About the Center
The Center for the Creator Economy (CCE) is the first academic center in the United States dedicated entirely to the creator economy, jointly led by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Martin J. Whitman School of Management. It combines academic programs, independent research, rankings and recognition programs, and student-run content production under one center.
The Center’s physical home is Newhouse 3, Room 254, on Syracuse University’s main campus. The space includes dedicated collaboration areas and new podcast production booths equipped with Rodecaster Audio Production Studio gear, Riverside streaming capability, Sony digital SLR camera, lighting, and professional podcast microphones and headphones.
Students affiliated with the Center can check out creator kits from The Cage, located on the first floor of Newhouse 3. Two kits are available: an iPhone 17 Pro kit with mics, stabilizers, and accessories, and a Sony vlogging camera kit with mics and a wireless shooting grip; a dual Amaran LED lighting kit is also available for more involved shoots.
Beyond the Center’s own space, students can use the Newhouse Startup Garage (Newhouse 1, Room 220) for co-working and startup support; the Gaming and Esports Center in the Schine Student Center and the newer Marley Education Center for esports production and broadcasting; LaunchPad in Bird Library for campus-wide entrepreneurship support; the Couri Hatchery business accelerator at Whitman; VPA’s film and media arts facilities in the Shaffer Art Building; and the Falk College Podcast Studio and Sport Technology Lab.
Academics: The Creator Economy Minor
The Creator Economy Minor is Syracuse University’s first formal academic pathway into the creator economy, open to all Syracuse students regardless of school or major. It combines coursework from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management with electives from other colleges across the University.
The minor requires 18 credits: three required courses and three elective courses chosen from a menu matched to a student’s career goals.
The three required courses are Introduction to the Creator Economy (Newhouse), covering media industries and platforms and how creators intersect with brands, entertainment, sports, gaming, news, and music; Business Toolkit for Creators (Whitman), covering monetization, strategic partnerships, and customer acquisition; and one entrepreneurship course chosen from either Launchpad (Whitman) or New Media Venture Launch (Newhouse), both hands-on courses in which students build their own creator startup.
Electives include entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises, electronic retailing and marketing, social media for communicators, and sports content for social platforms, along with cross-college options such as a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) course from the Falk College of Sport and Music Industry Marketing and Media from the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Students must first pass either Introduction to the Creator Economy or the entrepreneurship requirement’s introductory course. After that, students contact their home college academic adviser or minor coordinator Aileen Gallagher (Newhouse associate dean for academic affairs, aegallag@syr.edu), obtain the Declaration of Minor Form through eForms on MySlice, complete it, get it signed by Gallagher, and save the signed document as a PDF.
Any Syracuse University undergraduate can declare the minor, regardless of their home school or college — it’s designed as a University-wide, interdisciplinary program rather than one limited to Newhouse or Whitman students.
The Center’s career pathways span the full creator economy value chain, not just on-camera talent: Marketing-Side Practitioners (brand managers, agency strategists, performance marketers); Creator-Side Talent & Production (creators, editors, producers, talent managers); Representation & Business Affairs (agents, managers, contract specialists, extending into the College of Law and Falk College of Sport); NIL Management & Integration (supporting student-athletes, with Falk College and Syracuse Athletics); and Arts, Music & Creative Performance (with the College of Visual and Performing Arts).
Executive Education
Yes. The Center’s executive education offerings extend its academic model beyond degree-seeking students, giving industry professionals structured intensives and certifications for career advancement or to formally validate expertise they’ve already gained on the job.
The Center’s executive education plans include Certifications & Intensives (focused, short-form programming on specific skill areas), a Career Advancement Track (for professionals moving into new industry roles or responsibilities), and a Validation Track (for experienced professionals seeking formal academic recognition of existing expertise).
Yes. Executive education programming draws directly on the Center’s research output, including the Creator Economy Index and its ongoing studies, so participants learn from the same data shaping the industry’s broader conversation.
Research: Rankings & Recognition
Yes. The Center is building an independent rankings and recognition framework for the creator economy — the industry’s first ranking system with academic standing behind it — covering company rankings, platform and tool assessments, and executive recognition.
Company Rankings assess influencer and creator marketing agencies of record, managed services companies, enterprise SaaS platform providers, creator talent agencies, and social media platforms, evaluated on campaign innovation, category expertise, ethics, and brand sector authority.
The Center evaluates monetization fairness, transparency, algorithmic equity, platform innovation, and technological differentiation across the platforms and tools the creator economy runs on.
Executive Recognition honors individual leaders driving the creator economy forward, through a growing set of categories designed to expand as the program matures.
No. Every ranking and recognition program is built on the principle that a company’s standing is never influenced by its relationship with the Center — rankings are independent of category sponsorship, entry participation, or event involvement.
Commissioned Research
Yes. Organizations across the creator economy can commission the Center’s researchers to answer questions specific to their business, with the same independence and rigor that defines all of the Center’s work.
The Center produces white papers and long-form reports, high-frequency briefs for fast-turnaround analysis, sustained inquiry studies that track a trend over time, custom datasets and benchmarking reports, and executive briefings for leadership audiences.
The Center anticipates commissions from social platforms seeking independent data on monetization or audience trust; industry media outlets seeking original research; brand organizations evaluating creator marketing ROI; charitable foundations funding research into creator labor or equity; regulatory and government entities requesting policy-relevant analysis; and venture capital or private equity investors assessing market dynamics.
No. A commissioning organization funds the research question but does not influence the findings — every commissioned study is conducted with the same independence that defines all of the Center’s research.
Yes. The Center welcomes joint funding and grant opportunities that are relevant to and fit its overarching research mission, alongside its commissioned-research work.
Leadership & Team
The Center for the Creator Economy launched at Syracuse University in November 2025 as the first academic center of its kind in the nation, with its physical home opening in the Newhouse School the same year.
According to Goldman Sachs Research cited by the Center, nearly 50 million people worldwide now work as full- or part-time creators, in a sector projected to be worth $480 billion by 2027.
Ryan Schram is the Executive Director of the Center for the Creator Economy. He brings more than 25 years of executive leadership across public and private companies, including 13 years at IZEA (12 as president and COO) and time as managing partner at the advisory firm Particle Wave, group vice president at Merkle, and roles at Westwood One and iHeartMedia; he was named a Top 10 Global Chief Operating Officer at the 2023 OnCon Icon Awards.
Carrie Welch is the Launch Director of the Center for the Creator Economy, overseeing student engagement and day-to-day operations. She spent more than 20 years in public relations and content, including a decade as Vice President of Public Relations at the Food Network, and co-founded the food PR agency Little Green Pickle and the Feast Portland food and drink festival; she also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Center.
Thomas O’Brien is the Center’s Project Coordinator and its first full-time employee, developing programming for student creators, building university-wide partnerships, and leading the Center’s brand and content strategy. He previously served as COO of Project FreeFall and founder/CEO of Ten Projects Open, and holds a Syracuse University BFA in Film, Cinema, and Video Studies.
The Center’s institutional leadership includes Chancellor and President J. Michael Haynie, who founded the Center and continues to champion its growth; Mark J. Lodato, Dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; Alex McKelvie, Interim Dean of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management; and Regina Luttrell, Senior Associate Dean at the Newhouse School.
The Center’s research team includes Sofia Donolo, a graduate student in the Public Diplomacy and Global Communications program (a joint Newhouse/Maxwell School program) with a broadcast journalism background at CNN, and Maggie DiPatri, a Master’s student in Media Studies whose research focuses on the social influence of emerging media technologies, who previously worked at GBH, Boston’s PBS and NPR station.
Prospective Students
This is a place where students help build something new from the ground up. Students will be able to join a recognized student organization at the Center, working alongside staff on its social platforms, content, and brand voice, and getting hands-on with the analytics behind what’s performing. It’s real client work and real experience from day one — the kind that builds a portfolio, not just a transcript.
No. The Center’s prospective-student content speaks directly to high school students weighing where to apply, transfer students looking for a program built around where the creator economy industry is headed, and working professionals considering executive education down the line.
Students get hands-on access to fully equipped podcast recording booths, creator kits, lighting, and editing gear — the same tools used in the industry itself. It’s a space to actually practice content creation, from shooting and editing to developing your own style and strategy.
Yes. Students receive direct mentorship from faculty, industry mentors, and visiting creators actively working in the field, and can contribute to the original research and data that shape the Center’s own publications, alongside ongoing branding and production workshops and access to alumni and industry networks.
Corporate Partners
Companies can partner with the Center at a level that matches their ambition, from project-specific sponsorship to a category-exclusive, multi-year investment. Unlike a standard sponsorship, a Center partnership is a working relationship: partners bring real-world perspective into the student experience and collaborate on research priorities and talent pipelines.
Industry Professionals
The Center welcomes brand, agency, media, and platform executives who want to mentor and train the next generation of creator economy talent, with engagement options that scale from attending a single event to holding a paid teaching appointment.
» Contact the Center today creatoreconomy@syr.edu
There’s a path for almost any level of time or interest, and most relationships start small. Options range from guest-teaching a single class or mentoring a student informally, to attending or sponsoring Center events, to a paid teaching appointment or a project-based research collaboration — whatever fits how much time someone has to give.
» Contact the Center today creatoreconomy@syr.edu
Philanthropic Support
Yes. A gift to the Center supports the first academic infrastructure ever built for the creator economy industry, helping the Center build high-quality experiences, research, and talent pipelines quickly as a still-forming field.
Giving options include Scholarship & Student Experience Funds (supporting students’ access to experiences like industry trips to SXSW and CES); Named Research Funds (underwriting a specific stream of the Center’s research); Named Chairs & Faculty Positions (endowing academic leadership); Facilities & Program Expansion (funding physical space and programming, like the Center’s podcast production booths); and Unrestricted Operating Support (general gifts directed where leadership determines they’re needed most).
Creator Crew
Creator Crew is the Center’s recognized student organization for content creation — a real, working studio inside the University where students work alongside Center staff to produce content on the Center’s behalf, with editorial calendars, production standards, and real accountability for quality.
Yes, and the model is built to grow: as brand and industry partners are integrated into the Creator Crew’s work, the Center is developing the organization into a nimble in-house agency capable of handling multiple clients, with client funding supporting both Center operations and student experiences, including trips to industry events like SXSW and CES.
Every piece of work becomes a real credential — cultivated business relationships, portfolio examples, and personal brand development that follows students past graduation.