Sharon Strover

Dr. Strover is the Philip G. Warner Regents Professor in Communication and former Chair of the Radio-TV-Film Department at the University of Texas, where she teaches communications and telecommunications courses and directs the Technology and Information Policy Institute. Some of her current research projects examinelocal and statewide networks and broadband services; the relationship between economic outcomes and investments in digital media programs in higher education; social media; the digital divide; rural broadband deployment; e-government; telecommunications infrastructure deployment and economic development in rural regions; and market structure and policy issues for international audio-visual industries. One of her recent projects examined public computing centers in 90 locations. Another investigates "connected viewing," referring to the use of numerous devices, platforms and program sources for media entertainment. She also directs a Digital Media program as part of a broader collaboration effort between the University of Texas at Austin and the government of Portugal. In 2010 she stepped down from her eight-year stint chairing the RTF Department in order to work on the USDA's Broadband Initiatives Program in Washington D.C., after which she returned to the University of Texas.

Dr. Strover has worked with several international, national and regional government agencies on telecommunications policy matters, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Federal Communication Commission, the government of Portugal, the Center for Rural Strategies, the European Union, The Appalachian Regional Commission, the Office of Technology Assessment, the Rural Policy Institute, the Ford Foundation, the European Union, the Texas Public Utility Commission, the Department of Information Resources and Department of Health and Human Services, and the Aspen Institute. She has published several articles and chapters on subjects related to technology and telecommunications, and has been the editor or co-editor of three books, edited journal issues for The Information Society and Government Information Quarterly, and serves on the editorial boards of several major publications. She is currently working on a book addressing economic development and the spatial distribution of telecommunications resources.

Dr. Strover received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her graduate degrees from Stanford University.