Rob Carpenter was a 2018-2020 Learning Sciences Exchange fellow at New America.
Sector: Entertainment
Project: Read the Right Books at the Right Time
Team Members: Sujata Gupta (journalism), Lisa Scott (research), Katie Whitehouse (policy)
Carpenter is a polyglot, the author of the forthcoming book The 48 Laws of Happiness, and has been a professor, start-up entrepreneur, creative executive, and entertainer. He currently directs the Emmy Award-winning USC Media Institute for Social Change, and has worked on shows like Scandal, NCIS, Ballers, Lethal Weapon, and more. He passed a $40 billion transportation ballot measure in Los Angeles, and at 24 was appointed by the mayor as the youngest commissioner of transportation in history. Carpenter previously sold a start-up, volunteer-taught K–12 students in South Central LA and the Middle East, and released a celebrity-backed limited-edition fashion line benefiting humanitarian projects around the world. He is an active writer, producer, comedian, and actor in Hollywood, and is a leading millennial expert on entertainment education. He received his BA from Claremont McKenna College, MA from Northwestern University, and his doctorate from the University of Southern California.