Full-Time Staff
Geoffrey Cowan
Director
Geoffrey Cowan is a University Professor and the inaugural holder of the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership. He directs the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. From 2010-2016, he was the founding President of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. From 1996-2007, Cowan served as Dean of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.
Adam Clayton Powell III
Senior Fellow
Adam Clayton Powell III led CCLP’s initiative on election cybersecurity, in association with USC’s schools of business, engineering, law and public policy and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He has coordinated CCLP’s Washington DC programming, which includes monthly public forums on subjects including public diplomacy, national security and the future of communications.
Susan Goelz
Office Manager and Budget/Business Analyst
Susan Crookston Goelz is CCLP’s office manager and Professor Geoffrey Cowan’s administrative assistant. She is responsible for the Center’s budget administration, event coordination, office management and payroll administration, among other duties.
Jung-hwa (Judy) Kang
Coordinator of Washington, D.C. Programs
Jung-hwa “Judy” Kang is a public diplomat, researcher, and art exhibit curator. Judy graduated with a Master of Public Diplomacy (2018) where she was selected as a banner bearer on a commencement for the Annenberg School and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History (2014) where she was nominated as valedictorian. She received both degrees with summa cum laude from USC. She was a Cowan Scholar from 2015 to 2018. She is currently working on CCLP’s Election Cybersecurity Initiative and Public Diplomacy Programs.
Accalia Rositani
Research Fellow
Accalia Rositani is a Research Fellow at CCLP. She received her B.A. from Loyola Marymount University with a double major in Journalism and Spanish, afterwards earning her Master’s of Journalism from USC Annenberg in 2024. She has worked for PBS NewsHour in Washington, D.C., NBCLA and Telemundo 52 and produced a documentary through USC Impact for Spectrum News SoCal.
Talia Abrahamson
Junior Fellow
Talia Abrahamson is a Junior Fellow at CCLP. She received her B.A. from Columbia University in 2024 with a double major in English and Russian Language & Culture. She has worked for the U.S. Department of State, PEN America, Transparency International, Columbia’s Institute for Global Politics and her local newspaper the Larchmont Chronicle. Her interests focus on supporting independent media and local journalism, domestically and in the post-Soviet space.