Departing Harvard Misinfo Head Sits on Anti-conservative Nonprofit's Board

Joan Donovan, the head of an anti-misinformation project at Harvard's Kennedy School, is part of a nonprofit that pushes advertisers to disassociate from conservative websites.

The Check My Ads Institute, which claims its goal is to fight the "global disinformation epidemic," has the research director at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy listed on its website.

"I would not describe Joan Donovan as an academic but, rather, a political activist who has done agenda-driven work since she went to the Shorenstein Center," National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood told the Washington Examiner.

"What it tells me that she is one-quarter of the board of Check My Ads [and] that it is not a serious organization but, rather, a partisan outfit," he continued. "Donovan is a liar and a very poor scholar, if she's any kind of scholar at all, and a political agent."

Gabe Kaminsky, an investigative reporter at the Examiner, further noted that one of Check My Ads' founders was previously involved in a successful campaign that pressured advertisers to defund Breitbart News.

Donovan, meanwhile, served as a research lead for several years at the Data and Society Research Institute. Kaminsky states the institute is a "left-of-center think tank that has been slammed for promoting censorship."

The news comes one month after Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs revealed in an internal memo that Donovan would be leaving in the summer of 2024 when her Technology and Social Change Project is retired.

The project's self-description mirrors Donovan's past work, explaining that it "explores media manipulation as a means to control [the] public conversation, derail democracy, and disrupt society."

Harvard spokesman James F. Smith informed The Harvard Crimson that Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf is forcing out Donovan, an adjunct lecturer, due to her not being a tenure-track professor.

"The Technology and Social Change project is winding down — through an extended transition — because it does not have intellectual and academic leadership by a full HKS faculty member, as required of all long-term research and outreach projects at HKS," Smith explained.

The Crimson said Donovan will have spending restraints in her final year overseeing the project, including the inability to raise additional funding or hire new researchers.

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