Gigi Sohn

Gigi Sohn is the Executive Director of the American Association of Public Broadband (AAPB); a Benton Institute Senior Fellow and Public Advocate; and a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy. She is one of the nation’s leading public advocates for open, affordable, and democratic communications networks. 

In October 2021, President Biden nominated Ms. Sohn to serve on the Federal Communications Commission. From 2013 to 2016, she was Counselor to the former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler. She spent the previous 12 years as Co-Founder and CEO of Public Knowledge, a leading communications and intellectual property policy advocacy organization serving the interests of consumers in Washington. Ms. Sohn 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 communications law firm. In 1997, President Clinton appointed her to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. 

Ms. Sohn is an Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award winner and hosts Tech on the Rocks, a podcast focused on media, tech policy and broadband.

Ms. Sohn is a long-time advocate for LGBTQ+ equality and has served as President of the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers (now the LGBT Bar Association) of Washington, DC from 1994-1997 and was elected as the first openly LGBTQ+ member of the District of Columbia Bar Board of Governors. 

Ms. Sohn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in broadcasting and film from Boston University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.