Dr. Ernest James Wilson III
Professor of Politics and African-American Studies
University of Maryland
Ernest J. Wilson III holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Government and Politics and in the Department of African-American Studies. Dr. Wilson is also Faculty Associate of the School of Business and Management and the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, College Park. From 1995 to 2002, he was the Director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is Senior Advisor to the Global Infrastructure Information Commission. In 2000, Dr. Wilson was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to sit on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and re-appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004. From 1993-1995, Dr. Wilson served in several senior policy positions in the public and private sector as Director of International Programs and Resources on the National Security Council, The White House (1993-1994); Director of the Policy and Planning Unit, Office of the Director, U.S. Information Agency (1994); and as Deputy Director of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (1994-1995). He was a Visiting Senior Fellow for Africa at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (1992-1993). Prior to joining the University of Maryland Faculty in 1992, Dr. Wilson taught at the University of Michigan, serving as the Director of the Center for Research on Economic Development and as Associate Professor of Political Science and associate Research Scientist at the Institute for Public Policy Studies. From 1997-1981, Dr. Wilson was a member of the University of Pennsylvania faculty.
In 2004, Dr. Wilson published the Information Revolution and Developing Countries (MIT Press) and Diversity and U.S. Foreign Policy (Routledge Press). Two books are forthcoming in 2005 on the global IT governance and the politics of IT diffusion in Africa. He is Editor-in-Chief of the new journal Information Technologies and International Development (MIT Press). He is also the author of ““What Is Internet Governance and Where Does It Come From?” (Journal of Public Policy, 2005).
Dr. Wilson has been actively engaged in supporting institutions and governments concerned with privatization and democratic transitions to market economies. He has also worked toward increased minority participation in public policy and private enterprises in the U.S. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and frequently consults and addresses senior professional audiences at United Nations agencies, in the private and public sectors in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Wilson has served in leading capacities on policy and research advisory bodies, including the Internet Policy Institute, the National Research Council’s International Advisory Board, Chairman of the Y2K Information Technologies Advisory Board of the National Research Council/NAS, Chair of a joint project of the National Research Council and the Agency for International Development on "Evaluating the Possibilities for Conflict Prevention and Management" and as Director, Study Group, "Information and Communications Advances and Investments in Africa", Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C. (1996-1997). He also serves on advisory bodies for numerous organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Global Communication ( Tokyo), the China E-Commerce Association, and others. He served as senior foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Kerry in 2000 and 2004.