About me
Gigi Sohn is a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and a Benton Senior Fellow & Public Advocate. She is the host of the “Tech on the Rocks Podcast.” Gigi sits on the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Gigi is one of the nation’s leading public advocates for open, affordable and democratic communications networks. For thirty years, Gigi has worked across the country to defend and preserve the fundamental competition and innovation policies that have made broadband Internet access more ubiquitous, competitive, affordable, open and protective of user privacy.
Most recently, Gigi was an Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government Fellow and a Mozilla Fellow. From 2013 to 2016, Gigi was Counselor to the former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler. She advised the Chairman on a wide range of Internet, telecommunications and media issues, representing the Chairman and the FCC in a variety of public forums around the country as well as serving as the primary liaison between the Chairman’s office and outside stakeholders. Singled out by Chairman Wheeler as “the conscience of the Chairman’s office” for her tireless advocacy on behalf of American consumers and competition, Gigi was named by the Daily Dot in 2015 as one of the “Heroes Who Saved the Internet” in recognition of her role in the FCC’s adoption of the strongest-ever Network Neutrality rules.
From 2001-2013, Gigi served as the Co-Founder and CEO of Public Knowledge, a leading communications and intellectual property policy advocacy organization serving the interests of consumers in Washington. She was previously a Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation’s Media, Arts and Culture unit and Executive Director of the Media Access Project, the first public interest law firm in the communications space.
Gigi is a frequent presence at conferences, meetings and other public forums across the country, as well as local and national media. She has held academic positions at the University of Colorado Law School, the University of Southern California Annenberg Center, the University of Melbourne Faculty of Law Graduate Studies Program, Georgetown University and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
In 1997, President Clinton appointed Gigi to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. The Electronic Frontier Foundation awarded Gigi one of its Internet Pioneer Awards in 2006 and in 2011, the Nonprofit Times named Gigi one of its Power & Influence Top 50 non-profit executives. In 2014, Gigi was honored with the Broadband Hero Award by OneCommunity, and in 2016, the National Champion for Local Internet Choice” by the Coalition for Local Internet Choice. In 2018, the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ gave Gigi the Everett C. Parker Award, which is given in recognition of an individual whose work embodies the principles and values of the public interest in telecommunications and the media. In 2019, the National Journal named Gigi to its list of “50 people changing the game in Washington.”
Gigi holds a B.S. in Broadcasting and Film, Summa Cum Laude, from the Boston University College of Communication and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Washington, DC with her wife, Lara Ballard, their daughter Yosselin and their cats, Pepe and Zap.
