John Lawson has held senior leadership positions in the public and commercial television industries and currently is president of America’s Emergency Network, LLC, an advanced alerting start-up. As Executive Director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, 2016-2024, he has been a leading advocate for using NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) to develop an advanced system for emergency alerting, news, and information.
John was one of four signatories to the original Joint Petition that led to FCC approval of ATSC 3.0 transmission in 2017. John served on FEMA’s National Advisory Council IPAWS Subcommittee (2017-2018) and graduated from FEMA’s Emergency Management Executive Academy (2018). He was an expert panelist at the White House Earthquake Resilience Summit in 2016 and has served on several FCC emergency communications advisory committees.
As CEO of America’s Public Television Stations 2001-2008, John led efforts that secured large increases in federal funding for the digital transition of stations, grew education programs, defended editorial independence, and negotiated the largest digital cable carriage deal in broadcast history. John earned BA and MA degrees in International Studies at the University of South Carolina.