Christopher Ali, PhD

Professor of Telecommunications
Penn State University

Dr. Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and professor of telecommunications at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. He holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ali is a subject matter expert on broadband policy and is the author of the book “Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity” (MIT Press, 2021). He has testified before the Senate Commerce Committee regarding rural broadband funding programs and has written extensively for both academic and general interest publications on the topics of broadband deployment, planning and policy, especially as they regard rural communications. You can find his work in the New York Times, Realtor Magazine, The Hill, Digital Beat, Washington Monthly, The Conversation, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.