Karen North, PH.D
Karen North, Ph.D. is a nationally recognized expert in digital social media and in psychology. She is the Director of USC’s Annenberg Program on Online Communities (APOC) which offers an MS in Digital Social Media and she is a Clinical Professor in the School of Communication. APOC is the world’s first master’s degree program and research center focused on the leadership and management of digital and social media and online communities. Trained as a clinical and social psychologist and with considerable work experience in telecommunications policy and practice, Dr. North’s interests come together in the digital world where entrepreneurs and large companies seem most focused on using social and digital media to bring people together and form groups online. Dr. North teaches these skills, strategies, and theories, and she works with small and large companies in this sector. Prior to building USC’s Digital Social Media program, Dr. North was the Assistant Dean of the UCLA School of Public Policy. She previously worked in the Clinton Administration in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and before that she worked for Rep. Edward Markey (now Senator from MA), Chairman of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance. Dr. North is frequently interviewed by local, national, and international journalists, including CNN, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, ABC, CBS, she is a go-to source on social media and psychology for major newspapers and magazines, and she is a frequent guest on NPR and other radio shows. Most importantly, Dr. North loves to help people understand how individuals, groups, and technologies interact and how the human condition plays out in our technology mediated communication age.