Violet B. Valdez (PhD, Freie Universitaet Berlin) is associate professor at the Department of Communication and executive director of the Ateneo Center for Asian Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. Prior to her work at the Asian center, she served for many years as executive director of Ateneo’s journalism center – the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism. In this post she played a key role in developing degree and non-degree journalism programs that brought together men and women working journalists across Asia. At present her research focuses on patterns of influences on journalism education in Myanmar and Indonesia and on the digital divide. Recently she edited and co-wrote a reference on media and information literacy. Dr Valdez is co-author and editor of a number of books in journalism, media, and communication in general, and is a member of the editorial board of Journalism and Mass Communication Educator (JMCE). She is a professional translator and interpreter for German, English and Filipino.