The College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to feature John Lawson as our alumnus of the month for April. The 2006 recipient of the College of Arts and Science's Distinguished Alumnus Achievement Award, John holds BA and MA degrees in International Studies from the University of South Carolina. While a student at Carolina, John was a member of the USC Debate Team and participated in the British Union Debates that were held by the University at that time. In 1975, John passed the Foreign Service Written Exam as an undergraduate, a feat that his professors agreed was an unusual accomplishment. As a student in the master's program, he worked as a graduate teaching assistant in GINT and bartended to fund his education.

Currently, John is the president and CEO of the Association of Public Television Stations, which is public television's national advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. Under John's leadership, APTS has persuaded Congress to not only maintain, but increase federal funding for public television. This included the first funding specifically targeted for the digital conversion of stations, as well as funding for the next generation PBS satellite interconnection system and the production of digital education content. APTS also obtained from Congress favorable language for public television in higher education, vocational education, DTV transition, and rural development legislation. In a major breakthrough, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is funding APTS to pioneer the "dual use" of public television's digital infrastructure as the backbone of a new Digital Emergency Alert System for the nation.

To ensure distribution of public television's new digital content, John personally negotiated the most extensive agreement in the history of the television broadcasting industry for the carriage of multiple digital programming streams on American cable systems. The agreement-announced in January 2005-guarantees an unprecedented expansion of distribution "shelf space" for new content from public television.

Before becoming CEO of APTS in 2001, John founded and managed Convergence Services, Inc., a consulting and lobbying firm that focused on educational technology. In the late 1980's, John served as director of public information at the South Carolina ETV Network, where he won national awards for promotion and programming.

In 2002, John was appointed to the FCC's Media Security and Reliability Council. He also served on the board of the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training. John currently serves on the National Partnership Board for the University's Department of Political Science and the College of Arts and Science's Board of Visitors.

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