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SIPA Faculty
Mary-Lea Cox
International Affairs Building, 13th Floor
Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs
Phone: 212-854-3213
mlc2144@columbia.edu
Biography:
Mary-Lea Cox is communications director for the New York-based Social Science Research Council (SSRC), where she managed a major Web redevelopment project (www.ssrc.org). Dr Cox received her doctorate in comparative government from the University of Essex in 1989, with an award-winning thesis on women, politics and Shakespeare.
Her work in the communications field began when she was hired by the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, as the Center's first Web editor. She has since served as communications director for the New York-based Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs and as editorial director in Columbia University's Office of Communications and Public Affairs.
Ms. Cox graduated summa cum laude from Duke University, with a BA in English literature. She received a Rotary International scholarship to pursue graduate studies in England. After completing her MA and PhD degrees, she moved to Tokyo, where she worked for several years in editing, advertising and public relations before becoming the first Tokyo administrator of the Abe Fellowship program, a Japanese-government initiative for high-level educational exchange, modeled on the Fulbright Scholars Program.
Cox has written and edited several publications, including a Carnegie Council study guide on FDR's "four freedoms" and a Pacific Institute study, "The Politics and Economics of the Internet and Cyberspace." She is a judge for Web site entries to a major national communications contest and has given seminars on the opportunities and challenges of online communications.