BIOS AND LINKS
Ann Kirschner is a pioneer in digital media, with a particular focus on technologies and business models that transform content and commerce. Her wide variety of experiences has taken her from the classroom to the boardroom, from cable and satellite television businesses to the internet and edtech, and currently to AI, cybersecurity, short-form video, and virtual reality.
In her business career, Ann Kirschner has been a C-suite executive and veteran of four start-ups in sports, news, entertainment, and education. A pioneer in digital technology and media and a veteran of four start-ups in cable, satellite, and online, she was the first digital strategist for the National Football League, where she launched NFL.COM and SUPERBOWL.COM and NFL SUNDAY TICKET. She founded FATHOM with Columbia University, London School of Economics, University of Chicago, the British Library, the New York Public Library, and other leading institutions.
Ann Kirschner currently serves on the board of the Movado Group, where she chairs the Nominating, Governance, and Corporate Responsibility Committee. At Strategic Cyber Ventures (SCV), she serves on the Investment Committee. She is a strategic advisor in digital media to ShortTok, which is developing automated video storytelling fueled by AI and other technologies. She is a director of the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation, and nycFIRST. A former trustee of Princeton University, Kirschner co-chaired the Princeton University Graduate School Leadership Council and also served on the Advisory Council of the Princeton University School of Engineering and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council.
She is the author of Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story (2006) and Lady at the OK Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp (2013), and a frequent speaker and writer on innovation in media, technology, and education, and the future of work.
In 2022, she was named Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, where she serves on the Management Committee of EdPlus and Learning Enterprise and is a Senior Advisor to the Office of the President. She is Senior Advisor to the Office of the President at the University of California, and serves on its AI Steering Committee.
During her fifteen years at The City University of New York, she served as President of Hunter College, Dean of Macaulay Honors College, University Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and Macaulay Honors College, Special Advisor to the Chancellor, and co-director of the Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship (WiTNY) initiative with Cornell Tech.
She is a graduate of the University of Buffalo, University of Virginia, and received her Ph.D. from Princeton University, where she was Whiting Fellow in the Humanities.
She is the President and Founder of Comma Communications, which provides a range of advisory services for institutions and organizations focused on innovation in media, technology, and education.
Ann Kirschner lives in New York City with her husband, Dr. Harold Weinberg, and is the mother of three grown children and grandmother of four.
The Digital Reader: Kirschner’s articles/interviews on e-reading and e-writing
