Emily Bell is director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. Emily worked as a leading print and online journalist and editor for over twenty years prior to joining the Tow Center as its inaugural Director in September 2010.

The majority of Emily’s career was spent at Guardian News and Media, first as a reporter and business editor for The Observer newspaper, moving in 2000 to take charge of the Guardian’s network of websites. As editor-in-chief across Guardian websites and director of digital content for Guardian News and Media, Emily led the web team in pioneering live blogging, multimedia formats, data and social media ahead of many other mainstream news outlets. Under Emily’s direction, guardian.co.uk became one of the world’s leading digital news brands, winning four Webby awards in five years for ‘best newspaper on the web’ and numerous other UK industry awards. She continues to write and blog about developments in the media and journalism. You can follow Emily on Twitter @emilybell.