Lee Rainie is the Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit, non-partisan "fact tank" that studies the social impact of the internet. The Project has issued more than 500 reports based on its surveys that examine people's online activities and the internet's role in their lives.

Lee is a co-author of Networking: The New Social Operating System, a book about the social impact of the internet and mobile technology. He is also co-author of four books about the future of the internet, which are based on Project surveys. 

Prior to launching the Pew Internet Project, Lee was managing editor of the newsweekly magazine U.S. News & World Report. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master's degree in political science from Long Island University.