Trustees
Wallis Annenberg
Lauren Bon
Diane Deshong
Howard Deshong III
Leonore Deshong
Elizabeth R. Kabler
Liz Kabler
Charles Annenberg Weingarten
Gregory Annenberg Weingarten
Administration
Geoffrey Cowan, President
Janice Lyle, Ph.D., Director, Sunnylands Center & Gardens
Ed Doran, Interim Director of Finance
Geoffrey Cowan
President
Geoffrey Cowan has been known for 30 years as an important force in both the communications and public policy arenas -- as a lawyer, academic administrator, government official, best-selling author, distinguished professor, playwright, and Emmy Award-winning producer.
Cowan served as dean of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism from 1996 to 2007. He then was named a University Professor and director of USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, and also holds the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership. Prior to his appointment as dean, Cowan was director of Voice of America under President Clinton. During that time, he also served as associate director of the United States Information Agency and as director of the International Broadcasting Bureau, with responsibility for Worldnet TV and Radio & TV Marti.
From 1979 to 1984, Cowan was a member of the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where he played a key role in the development of National Public Radio. He is author of See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television (Simon & Schuster, 1980), and the best-selling The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America’s Greatest Lawyer (Random House, 1993). He is currently working on a book about Theodore Roosevelt and the 1912 presidential campaign. Cowan was executive producer of the television movie Mark Twain & Me, for which he won an Emmy Award and is co-author of the award-winning play Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, which has been produced across the United States and traveled to China in 2011.
Cowan, a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, is a board member of California HealthCare Foundation, Common Sense Media, Human Rights Watch, and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy.
Janice Lyle, Ph.D.
Director, Sunnylands Center & Gardens
Janice Lyle was appointed to the Sunnylands administration in 2008 after serving as a consultant for several months. She has overseen the development of Sunnylands Center & Gardens and restoration of the historic house and grounds. A well-respected museum professional, Lyle, who holds a doctorate in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, worked at the Palm Springs Art Museum for more than 25 years, where she was executive director from 1994 to 2007. While there, she also held the positions of director of education and director of public programs, among others.
Lyle has lectured, taught, and written in various areas of art history, midcentury modern architecture, and museum management. She served as president of the California Association of Museums on whose board she sat for 15 years, and served on the boards of the United Way of the Desert, City of Palm Springs Library, the Desert Literary Society, and other organizations.