Author, Educator, Media Ecologist, Historian, Massachusetts Radio Hall of Fame Pioneer Broadcaster Award
Keynote Presentation: "Fraudsters and Charlatans: The Problem of ‘Fake News’ in Radio and Television’s Formative Years"
Donna L. Halper, Ph.D. is a retired Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Lesley University, Cambridge MA. She is the author of six books and many articles in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. Her most recent book is a newly revised and expanded second edition of “Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting.” She is also the author of a well-received local history, “Boston Radio 1920-2010,” which tells the story of Boston radio in words and pictures. In 2023, she was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and given the Pioneer Broadcaster Award.
Donna Halper is world famous as the radio disc jockey and music director that discovered the progressive rock band Rush while at WMMS in Cleveland in 1974.