National Advisory Board

Milton Chen, Ph.D.

Dr. Chen is executive director of The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF), a nonprofit operating foundation that utilizes media, especially its multimedia website Edutopia.org, award-winning magazine, Edutopia: The New World of Learning, and documentary films, to communicate a new vision for 21st century schools. Prior to joining GLEF in 1998, Milton was the founding director of the KQED Center for Education (PBS) in San Francisco, managing KQED's TV programming, web content, and outreach services for schools and families. He has been a director of research at Sesame Workshop, working on Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and 3-2-1 Contact, and an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He chairs the advisory council for the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media at St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania and is a trustee of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, devoted to environmental stewardship. His work has been honored by the Congressional Black Caucus, and he has received the Elmo Award from Sesame Workshop and the Fred Rogers Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2007-08, he joined a group of 35 Fulbright New Century Scholars working on innovation, access, and diversity issues in education, spending three months in the United Kingdom at University of Edinburgh. Milton received an A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Communication Research from Stanford University. Perhaps most importantly, on his 50th birthday, he was named a Jedi Master by George Lucas.