Shari Ross Altarac

At Johns Hopkins, Shari Ross Altarac is a Program Coordinator and senior lecturer for the MA in Communication program. She has taught media, advertising, public relations, persuasion, global communication, research, and writing, both onsite and online.

Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, Altarac taught at USC Annenberg in the online Master of Communication Management program and in the writing program at UC Santa Barbara. Her professional experiences include work in advertising, public relations, and marketing firms in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as in Paris, where she lived for seven years. She is especially passionate about infusing real-life examples and case studies in the classroom.

Altarac’s research interests are centered on global media and the phenomenon of how film and television are adapted to fit local cultural contexts when they are shipped to overseas markets. Her latest focus is on storytelling and harnessing the incredible power of stories to be a changemaker, drive action, and create human connections in a variety of communication settings.

Altarac earned a Bachelor of Science in management from Georgetown University, a Master of Science in mass communication from Boston University, and a PhD in media communication from UC Santa Barbara.