Pearlstine, chief content officer for Bloomberg News.
New advisory board members
Ina Coleman is managing director in the Los Angeles office of the Feminist Majority Foundation, where she provides leadership in strategic planning, budget management, marketing and operations management. She directed the launch of Ms. in the Classroom, a full-color, digital version of Ms. magazine for use as an educational tool at colleges and universities across the country. She also implemented the organization’s social media initiatives using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to engage national and global online communities. She is an experienced business executive and chairs the advisory board of ERES, Inc., an educational consulting firm. In addition, she is a member of the advisory council for Stanford University’s School of Humanities and Sciences. She holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Communications from Stanford University.
Clothilde V. Hewlett is a partner based in the San Francisco office of Nossaman LLP. She focuses on public policy and is a national leader on diversity. She assists clients with policy issues in California and at the federal level, across several industries. She also assists clients obtain government funding and contracts and facilitates the creation of public-private partnerships in the areas of transportation infrastructure and real estate by assisting with the integration of legal and political issues. Hewlett has served as an Assistant District Attorney and as a San Francisco Police Commissioner for the City and County of San Francisco. She has also been Director of Moral Character Determinations for the State Bar of California. She has served under California governors Deukmejian and Davis, specifically as a member of the California Council on Criminal Justice, Undersecretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency, and as Interim Director of the Department of General Services. Among her many community leadership positions, she serves on the boards of the San Francisco 49ers Foundation and the University of California, Berkeley Alumni Association. She holds a B.A. and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Gary B. Pruitt is the chairman, president and CEO of The McClatchy Company. Headquartered in Sacramento, California, McClatchy is a leading newspaper and digital publisher with 30 daily newspapers and 43 nondailies in 15 states. McClatchy-owned newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer and The (Raleigh) News & Observer. Pruitt joined McClatchy in 1984 as general counsel. He was named publisher of The Fresno Bee in 1991, vice president of operations and technology in 1994, president and chief operating officer in 1995, chief executive officer in 1996 and chairman in 2001. He is a former chairman of the Newspaper Association of America, a former chairman of the James Irvine Foundation and a former vice chairman of the Associated Press Board of Directors, on which he still continues to serve. Pruitt holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and earned a master’s degree in public policy and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Robert Holmes Tuttle, served as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s from 2005 to 2009. A businessman with extensive experience in the private sector, Tuttle is co-managing partner of Tuttle-Click Automotive Group, one of the nation’s largest retail automotive companies. He co-chairs the Pacific Council on International Policy and has served on the boards of several prominent civic organizations, including the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, where he was Chairman from 2001 to 2004. He joined the White House staff in 1982 as Special Assistant to President Reagan. In 1985, President Reagan appointed him Director of Presidential Personnel, a position he held until the end of the administration. By Presidential appointment, Tuttle served on the board of directors of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for four years. A California native, he graduated from Stanford University and received his M.B.A. from the University of Southern California.