Yale University law and psychology professor Dan M. Kahan and the former top news executive at WHYY/NewsWorks, Chris Satullo, have joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) for the 2016 spring semester.
Kahan, the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale University, is a visiting scholar at APPC, where he’ll be leading the center’s research into the Science of Science Communication. Kahan’s primary research interests are risk perception, science communication, and the application of decision science to law and policy-making.
Kahan leads the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale University, an interdisciplinary team of scholars who use empirical methods to examine the impact of group values on perceptions of risk and related facts. In studies funded by the National Science Foundation, Kahan has researched public disagreement over climate change, public reactions to emerging technologies, and conflicting public impressions of scientific consensus. Before joining Yale in 1999, he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. He served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court (1990-91) and to Judge Harry Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1989-90).
Satullo, the former vice president for news and civic dialogue at WHYY/NewsWorks, joins the policy center as a professional in residence. A nationally known expert in civic engagement, Satullo will work on a project involving the intersection of media and civic engagement. Satullo launched the NewsWorks.org website, the radio programs NewsWorks Tonight and The Pulse, and two award-winning Pennsylvania reporting initiatives: State Impact Pennsylvania and Keystone Crossroads. Prior to joining WHYY, Satullo spent nearly 20 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer as editorial page editor and a columnist, among other positions. He also led the Great Expectations civic dialogue project on the 2007 Philadelphia city elections.
Satullo’s involvement with APPC and Penn extends more than 15 years. When he was at the Inquirer, Satullo worked with the policy center on a Pew-funded effort to use citizen forums and periodic polls to help keep the 1999 Philadelphia mayoral race focused on issues. And in 2006, Satullo co-founded the Penn Project for Civic Engagement (now called Catalyst Community Conversations) at the University of Pennsylvania.
