Claire Wardle , Ph.D.
Claire Wardle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University and one of the world's foremost experts on misinformation, digital verification, and the challenges posed by user-generated content. In 2015, she co-founded the non-profit First Draft, a groundbreaking organization that set the global standard for collaborative research, innovation, and practice in combating misinformation. She subsequently co-founded the Information Futures Lab at Brown University's School of Public Health, advancing interdisciplinary approaches to understanding how information shapes public health and democracy.
Over the past decade, Claire has built a strong track record at the intersection of research, policy, and practice. She designed and led an organization-wide training program for the BBC on eyewitness media, verification, and misinformation; shaped social media policy at UNHCR; served as a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School; and led research as Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Her scholarship has directly informed international policy. Her reports include Information Disorder: An Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy, commissioned by the Council of Europe, which introduced a widely adopted framework for distinguishing between mis-, dis-, and malinformation, and A Conceptual Analysis of the Overlaps and Differences between Hate Speech, Misinformation and Disinformation for the United Nations Department of Peace Operations. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania.