Kara Swisher is one of the country’s most influential journalists covering Silicon Valley, the focus of her reporting for over two decades. She is the executive editor of Recode, host of the Recode Decode podcast and co-executive producer of the high-profile Code Conference. Swisher began covering the digital economy for The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau in 1997. Her column, BoomTown, originally appeared on the front of the newspaper’s Marketplace section and at WSJ.com. Among her accomplishments, Swisher co-founded Revere Digital and, before that, co-produced and co-hosted The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital,” with Walter Mossberg. It was the industry’s leading high-tech conference, with interviewees such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many other leading players in the tech and media industries. Swisher is author of two books, aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web, and its sequel, There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future.

About the Event
The Esther Wojcicki Lectureship was created in 2017 through a generous gift from Taube Philanthropies. The lectureship honors internationally renowned journalism educator Esther Wojcicki, an alumna of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and founder of the Palo Alto High School Media Arts Program, an extraordinary center that is one of the nation’s most distinguished scholastic media programs. The Wojcicki Lecturer is an outstanding journalist who exemplifies the commitment to public enlightenment through bold and eloquent reporting that Esther Wojcicki has championed throughout her career. The Wojcicki Lecturer serves a week-long residency with graduate students, consisting of master classes and seminars.

About Taube Philanthropies
For more than 30 years, Taube Philanthropies has been a leader in supporting diverse educational, research, cultural, community, and youth organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Poland and Israel. Founded by businessman and philanthropist Tad Taube in 1981, and now led by Tad and his wife Dianne Taube, the organization works to ensure that citizens have the freedom and opportunity for advancement of their goals and dreams. Taube Philanthropies makes this a reality by issuing grants through its two foundations, the Taube Family Foundation and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture. For more information, visit www.taubephilanthropies.org.