Jessica Fang has spent almost her entire career at Fox, coming on board in 2002, and all of that time she’s been a key part of the team that negotiates distribution deals for Fox’s networks on pay TV platforms. Fang has climbed the ranks steadily as the industry has rapidly evolved. 

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“We will sell Fox content to anyone who wants to buy it the way we want to sell it,” Fang said. “We don’t discriminate — the more distributors that are out there, the better for us and for consumers.” 

In the past several years, Fang has had to absorb a few shocks.

Rolling With the Changes

In March 2019, The Walt Disney Co. acquired much of what was then 21st Century Fox for $71 billion, leaving the new Fox with a much-leaner portfolio that today includes Fox Entertainment, Fox News Media, Fox Sports, the Fox Television Stations and Tubi, a free advertising-supported streaming television (FAST) channel.

That year, Fang was promoted to executive VP of network distribution and marketing, a move up from senior VP, distribution, with affiliate marketing added to her purview.

Last August, Michael Biard, then president, operations and distribution at Fox, left to join Nexstar Media Group as president and chief operating officer. Biard’s departure after more than 23 years at Fox came as an initial surprise, Fang said, but she’s proud of the way she and her team kept going.

“It was difficult to imagine how we were going to do this without him,” Fang said. “At the time, we were in the middle of our renewal cycle, which spans about two years, with a big chunk of revenue we had to renew. But we really didn’t miss a beat.” 

David Espinosa, who was promoted to president of distribution when Biard left in August, said, “Jessica is a well-rounded executive; it’s not just one thing.”  

Espinosa and Fang have been working together since he arrived at the company in 2006, for much of that time as peers.

“Jessica is incredibly smart,” Espinosa said. “She’s had all of these years of experience and as her role expands, it’s clear she grasps all of the key elements of the business. Along the way, she has built very strong relationships across the industry. She works very hard and what’s amazing to me is that she still somehow finds time to balance work and life.”

Having those strong relationships is the key to success in this role, Lisa Richardson, Fox Corp. executive VP, business & legal affairs and associate general counsel, said. “She’s great at developing relationships with our partners on the other side.” 

Richardson and Fang have worked together for nearly 20 years and have a “very collaborative relationship,” Richardson said. “She’s funny and witty and very good at being able to be a tough negotiator while still maintaining friendly relationships with all of these distributors. There’s just a mutual respect there.” 

‘You Can’t Do It All Yourself’

“We sort of grew up together, now we’re both very senior here,” Richardson said. “She has developed a great ability to manage people, to take on more, to give responsibility and credit to her team. I think that’s what you need in order to rise in an organization. To be a strong leader you need to know that you can’t do it all yourself.” 

Oren Lieber, who has been at Fox since 2001 and worked with Fang the entire time, is one of those long-standing team members.

“Having her as a boss has been really positive,” Lieber said. “It may not be the traditional boss-employee relationship. She and I recognize that we have skill sets that really complement each other. She lets me run with certain things and she does that with other team members as well.”

While Fang’s job can entail long hours as she works through deal details and negotiations, Fang says she wouldn’t be able to do it without her team.

“If you have to work the rest of your life, it should be with a product that you like,” Fang said. “I’d much rather sell TV than plumbing parts. I could be doing anything, but I couldn’t be doing it with the team I have here.” 

Wonder Women of Los Angeles, saluting leaders in the media and entertainment industry, happening on Tuesday, June 18, has announced four event hosts to present the awards program at The Ebell of Los Angeles.

In alphabetical order, they are: Liana Brackett, on-camera host, TheGrio; Kelley L. Carter, senior entertainment reporter, Andscape, and entertainment contributor, ABC News; Jessica Holmes, anchor, KTLA Morning News, and Sheba Turk, CBS Los Angeles/KCAL anchor.

Wonder Women of Los Angeles is honoring 15 female leaders selected by the editors of Multichannel News. In addition, the event will honor MCN-selected 2024 Woman of Influence Award recipient Janene Drafs, VP and general manager of Nexstar’s broadcast and digital operations at KTLA in Los Angeles, and The WICT Network of Southern California’s Catalyst Award recipient, LaKendra Davis Moxie, VP, Fulfillment Operations, for Cox Communications. 

To learn more about the awards and to register for the gala breakfast, visit mcnwonderwomen.com. 

Below are condensed biographies (with more on the event website) of the four Wonder Women of L.A. event hosts:

Liana Brackett started her career in the federal government as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service before making the jump into broadcast television. She received a Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric Science from University of California - Davis. Since her jump into the TV world, she has worked as an On-Camera Meteorologist for Fox 12 in Portland, Oregon; The Weather Channel and Fox 11 in Los Angeles. She believes in challenging yourself and taking risks in life. So in 2021, she left her weather comfort zone and joined Allen Media Group as an On-Camera Host, being utilized across all of Byron Allen’s broadcast channels to host entertainment, lifestyle, sports and more. She lives in Dana Point, California with her husband, David, her two year old son, Rafael, and their rescue dog, Dasher.

Award-winning entertainment and pop-culture journalist Kelley L. Carter joined ESPN in January 2016 as a senior entertainment writer for The Undefeated, now Andscape, a Black media platform dedicated to creating, highlighting, and uplifting the diverse stories of Black identity. Based in Los Angeles, Carter covers film, television, and music for the platform. She is one of the renowned journalists who came on board for the launch of the content initiative in May 2016. Carter began hosting The Undefeated digital series “Another Act with Kelley Carter” in March 2020, where she gives viewers direct access to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. She also interviewed creators and stars of the filmed version of the original Broadway production of Hamilton in a special program titled Hamilton In-Depth with Kelley Carter, exclusive to Disney+ and The Undefeated on July 3. Since joining The Undefeated, Carter has served as a special commentator on Oscars Countdown: The Red Carpet LIVE! on ABC since 2019. 

Jessica Holmes is co-anchor of KTLA’s Emmy Award-winning signature broadcast, L.A.’s No. 1-rated KTLA Morning News. She has reported from London for the Royal Wedding, interviewed Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in Paris, spent a day cooking with Martha Stewart and interviewed Jermaine Jackson about the death of his brother, Michael. She is on the red carpet for all the major Hollywood events, including the Oscars and the Emmys, and co-hosts KTLA’s Emmy Award-winning Rose Parade coverage. She also frequently forecasts the weather and has covered breaking news both in the field and in the studio, such as wildfires, floods and the earthquake in Japan. She has won three Golden Mike Awards. Holmes joined KTLA in November 2005 as weathercaster for the station’s Prime News, after winning The Audition, a reality show-style competition held on the KTLA Morning News. She began her television career in 1999. 

Sheba Turk is an anchor on CBS Los Angeles (KCAL). Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Turk has a strong background in journalism, beginning her career at WWL (CBS New Orleans), where she held various roles. She started in the news business straight out of college, initially working behind the scenes as an associate producer before transitioning to her first on-air role as a traffic reporter. Subsequently, she advanced to become a reporter for WWL’s morning show, ultimately securing a position on the anchor desk. While at WWL, she also gained experience hosting the local entertainment show The 504 for five years. She began her college studies at NYU and ultimately earned an English degree from the University of New Orleans. 

To learn more about the awards and to register for the gala breakfast, visit mcnwonderwomen.com. 

Nicole Clemens has a broad range of experience across her career, and that varied background serves her well as a studio president. Paramount Television Studios is set to launch some big-swing shows, and Clemens has her fingerprints on all of them. 

“My background is first as a television executive, and then as an agent for film and TV, and then as a producer and a buyer,” she said. “I’ve done all the roles, so I’m very, very, very hands-on.”

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Paramount Television Studios series include Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Prime Video, The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix, Station Eleven on Max, and Paramount Plus shows such as The Offer. 

Partners know they’ll get a positive and collaborative experience at Paramount, Clemens believes. “Our goal is for it to be an incredibly beneficial and enriching and supportive process,” she said, “as opposed to someone not feeling like the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.”

Golden State Girl

It was in high school in Long Beach, California, that Clemens’s career path took shape. She took part in a project at the Long Beach Museum of Art’s video archive, where students produced a magazine program that went on local access TV. “I was like, ‘Oh, I like this,’  ” Clemens said. “I want to do this.”

She moved to Los Angeles after college “because I met somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody,” she said. Temp work led to entry-level jobs, and bigger things followed. 

She worked at Rod Holcomb Productions and Spelling Television, spent 16 years at talent agency ICM, was executive VP of series development at FX and was at Anonymous Content before landing at Paramount in 2018. 

Clemens cited role models, including former CBS Entertainment chair Nina Tassler, former Paramount Pictures CEO Sherry Lansing and agent Nancy Josephson, among others, and eagerly looks to mentor young colleagues. “I think one of the benefits of getting older, besides gravity having an effect on every part of your body,” she said with a laugh, “is that you start to realize that the real joy is in giving back.”

She has notably hired an all-female leadership team, across development, current, production, business affairs, casting and marketing. “She’s a great leader who is very protective and supportive of her team,” said George Cheeks, CBS president and CEO (and part of Paramount’s new “office of the CEO”). 

Cheeks also mentioned Clemens’s superb relationships with talent, which came into play with The Spiderwick Chronicles. The first season was in the can, but Disney Plus canceled the show before it debuted. It premiered on The Roku Channel last month, and had the best first weekend of any on-demand Roku show. 

Showrunner Aron Eli Coleite said Clemens initially pushed him to take on Spiderwick, encouraging the reluctant producer to give the script one more read. Clemens then pushed him to “go deeper” on characters and story. 

He also saw her scramble to find a home for the show after its surprise cancellation. “It showed me just how much Nicole is a champion on this project,” Coleite said. “She’s been relentless about it ever since. She never abandoned us, and never let the show go.”

It’s typical Nicole Clemens, Cheeks said. “Nicole is a fearless, tenacious advocate for her projects,” he said. “She has great creative instincts but she’s never walked away from her agenting skills. She has a mastery of where the industry is headed. She knows the right places to go to set up her projects.”

‘A Passionate Advocate’

Things are characteristically busy at Paramount Television Studios. Projects include the Taika Waititi-Jemaine Clement Time Bandits series and Billy Crystal drama Before, both at Apple TV Plus. Morgan Wandell, head of international development at Apple TV Plus, described Clemens as a triple threat. “She has impeccable taste, is a passionate advocate for her projects and is a trusted partner known for being both fair and tough when needed,” Wandell said. 

Clemens unwinds from a challenging work day by hopping on a sailboat. “There’s always something to do — you’re always keeping your eye on something,” she said. “It’s very relaxing and it puts things in perspective.” 

The editors and publishers of Multichannel News are proud to recognize the 2024 Wonder Women of Los Angeles. 

Profiled on the following pages are 15 women executives in media and entertainment roles who’ve made a lasting impact on their companies and their industry overall. Since 1999, Multichannel News and sister publications B+C and Next TV have saluted women media and entertainment leaders in both Los Angeles and New York.  

In addition to the class of 15 Wonder Women, we’re also honoring our 2024 West Coast Woman of Influence, KTLA Los Angeles VP and general manager Janene Drafs. The first female executive to lead the Nexstar Media Group-owned station, she oversees an operation that lives up to its “L.A.’s Very Own” slogan with an impressive 112 hours per week of local programming. 

Honorees will be celebrated at a gala breakfast event June 18 at The Ebell of Los Angeles. Once again, The WICT Network: Southern California will serve as event partner and will recognize its 2024 Catalyst Award winner, LaKendra Davis Moxie, VP of fulfillment operations at Cox Communications, also at the gala breakfast. The Catalyst Award salutes a WICT Network: Southern California chapter member who’s had a positive impact on the industry through their mentorship, leadership and dedication to female career empowerment through involvement with WICT programs.

The Wonder Women event is part of L.A. TV Week, which also comprises the 40 Under 40 L.A. celebration, both of which will take place June 18 at The Ebell.

For more on the Wonder Women event or to register, go to mcnwonderwomen.com. 

Click through to profiles of this year’s 15 honorees below.

Wonder Women of Los Angeles 2024

• Judy Agay, Senior VP, Human Resources, ESPN, Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology
• Teri Arvesú, Senior VP, Social Impact & Sustainability, TelevisaUnivision
• Carolyn Bernstein, Executive VP, Scripted and Documentary Films, National Geographic
• Alisa Bowen, President, Disney Plus, The Walt Disney Co. 
• Karey Burke, President, 20th Television Studios, a part of Disney Television Studios, Walt Disney Co. 
• Nicole Clemens, President, Paramount Television Studios, Paramount Global
• Jessica Fang, Executive VP, Distribution, Marketing & Strategy, Fox Corp.
• Stephanie Jackson, Senior VP, Ad Sales, Western Region, Warner Bros. Discovery
• Tana Nugent Jamieson, Executive VP and Co-Head, A+E Studios
• Angela Molloy, Senior VP, Development & Original Production, ALLBLK and WE tv, Unscripted, AMC Networks
• Geraldine Moriba, Senior VP and Chief Content Officer, theGrio
• Heather Olander, Head of Unscripted Programming, The CW 
• Connie Orlando, Executive VP of Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy, BET Media Group
• Amy Reisenbach, President, Entertainment, CBS
• Beatrice Springborn, President, Universal Content Productions and Universal International Studios

Tana Nugent Jamieson’s father was a foreign correspondent for Newsweek and she thought she would grow up to be a journalist. She was, for a while. But her father steered her away from that declining medium and she channeled her storytelling into producing hit TV movies (Peter Benchley’s The Beast, for starters) and miniseries for the likes of NBC, TBS, The WB and A&E, where her scripted credits include Longmire, Bates Motel and Roots. 

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In 2013, she moved from the network to become co-head of A+E Studios, which now has more than 70 projects in various stages of development and shows on a variety of top platforms. 

Seizing an Opportunity

First among equals might be Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer, from David E. Kelley and author Michael Connelly. 

Jamieson was the one who identified Lincoln Lawyer’s potential, knew Kelley was interested and led A+E to pounce precisely when the rights became available — like the minute after, according to studio president and co-head Barry Jossen. 

“Obviously, the rest is history,” Jossen said. The Lincoln Lawyer, now in production on a third season, has been Netflix’s top returning series and a Top 10 show in 81 countries. It’s a global calling card for A+E, and Jossen thinks it might also have helped audiences find and re-embrace the legal drama Suits this year.

Jossen made sure Jamieson was credited as co-head soon after she came over from the network and said they have a successful partnership where either executive can sign off on a decision and where roles aren’t pigeonholed. They communicate throughout the day, he said. (Jamieson agreed: “We’re each other’s best friend,” she said, adding: “I think at the end of the day, I help him with the bigger-picture thinking.”)  

“I’ve never had a better experience working with a partner, collaborator, colleague than I’ve had with Tana,” Jossen said. “She’s very smart, knowledgeable and skillful. She’s excellent [at] working with creatives. Her relationships are stellar and her commitment to quality is really high.” 

She’s not only smart and creative, but “her understanding of the business and what makes sense in a very dynamic time in our industry is really gratifying, and makes it possible for us to do what we’re doing,” he said.

Bela Bajaria, chief content officer at Netflix, has been a close friend for a long time. She said they have worked very well together regardless of which one is buying for a network or supplying from a studio — like when Bajaria ran Universal Television and Jamieson was at A&E and they did Bates Motel together for five years.

“She was incredibly supportive of the show and of the talent and always is so great about being a collaborator and just being partners with the talent and the creator in the studio,” Bajaria said. “Just having that real great mindset of, we all want the same thing. We want to make a great show that a lot of people watch. And she’s such a warm, kind, authentic, genuine person.”

A Fulfilling Role

Jamieson acknowledged that she’s been able to pivot often, from doing TV movies to series, from the network to the studio, and loves where she has ended up. 

“This is my favorite job, by far,” she said. “It’s just great. I get to be creatively fulfilled with all different kinds of shows.”

Other A+E Studios shows of note at the moment, among many, include Parish, with Giancarlo Esposito, on AMC and AMC Plus; Flowers in the Attic: The Origin for A+E Networks-owned Lifetime and the in-development Lazarus serial-killer drama for Apple TV Plus, with Tom Hardy and Zazie Beetz. 

Outside of work, she and her husband, J.J. Jamieson, a longtime TV executive, actively volunteer with Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a charitable organization that helps underserved kids in the city, and they helped establish the George Perry Floyd Jr. Scholarship for Racial and Social Justice at Santa Monica College. They also have raised triplets, two boys and a girl, who are now 23 years old. 

It seems pretty unusual for an industry executive’s résumé to list being an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer and filmmaker, entrepreneur, podcast host and research scientist. Yet theGrio’s Geraldine Moriba can lay claim to all that and more.

The Toronto native attributes her various pursuits to her mother, who encouraged her at a very young age to diversify her interests. “I was curious and interested in as many things as a kid as I am as an adult,” she said. “The one thing you could not say to my mom is that you were bored, because her response would be to get a book to read and use our imagination.” 

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Moriba’s curiosity would lead her to major in political science and women’s studies at the University of Western Ontario. But it would be her first job out of college as a trainee news reporter at Radio-Canada in 1990 where she would be introduced to the world of entertainment. “That job ended up changing the direction of my career,” she said. 

Made a Name in News

In 1992, Moriba moved to the United States and took a job as a researcher for ABC newsmagazine Primetime Live. She moved to NBC in 1994 as executive producer for Dateline. Her work at NBC earned multiple Emmy Awards as well as a Peabody Award.  

CNN hired Moriba in 2010 as executive producer for the Original Program Development team, as well as VP of inclusion. While there, she spearheaded CNN’s Emmy-winning In America franchise of documentary specials on issues affecting communities of color.

In 2015, she formed her own production company, Moriba Media, where her first project was a documentary about the life of a teenager diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Until 20 was a personal journey for Moriba, who survived the same sarcoma disease that befell the movie’s protagonist, James Ragan, whom she had met in the hospital. 

“My production company started with that film about a young man who had the same cancer that I had, and that just motivated me to keep going,” she said. “Ultimately, the documentary is about how we measure the value of life.”

She would also produce such documentary series as Sinking Cities and Chasing the Dream for PBS under the Moriba Media banner. 

Continuing to stretch her creative talents, Moriba in 2018 pitched a year-long science research fellowship study to Stanford University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation on the merging of computer science and artificial intelligence. “I was in the news and in the field of storytelling and reporting, but I continued to hold a real passion for science and data,” she said. “For my fellowship, I focused on computer science and artificial intelligence and how we as journalists should be using these tools to help us measure not only how many people are reading, but actually measuring our content.” 

Her interest in media and culture extended in 2020 to hosting the Sounds Like Hate podcast, funded by the Southern Poverty Law Center and focused on people who engage in extremism.

In 2021, Moriba joined Allen Media Group-owned theGrio as senior VP of news and entertainment, in charge of content development and brand sponsorships. The next year, she launched theGrio’s streaming network and mobile app, as well as theGrio Black Podcast Network, all featuring content on political, social and entertainment issues affecting Black culture. 

“Geraldine continues to pave the way in delivering high-quality African American-focused content,” Allen Media Group founder/CEO Byron Allen said. 

Amplifying a Culture

“This is my moment to use all the skills and all the knowledge I’ve gathered to this point, to figure out how to apply it to a newsroom and see if I can amplify stories we care most about, just as effectively as possible, to represent our lived experiences,” she said.

Moriba, who has an adult son and daughter, said future projects she has been researching include a novel about a Black woman’s immigrant experiences and a play about an enslaved woman living in Montreal during the 1700s. 

A mentor herself, Moriba said up-and-coming female executives should be open to all opportunities put in front of them.

“Don’t look where you’re standing, look at where you’re going,” she said. “Because if you keep your eyes forward, you’ll be able to identify the obstacles that you have to overcome and create a strategic plan. By doing so, you’ll have the most control over your destiny.” 

Sonia Coleman, senior executive VP and chief human resources officer for The Walt Disney Co., effusively describes Judy Agay as a person who genuinely cares and who has a high emotional intelligence, but said the two keys to understanding Agay are that she is “really strategic and incredibly adaptable.”

Those phrases are essential not just to Agay’s success as senior VP for human resources at ESPN and Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, but to her entire career. 

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The daughter of two nurses, Agay was born in New York and then lived in New Jersey before coming back to the city to attend Fordham University. At that point, while studying communications, Agay said she knew definitively what she wanted to do with her life.

A Dream Fulfilled

“I wanted to work in a big ad agency,” she said. “That was my dream.” And she fulfilled that dream, landing a job at a midtown ad agency working on packaged goods products, only to run into a major career obstacle. 

“After two years, I realized I hated it,” she recalled. “You were at the whim of the client and you’re selling products and sitting in a focus group. Learning about personal products was just not my thing.”

What Agay really loved was “the people connection,” and she realized she was meant to be in human resources. When she couldn’t navigate a transition at her agency, she adapted. “I was early in my career and was willing to start from scratch,” she said, so she took a job at Tommy Hilfiger, going back down the ladder and working as a scheduling recruiting assistant in HR. 

“I was just hungry to learn and I had people willing to teach me,” she said. And she did learn, rising over five years to become human resources director. (She said that before she took the job, one HR executive told her, “You’re going to hate people at the end of it,” and her response was, “I’m going to prove him wrong.”) 

Agay then moved on to The Gap. It was there, she said, that she first realized how high she could rise in her world — at that time, Jenny Ming was president of Old Navy. “That was very inspiring,” Agay recalled. “She was a marker for me in terms of seeing a woman, and an Asian woman, in a substantial role.”

Agay joined The Walt Disney Co. in 2005 at Disney Publishing Worldwide, eventually finding her way to Los Angeles in 2013 as director of human resources for Disney Consumer Products. She kept climbing up the ranks, becoming senior VP, human resources for The Walt Disney Co. in 2021 and then taking on her new role last year. Agay currently oversees HR business support, serving as a strategic adviser to the C-suite, focusing on change management and long-term planning. She also oversees employee recruitment, development, engagement and compensation, ensuring Disney attracts and retains the best talent to achieve its current and future business goals. 

Just as Ming once inspired her, Agay now says she feels it’s important “for me to be able to lift others up, to see that it’s possible.”

Keeping People Supported

Even as she ascends, Agay said she has not lost sight of what matters. And while she is, as Coleman described, a shrewd strategist “with a great command of the business,” Agay said that her leadership skill set flows from a different direction. As she notes, she’s in the only department that has the word “human” in the title. 

“I want people to feel supported and feel like they have the tools they need to do their jobs the best that they can,” Agay said. “And I think one of my strengths is that I know that even in this business, you can be kind and compassionate.” 

Sometimes this means giving people the validation they need. But sometimes it simply means letting them know exactly how they are performing, how their side of the business is doing and where they stand. “It’s not my quote, but I do think that clarity is kindness,” she said. 

In her senior year at UCLA, Karey Burke got an internship at NBC “and absolutely got hit with a lightning bolt,” she said. With plans to be some kind of international business executive, she learned it was possible to make a career in television. 

She secured a permanent position as an assistant at the network during, as she put it, the Brandon Tartikoff and Warren Littlefield years, and moved up to development executive. 

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For the past three and a half years, she has been president of 20th Television, The Walt Disney Co.-owned studio that produces about 60% of in-house-produced programs for Disney Entertainment outlets (ABC, Disney Plus, FX, Hulu, etc.) and supplies myriad platforms including NBC, Apple TV Plus, Showtime, Fox and CBS. 

Building Big Hits

Recent credits include Tracker, the CBS drama starring Justin Hartley that debuted after the Super Bowl and had a successful first season, leading all Big Four network programs in total audience and in the 18-49 demographic. 20th also produces 9-1-1 for ABC, among several other Ryan Murphy Productions franchises; Only Murders in the Building for Hulu; The Chi for Showtime; and Percy Jackson and the Olympians for Disney Plus.

But back to the “Must See” years at NBC. What shows did she work on? Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, L.A. Law and Quantum Leap were the first three she mentioned. “I was lucky enough to work on Friends the year we developed that show, and was able to stay with that for most of my career there,” she recalled.

After segueing to production, partnering variously with Jamie Tarses, Ashton Kutcher and Todd Holland, she embraced the challenge of joining Disney when it was rebranding ABC Family to Freeform. “By that time, my children were in their teenage years and that’s what they were watching, shows like Pretty Little Liars and The Fosters,” Burke said. 

From there came “the opportunity I could absolutely not say no to”: president of entertainment at ABC, starting in December 2018. “It was an incredible time, a heady time for the network,” Burke said. “And we took ABC from No. 3 back to No. 1.” 

Then, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden called two years into that job to discuss a new position that came from combining Fox 21 and 20th Television. “I was honored to get that call again, something I hadn’t done before,” Burke said. “I feel like I’ve always tried to pivot when I could learn something new. I’ve sort of been driven and led by my curiosity, and a hope to grow and keep learning.”

At 20th she gets the chance to, as Disney says, champion an inclusive culture and slate. She cites her work on Freaks and Geeks as an early source of pride, and now she’s particularly proud of We Were the Lucky Ones, an uplifting story about a family of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust. Directed by Thomas Kail, it recently launched on Hulu.

Kail also directed the musical series Up Here for 20th, which ran for one season on Hulu. “Two shows with great ambition and two shows that were in many ways unlikely to exist,” Kail said, crediting Burke for championing and advocating them. “She cares deeply and I feel like she leads with her humanity.”

Still Bullish on Broadcast

As you might expect, Burke also is a champion of broadcast TV. “I’m bullish. I’m all in,” she said. “There’s no greater reach platform than the broadcast networks. And it’s an incredible place for stories to begin and for libraries to get built over time that ultimately serve our streaming platforms. I think it’s no surprise that when you look at the rankers of shows that do well on streaming services across the business, the bulk of the top 10 are shows that began life in broadcast. A show that we produced, The Resident, that story that popped about how well it’s doing — we’re so proud of that.” 

It was an eventful first year on the job, to say the least, for Heather Olander, and year two at The CW shows no sign of letting up. Named to her current position in February 2023, Olander was intrigued by the prospect of a network undergoing a makeover. 

“I had obviously heard that Nexstar had bought the network, and they were going to completely change the programming and the schedule,” Olander said. “And I love a challenge like that, so I was very up for the opportunity.”

Unscripted fare plays a much larger part on The CW’s schedule than it used to. While Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Whose Line Is It Anyway? have been on for eons, newer The CW shows include Inside the NFL, FBoy Island and Crime Nation. 

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Olander is also at work on a couple of game shows based on beloved intellectual property: Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble, which are slated for a fall debut. “I’ve been watching the casting for both of those shows, and it’s wild to me how passionate people are about both of those games,” Olander said. “It’s very invigorating to know that those two brands still resonate in such a huge way.”

Hollywood’s Holy Grail

Olander knew from a young age what kind of work she might pursue as an adult. She described herself as “a huge, huge, avid TV watcher” growing up in San Diego. She started in advertising upon her arrival in Los Angeles, and had friends working as assistants in the entertainment industry. Olander saw, in her words, “a pathway”
for herself. 

“There was a thing called the UTA job list, which existed 100 years ago and had all the jobs in town,” she said. “That was like the Holy Grail, and I got my hot little hands on that.”

Olander started at talent agency ICM and worked her way up. She spent seven years at MTV, making it to VP of original series development and current programming. Olander shifted to NBCUniversal in 2011 as senior VP of alternative development and programming at USA Network. That was a precursor to her current role, as USA began venturing into unscripted. She worked on Chrisley Knows Best and Miz & Mrs., among other reality fare. 

Over time, Olander added oversight of alternative programming at Syfy and Peacock. 

Then Brad Schwartz, The CW entertainment president, was looking for an unscripted chief. “First of all, every single person in town told me to hire Heather,” he said. They mentioned Olander’s standout taste, vast experience in development and production and straightforward nature. 

“She’s a superstar executive in so many ways,” Schwartz said. “She’s incredibly intelligent, incredibly driven and is very direct. The entire industry loves her because she doesn’t mess around.”

Straight Shooter

Many in Hollywood are reluctant to say no to a project, and keep a producer’s hopes up, he said. Olander plays it straight. 

“We’re not a giant, huge portfolio,” she said. “I know it’s hard to navigate for producers, hard to get answers, hard to get things pushed forward” at other networks. 

She likens The CW, on the other hand, to a startup.

The CW president Dennis Miller said Olander took on a “daunting task” when she came on board. “She doesn’t suffer fools, she’s whip-smart, she cuts to the chase, and she’s very hands-on with producers,” he said. “She’s had an awesome first year.”

Olander takes time to mentor younger colleagues and proudly notes how many former assistants have moved on to significant entertainment posts. “I do feel like it is my responsibility as a manager, to mentor and to help guide anyone who works for me,” she said.  

When she’s not working, Olander keeps busy with her family. When not chauffeuring her daughters, ages 8 and 11, to games and parties, they enjoy watching the likes of America’s Got Talent and America’s Funniest Home Videos together. “The adults have the adult dramas and the kids have their Disney stuff,” Olander said. “But the broadcast stuff is stuff where we come together and look forward to watching.” 

Since joining WE tv in 2014, Angela Molloy has shepherded some of the network’s longest-running unscripted shows, including Mama June, Love After Lockup and the Marriage Boot Camp franchise, now in its 17th year. In 2023, Molloy was promoted from VP of development for WE tv to senior VP of development & original production, overseeing unscripted shows for both WE tv and ALLBLK. In her new role, she greenlights and develops new projects and oversees current productions. 

In choosing new projects, Molloy has always looked for characters and stories that audiences would want to follow for years. “There’s an endless supply of compelling and unique stories about people in the unscripted space,” she said. “But the needles in the haystack are stories that pop and can sustain over time.”

A Feel for Audiences

Shahram Qureshi, an executive producer and independent showrunner, first worked with Molloy 12 years ago. “Angela knows what’s going to be entertaining,” he said. “Angela has a really good sense of what will resonate with the audience.”

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Molloy began working in the fledgling genre of reality TV two decades ago as manager of development at TLC, where she acquired unscripted shows from the U.K. and the Netherlands. She next moved to production house 3 Ball Productions. One of the first original shows she sold to a network was Scott Baio Is 45 and Single, about the former heartthrob’s work with a relationship coach. “He said to me in our first meeting: ‘My parents have been married for 50 years. I feel like I should be married and I can’t get there,’  ” Molloy recalled. She called it her “aha moment.” 

“It was an authentic journey that someone was going on, would take us, on in real time,” she said. Many people are willing to share their personal lives for the length of a TikTok, but Molloy looks for subjects with long-term aspirations and a willingness to share them. “When we talk to someone who wants to have their own show, we ask, ‘Are you willing to show the ups and downs of your life?’ ”

The nine years she was a showrunner and field producer on shows such as Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, Room Crashers and Life With La Toya influenced her leadership style. “I think my super power is flexibility,” she said. She understands how cast members’ lives can suddenly take storylines in unexpected directions. 

“Angela isn’t asking me, ‘What are you going to do now?’ ” said Erin Kelly Richards, executive producer of Marriage Boot Camp, Mama June and other shows. “She’s saying, ‘OK, let’s talk about this and figure it out.’ ” 

Molloy “makes the whole process feel like a creative, collaborative effort,” Richards added. She also praised Molloy for “the grace with which she navigates heavy decisions.” 

Last year, Mama June Shannon’s oldest daughter, Anna Cardwell, asked the crew to follow her through her cancer treatment. When Cardwell died in December, Richards said, Molloy called to check on “the mental health of the field crew with genuine care and not just reading off a page in an HR handbook.”

Producing also taught Molloy that “good ideas come from anywhere,” she said. On set, Molloy said, “I have no problem asking the PA or the audio tech, ‘What did you think of that scene?’ ” 

Open Door for Pitches

At AMC, she values the “open-door” policy that encourages employees to pitch ideas. The idea for Love After Lockup was suggested by a producer within WE tv, she noted. To serve a predominantly female and African-American audience, Molloy leads an all-women team, and said their candid dialogues help them address family crises, criminal justice and the challenges of reentry after incarceration. 

“We shouldn’t shy away from tough conversations,” she said. “If you’re telling a story about what it’s like to be Black or to be a woman in certain circumstances, we should be specific and confront that conversation. As executives internally, we’re very open to talking about gender and race, to getting feedback and asking tough questions of each other.”

Molloy is less interested in hot topics than relatable human experiences. In a constantly changing business, Qureshi said, Molloy’s consistency has been her strength. 

“Angela has a very authentic approach to how to tell a truthful story that will be a snapshot of someone’s life,” he said. “She knows what’s going to work, and that’s what’s led to her success.”

Beatrice Springborn grew up thinking she would be a journalist: More specifically, a foreign correspondent for a prestigious newspaper. But in 2001 she landed a job at Pixar as a development executive.

At Pixar, Springborn quickly realized she had found her calling in production. Two decades later, in 2020, Springborn became the president of UCP and was named head of Universal International Studios in 2022. Across both studios, she oversees more than 40 active TV series.

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“Most of the projects that I get behind have a commercial sensibility but tied up with something extra,” she said. “There is a meaning that is deeper, but hopefully given to audiences in a way that is digestible and doesn’t feel like medicine. Projects that you come away feeling like you’ve experienced something that speaks to larger thematics.”

Making Major Projects

In the last six months, several high-profile projects that Springborn developed and produced were released, including three Peacock series: Ted, Dr. Death season two and Apples Never Fall.

A prequel to Seth MacFarlane’s Ted movies, Peacock’s eponymous seven-episode series debuted in January and was, per Nielsen, the No. 1 original streaming comedy in the U.S. for two consecutive months. 

To bring the series to life, she worked alongside MacFarlane, its showrunner, executive producer, writer and director.

“Beatrice is very hands-on and very creative,” MacFarlane said. “She is somebody who really inspires enthusiasm and the desire to go the extra mile. You know that she has seen every one of your shows and that she’s absorbed all the nuance and detail and has processed it all in a really intelligent, creative way.”

When Dr. Death creator Patrick Macmanus began working with Springborn in 2020, the first season of the series was midway through production.

“It would have been very easy and understandable for an executive of her level and of her experience and intellect to come in and want to change what Dr. Death was before she got there,” he said. “Instead, she came in purely to ensure that we were able to execute it as well as we possibly could. Beatrice was there when I both wanted and needed her at every single turn. She fought for our show every step of the way.”

Springborn also fought for Apples Never Fall. In 2021 she helped secure the rights to the Liane Moriarty novel (with David Heyman of Heyday Films) in a highly competitive sale and landed a straight-to-series order at Peacock.
In its first week, Apples Never Fall debuted as the sixth most-watched original series across streaming, per Nielsen.

That kind of success isn’t foreign to Springborn. Prior to her tenure at UCP, she was head of originals at Hulu, where she was responsible for acquiring hit series including The Handmaid’s Tale, Little Fires Everywhere and Normal People. 

“I don’t think I could have done this studio job without having been a buyer,” Springborn said. “Mostly because as much as buyers will explain and articulate their mandate to you, it’s usually not what is successful. Having been a buyer, I know that the mandate is never what usually ends up popping. So [at Universal] we dedicate a percentage of our slate to the types of shows that [distributors] are looking for, but also, we dedicate a huge part of our slate to taking risks and doing things that might feel out of the box, which are done at the highest level of quality. ”

‘She’s a Deep Diver’

Universal Studio Group chairman Pearlena Igbokwe has known Springborn for years and was eager to bring her aboard. “One of the things I love about Beatrice is her curiosity,” Igbokwe said. “I also appreciate that she’s candid about what she knows and what she doesn’t know. She is very forthright about what she wants to learn and she’s a great student. She’s a deep diver and I think that’s the mark of a leader.”

Springborn credits her journalism background for keeping an open mind. 

“The skill set of a journalist is exactly what works in this business, which is curiosity and a point of view, or at least not always knowing the answers,” she said. “When you are developing shows, you think it’s one thing and that evolves as you make it. Having the openness to it being something else is part of the journey and what makes things good.” 

 Janene Drafs runs a truly extraordinary content-production outfit. KTLA Los Angeles, part of Nexstar Media Group, cranks out a staggering 112 hours a week of local programming, among the highest levels in the nation. It is local from 4 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. weekdays. After The CW primetime, it’s another 90 minutes of local news. 

Drafs was named KTLA GM in 2020, succeeding the retiring Don Orsini, who was something of an L.A. television legend. She previously was VP and general manager at KOMO-KUNS Seattle, where she began her career as an account executive in 1992.

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Drafs, who is the B+C Multichannel News 2024 Los Angeles-based Woman of Influence, spoke about being the first female GM at KTLA, the loss of beloved colleague Sam Rubin and how she helps young women in television work toward leadership roles. An edited transcript follows. 

B+C MCN: Can KTLA’s 112 weekly hours of local possibly go up, or is that the magic number?

Janene Drafs: I think for now it’s the magic number, but [OTT product] KTLA Plus is such an amazing opportunity for us. That’s where we have been developing more programs. 

B+C: The station recently lost a beloved colleague in [entertainment anchor] Sam Rubin. Tell me what he was like. 

JD: While Sam loved entertaining and loved Hollywood, he was really a journalist. It’s what endeared him to his colleagues who are also journalists. He was a fantastic writer. He had an incredible wit. I think he was the class clown, but in the very best way. To be funny, you have to be really, really, really smart. And Sam was really, really, really smart.

B+C: When you took this job in 2020, you became the first female GM in KTLA history. What was the feeling when you were coming on board? Excitement? Anxiety?

JD: I knew that there had been other female general managers in the market, and I came from a market that also had one other female general manager. So I wasn’t intimidated. On my first day I said, ‘I can’t be Don Corsini. I’m never going to be the person who was here before me because I lean in a different way. We’ll get to know one another and you’ll figure out how that works for you.’ Don was definitely an iconic person, but I just needed to make sure everyone knew that I wasn’t going to try and be the same person. 

B+C: Who’s been a mentor for you in your career?

JD: Colleen Brown, who was the CEO of Fisher Broadcasting before [KOMO-KUNS was] purchased by Sinclair. [Former Graham Media Group president and CEO] Emily Barr and I met at an industry conference and right away we hit it off. She would be the person that I would call with strategic things, when I was struggling with something, when I had some ideas and needed someone to bounce them off of.

In the GM role, it’s really hard to find colleagues. You can’t have those kinds of conversations with your employees. So we all have to have those people that we reach out to. 

BC: How do you help a young woman who might someday want to be a GM?

JD: Representation is so important. When I was growing up, I played guitar, and I never thought that I could play an electric guitar. Then I saw Heart, Ann and Nancy Wilson, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Women?’ I don’t know why I didn’t think I could do it, but it was all about representation.

Seeing females in leadership roles is the very first step, because that means females can envision themselves in leadership.

The second thing is to have that board of directors for yourself. Who is that person who’s going to call you on your BS, call you when you’re not being real? That might be a really good friend that you’ve grown up with who knows you well, it might be a sister or a brother. It’s going to be someone who knows you well, who doesn’t mince words, who knows you’re not going to take it personally. 

That’s what I encourage young women to do — find people who will be your advocate. Find people who tell you what you don’t want to tell yourself. When people who are too close to you are telling you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear, have that other person who is just your 100% go-to for solv-i­ng prob­­lems. 

Being an anchor in the rocky waters of the entertainment business is just one of the traits that helped propel Stephanie Jackson forward in her career. This senior VP of Western region integrated ad sales, overseeing the Warner Bros. Discovery brands, is known as a constant, steadying force. She’s someone who can be counted on to get things accomplished. 

It’s a trait she was proud to say she got from her single mother.

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“My mom was always my mentor,” Jackson said. “She never complained and she knew how to get things done.”

Today, Jackson leads WBD’s Los Angeles sales office and oversees its strategic national sales initiatives across linear and digital platforms. Additionally, she develops strategic marketing partnerships to meet her clients’ needs. 

Drives Revenue Growth

Throughout her career, Jackson has been responsible for driving organizational revenue growth and improving sales performance within an evolving marketplace. She has a stellar record of negotiating renewals with agency and advertiser clients, in addition to a proven ability to manage change that includes mergers and acquisitions, including the April 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery merger. 

Jackson’s client list includes major ad agencies and automotive brands, Fortune 500 companies on the West Coast, as well as financial and tech companies. She said her clients trust her and she truly enjoys working with them.

Jackson was promoted to her current role in September 2023, making her the first senior VP to be a direct report of WBD chief ad sales officer Jon Steinlauf, overseeing scripted, sports and streaming genres in the expanded WBD portfolio.

Working with vice presidents, a 15-member ad sales team and additional sales support, she credits her dedicated colleagues as being smart and savvy.

Jackson has enjoyed a 20-plus-year career. Prior to joining Warner Bros. Discovery, she worked in radio advertising sales for ABC Radio Networks under the Radio Disney brand. 

Yet she’s that rare executive who started in the entertainment business while still in high school. She participated in an internship program for minority students and was placed at Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, the distribution arm of the three Warner Communications-owned music labels at that time. Jackson also worked in the Warner Music Publishing division, receiving valuable exposure that revealed the scope of career possibilities in entertainment. 

She majored in business administration at Pepperdine University and began her career as a sales assistant for KTTV Los Angeles’s local sales division. Watching co-workers develop strategy and interact with clients was especially appealing. It was here that she learned the foundation of the advertising business. 

One of Jackson’s favorite parts of her current role, she said, is mentoring others. She said she’s now in pay-it-forward mode.

“It’s about being able to give back because I had really great, impactful mentors over my career,” Jackson said. “I’m at a point where I can take a step back and offer guidance.”

That guidance comes in all forms. It can be brainstorming, listening when someone needs to vent or advising those interested in a career in advertising.

“Stephanie prioritizes the evolving needs of the people she works with and manages through change with humility,” executive VP of ad sales Marybeth Strobel said. “Her inclusive nature to educate her team as she educates herself creates a unique spirit of motivation and purpose.”

Fan of Sports Lessons

Jackson said her skill set was sharpened when she played basketball and volleyball in high school. Jackson noted that she loves seeing sports programs on young people’s resumes. It shows they really understand what it takes to work together.

“My coaches were also mentors,” Jackson said. “They taught me teamwork, healthy competition and discipline. There was everything in sports that translated to what I do today.”

Jackson is married and has an 11-year-old daughter. Jackson said she is passionate about travel, skiing and her puppies. “They are my therapy,” the animal lover said. The pups are certainly helping Jackson as she helps others. 

Connie Orlando has always danced to her own beat while navigating an evolving entertainment business, a field in which she has grown from a young entrepreneur producing music programming into overseeing some of the industry’s most iconic content franchises. 

It’s quite an accomplishment for the Queens, New York, native who, growing up, wasn’t focused on entertainment. “I was the first in my family to go to college, and back then you went to college to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant,” she said. “That’s it — there was no other anything.” 

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Orlando, who earned a finance degree at Syracuse University, was an analyst at JPMorgan Chase in the early 1990s. “I was in the school of business because I’m excellent with numbers,” she said. “But I did not like working at a bank — it was very monotonous.”

Making Music a Job

On weekends, Orlando teamed up with a college roommate and aspiring director who enlisted all of her college friends to help with her music projects. “It opened up another world for me and showed me a lot about the art of production,” she said. “That’s how I was kind of ushered into the business.” 

In 1995, Orlando launched CMO Productions while working as an executive producer at Big Dog Films, headed by Hype Williams. At CMO, she spearheaded projects such as Jay-Z’s 1998 soundtrack for Streets Is Watching.

CMO was one of the few female-led companies in an industry dominated by men, and Orlando was determined to see it take flight. “The beautiful thing was that the business was growing at such a quick pace that I was able to learn and get in at a time where it was needed,” she said. 

In the early 2000s, BET knocked on Orlando’s door to develop several music specials before hiring her as VP of development. In 2015, she was named senior VP of specials, music and news. 

Orlando said BET offered her the opportunity to develop content that represented the network’s target audience. “One of the most important lessons I learned is to get to know your audience and curate things that are original and unique to authentically represent that audience,” she said. 

On Orlando’s watch, BET launched several successful originals, including awards show Black Girls Rock!

In 2017, BET promoted Orlando to head of programming and music strategy, overseeing scripted, nonscripted and documentary programming, and again in 2019 to her current post. She oversees the network’s original shows and tentpole events, including the BET Awards, Soul Train Awards and BET Hip Hop Awards. 

“My goal is to always solidify BET’s status as the leading platform for innovative, authentic and culturally relevant content for the Black community,” she said. “That’s the nucleus of everything I do with all the shows.”

Orlando counts entertainment executive Tracy Edmonds and former BET original programming president Loretha Jones as mentors, and credits former BET chairman Debra Lee for giving her an opportunity to excel. “I believe, if you can see it, you can be it,” Orlando said. “And that speaks to seeing Debra run the company.” 

Said Lee, now co-founder and partner at consultancy The Monarchs Collective: “People in the industry love Connie, and she’s built up a lot of goodwill within the industry. She’s very talented and really creative … she always has her hand on the pulse of the culture, and she’s able to bring all of that together.”

Giving Back

Orlando’s reach goes beyond the television screen. In 1998 she launched a nonprofit foundation, Just the Girls, to empower young women. 

She enrolled in culinary school to further indulge in her love of cooking, which she calls her “therapy.” 

Orlando hopes to continue developing authentic and innovative content. She also encourages young female producers and entrepreneurs to challenge themselves and be open to unique opportunities. 

“I think the scariest part in any career in entertainment is being willing to change, but I am where I am because I was open to trying something new,” she said. “I didn’t know I wanted to be a producer until I did a lot of other things. It’s almost like I narrowed down what I didn’t want to be and then saw what I really loved.” 

Joy. Positive intent. Optimism. How many people would use those terms to describe their current role? Carolyn Bernstein, executive VP of scripted and documentary films at National Geographic, brims with excitement when discussing her current role, colleagues and accomplished career.

“I’m a very optimistic person,” she said. “I think that has helped me weather the ups and downs of this business.”

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She said this infectious optimism is a quality shared by many of her Nat Geo colleagues. It creates a collegial and cohesive working environment.

“At Nat Geo, we always talk about assuming positive intent as we move through our day,” Bernstein said. “It’s because we get to work with this brand, which has so much meaning and history. It doesn’t just entertain but it inspires.”

Overseeing a Packed Slate

Bernstein oversees the award-winning National Geographic Documentary Films banner and the network’s fact-based scripted content. Under her leadership, Nat Geo has garnered critical success with award-winning documentaries like E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Oscar- and BAFTA Award-winning Free Solo, Feras Fayyad’s Oscar-nominated The Cave and Sara Dosa’s Oscar-nominated Fire of Love and Bobi Wine: The People’s President, following the Ugandan opposition leader and musician during his 2021 presidential campaign. She said telling Wine’s story was a career highlight. 

Bernstein also spearheaded a robust scripted slate. Under her tenure, the 20-time Emmy-nominated Genius franchise enjoyed four seasons. 

She joined Nat Geo in 2016 from Endemol Shine Studios and Shine America, where she was executive VP of scripted television and executive producer of FX series The Bridge. 

Prior to Shine America, Bernstein was executive VP of drama development at The WB. She said she enjoyed telling coming-of-age stories and developed Gilmore Girls, Smallville, One Tree Hill and Supernatural.

Many parents panic when they hear their children want to be English or literature majors. But Bernstein, a comparative literature major, believes it’s a great career path. At Brown University, she said, she read numerous influential books and performed critical analyses of what she read. 

After graduating, the native New Yorker moved to Los Angeles to embark on a career in entertainment, starting at CAA in the motion picture literary department.

“I was honing my critical thinking and analytical skills around literature, so it was a hop, skip and a jump to reading screenplays, working on pilots and working with storytellers,” she said. “I was looking at the same things — character, tone and theme.”

Bernstein said one of the best aspects of her current role is figuring out what support the artists need to tell the stories they want to tell. 

“I always describe it as removing obstacles,” she said. “As an executive, you never want to create obstacles. You want to remove obstacles so artists can do their best work, and that’s been a huge privilege and a joy for me.”

Others at Nat Geo agree. “Carolyn possesses the rare combination of brilliant creative instincts, strong business acumen, and excellent leadership skills,” Nat Geo president Courteney Monroe said. “She builds tremendous relationships with talent, fostering an environment that enables them to do their very best work.”

Spreading Joy

Life outside the entertainment world is just as joyous for Bernstein. Her husband is FX Entertainment president Nick Grad. They met while working as development executives in the mid-1990s. They have a daughter, Georgia, in high school and a son, Lucas, in college. 

She makes it a point to mentor young people. Bernstein participated in The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program, which is aligned with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles. This program pairs high-ranking women entertainment executives with high school junior girls from underserved communities, helping prepare them for college and beyond. Bernstein’s mentee graduated from Loyola Marymount University last year.

And she regularly assists undergrads and those early in their careers seeking her advice. Bernstein is paying it forward, honoring those who helped her along the way. 

After a satisfying career in broadcast journalism, Teri Arvesú looked around during the pandemic and protests over George Floyd’s murder and felt she had hit a plateau.

“I had topped out in terms of the impact I could make and was wondering how I could be a bigger part of transformational work,” Arvesú, who had been the WGBO Chicago news director and was then VP for content for Univision Chicago, recalled. “It came to me that my next job was not about a title — producer, then executive producer, then news director. But I was banging my head because I didn’t know what to do next.”

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Then came a phone call offering her a new role in the company’s Brand and Impact vertical as senior VP of social impact and sustainability for TelevisaUnivision and president of the Univision Foundation.

Both the sense of searching and the new role made perfect sense to those who know Arvesú.

Powerhouse Presence

Jose Tomas, chief administrative officer, TelevisaUnivision, and Edna Uribe, who was director of sales at Univision Chicago when Arvesú was there, both describe her as a “lifelong learner” and a force to be reckoned with.

“Her level of curiosity is genuine and admirable,” Uribe said. Added Tomas, “She absorbs new ideas and then executes on them.”

Tomas also called her “a ball of energy who does not stand still,” although Arvesú said she’s “super-aware” of always going full tilt and admits she tries to modify her passion and energy because “it even drives me crazy. I’m so freaking intense.”

Arvesú, whose parents were Cuban exiles who arrived here as children, grew up in Miami, studied journalism and ran newsrooms in Miami and Chicago. Her passion for journalism is tied to her love of democracy which is part of her heritage, she said, adding that she’s also a “geek about meteorology” and would watch hours of live weather broadcasting, “which made me feel like I was part of a community.”

Under her leadership, WGBO made history in 2014 by becoming the first Spanish-language television station to win a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award for Outstanding Evening Newscast, Larger Markets. She loves Univision because it fits her identity as a “200 percenter, someone who is both 100% American and 100% Hispanic,” she said. “I live both those lives and I have never found in my ‘American’ life
a brand that means what Univision means to our community.”

About a decade ago, Arvesú nearly left to teach at the University of Miami and lead the student-run TV station but she stayed, in part, because Univision was creating a women’s leadership council, the first employee resource group. That chance to make a difference “sucked me in again,” she said. Arvesú has a master’s degree in management, and those studies emphasized leadership. She also credits her great-aunt, Carolina Calderin, who was a hospital CEO in Miami and broke through glass ceilings, but who also “gave so much and never turned anyone away.”

Doing More for Latinos

In Chicago, Arvesú launched a fellowship with DePaul University and the McCormick Foundation to prepare high school and college Latinos for careers in the media and she also started the city’s first radio show for bilingual millennials. 

In her new role she feels she can do even more. One recent program helped push the film industry to develop more Latino directors. This year, she is focusing much of her energy on “Vota Conmigo” (Vote With Me), the company’s get-out-the-vote campaign. “That consumes me almost daily,” she said. 

Arvesú said she relishes the ability to work on the philanthropic side through the company’s foundation, while also working to transform TelevisaUnivision itself. “I’m helping journalism build out a new business model,” she said. “I’m part of the board of the Journalism Funding Partners, which gets philanthropic dollars to underwrite reporting, and we’ve put over $2 million back in newsrooms. And while Univision’s brand has always been about community, I now oversee corporate social responsibility and diversity, equity and inclusion while the foundation allows me to create programs that take care of our community on the inside.” 

Alisa Bowen, president of The Walt Disney Co.’s premium streaming service Disney Plus, is known as someone who gets difficult jobs done.

“She’s been here from the beginning, from before launch [in 2019], and she’s one of the people early on that I connected with,” said Joe Earley, president, direct-to-consumer at Disney Entertainment. “She understands every aspect of the streaming business, from pricing through technology. 

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“While other people would be worried about politicking, she wanted to get stuff done,” Earley said. “We formed an early connection and recognized that while other people were distracted, we could move this forward. It’s still a great partnership today.”

Bowen embraces her get-it-done mojo. “I like to describe myself as the co-pilot, not the pilot,” she said. “My strength really comes to bear when I’m supporting a team of people on the creative side.” 

She said she’s not jealous of Disney’s creative people. “I am constantly in awe of them. I find it inspiring and I love making sure everything is in place for them to be successful.”

Meeting the Ad Challenge

Launching the ad-supported version of Disney Plus is one of Bowen’s recent achievements. “It’s now live in dozens of markets around the world, and each one of those markets has very unique regulatory environments that govern the way that we can collect data, the way we can use data and the way we can manage ad preferences from consumers,” Bowen said. “Advertising wasn’t part of the original concept of Disney Plus, so adding that in was pretty complicated. Navigating all of those local requirements added an extra layer of complexity.”

Because Disney already had ad technology from Hulu, “on day one, our capabilities were far more robust than several of our competitors who were also launching ad tiers on their streaming services at about the same time.”

When Bowen joined Disney seven years ago, she was part of an initiative to understand how and when the company would begin the transition from linear to internet protocol-delivered video.

“I think that was the first time we began to imagine what streaming could be,” she recalled. “We were so motivated to figure out the right time and strategy for charting that transition because we were observing how consumers were spending their time and how much time was now untethered from the set-top box in the living room, particularly in key markets.”

Bowen came by her streaming expertise over several stops. Born in Australia, she originally wanted to be a journalist and studied media. She started out in public relations and shifted to the business side, helping Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones and News Corp. transition from print to digital.

At The Wall Street Journal, she led the effort to offer advanced targeting capabilities for ad sales. At News Corp., her experience in managing subscriptions and setting up paywalls came to the fore.

Having spent time at News Corp. was a plus when Disney acquired assets from 21st Century Fox, another company controlled by Rupert Murdoch. “In both organizations, there’s a real premium placed on being able to collaborate across the organizational structure,” she said.

Lauren Tempest, general manager of Hulu, remembers her initial impression of Bowen was, “Wow, this woman knows her business inside and out.”

Now, she said: “Alisa just wants to get the job done. There is very little ego involved — her only requirement is that the idea or decision is the best one for the business. It does not matter where the idea came from or whose agenda it’s ultimately driving.”

Support at Home

Bowen has two teenage daughters, a benefit when working on a product like Disney Plus. Her older daughter, Emilia, is into anime and is an aspiring animator. “I love getting her input on new projects that we’re thinking about or exploring,” Bowen said.

Emilia is a big fan of Marvel’s X-Men 97, the animated series. “Its retro style is something that’s really appealed to her generation,” Bowen said. 

Her younger daughter lets her know what’s happening on social media and TikTok. “She’s the one who keeps me in touch with what the kids are talking about,” she said.

One of her daughters was born in London, the other in New York. “They were quite accomplished little world travelers until COVID hit,” Bowen said. A trip to Italy is planned this summer. “It’s the first time we’ve been out of the country together as a family since COVID, so we’re really looking forward to that.”

When Amy Reisenbach was named president of entertainment for CBS in November 2022, she brought two distinctive experience sets to the table.

First, she had spent nearly 20 years in CBS’s current department after being hired from Warner Bros. in 2005. 

“Current is like boot camp,” Reisenbach said. “I think every executive should have worked in current on the creative side; you learn so much about what makes a show work and work on CBS. The current executive assigned to the show is the showrunner’s therapist, their worst enemy, their biggest champion, all the things. Showrunners understand that my passion is always that of a TV fan and I always want to function like that first.” 

Also Read: Wonder Women of Los Angeles 2024: Honoring the West’s Best

Michelle King, creator and executive producer of Elsbeth, The Good Fight, The Good Wife and Evil, said:  “She has a couple of superpowers. She is smart about story. Her notes are on target. She’s also very honest.”

Long-Term Mindset

The second is that Reisenbach is no stranger to long-term planning, a mindset she first learned from her father, Sandy, who ran marketing at Warner Bros. and led the planning of the studio’s tentpole theatrical rollouts. She’s using that skill to set CBS up for success several years down the road. 

“When I became president of entertainment for CBS, I thought about how we could function a little more like that — thinking two to three years out,” Reisenbach said. “Longer-term planning gives us more time to develop shows differently.”

That strategy is already yielding results. Tracker, starring Justin Hartley, premiered in the plum time slot after the Super Bowl and is now primetime’s most-watched series with 20.4 million viewers tuning in across the live-plus-35-day viewing window. Elsbeth, starring Carrie Preston, is the season’s second-most watched new show (behind Tracker) and has been renewed for a second season. 

Those performances helped lead CBS to its 16th straight year as TV’s most-watched network, averaging 5.6 million viewers per evening across live-plus-seven-day viewing, according to Nielsen. 

That skill set, plus Reisenbach’s overall enthusiasm for and intimate knowledge of the project, convinced CBS president and CEO George Cheeks (now part of parent Paramount’s office of the CEO) that she was right for the job before she even knew she was applying. 

“The first time I actually got to interact with Amy was on a Zoom when she was head of current in April 2020,” Cheeks said. “My first instinct was, ‘She’s the person who should be president of entertainment for CBS.’ She has a genuine passion for our programming and a genuine respect for what we do. The more I’ve gotten to know her, the more I’ve thought she is the perfect partner.” 

CBS Studios president David Stapf and Reisenbach have worked together for more than 20 years, dating back to when she was at Warner Bros. Television. Back in the day, Stapf worked for her father. Stapf used to be her boss; today, she’s his biggest client. 

“The way that we communicate is sort of seamless,” Stapf said. “Amy is so smart and big-picture that it’s been an easy transition for me. She’s always been the sort of person, even before she was the head of current, that I and everybody went to to ask her what she thought and how she would approach things.” 

‘A Creative Collaboration’

Stapf also identified a third skill set that he said is integral to Reisenbach’s success in her current role: “The number one quality you need is empathy and kindness. We are dealing with art and artists, people who are pouring their hearts and souls into their product. We aren’t dealing with people who are just making a widget. You have to recognize that it’s a creative collaboration yet an intimate endeavor.”

More of the same is on tap for CBS later this year and next with Matlock, starring Kathy Bates; Watson, starring Morris Chestnut; and a reboot of game show Hollywood Squares, starring Drew Barrymore, all on the slate. 

“We all believe in what we are trying to do, which is put great shows on the air for a broad audience, and we’re succeeding,” Reisenbach said. “This team has come together during a really tough year, and everyone has stayed positive and had fun doing it. I believe if we have great culture in our halls, then the shows will benefit as well.” 

Janene Drafs, VP and general manager of KTLA Los Angeles, is the 2024 Multichannel News Woman of Influence, to be honored at the Wonder Women of Los Angeles celebration. The first female GM in KTLA history when she took over in 2020, Drafs oversees an extraordinary station. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KTLA airs a whopping 112 hours a week of local programming. Weekday news goes 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. After a daily talk show, it’s local news until 7 p.m., and again after The CW primetime.  

"It’s especially rewarding to  be recognized among such talented and respected women in media," Drafs said.  

Viewers have a wide array of content choices available to them on an array of platforms, but Drafs says what’s happening in their community often has the most relevance. “I came up through the business side of this industry, but I have come to love and appreciate the news side and the content side,” she said. 

With the vast majority of KTLA’s programming produced in-house, Drafs spoke about “having the most control we can at the local level,” to best serve Los Angeles viewers. 

Drafs will be toasted at the Wonder Women of Los Angeles event, June 18 at The Ebell in Los Angeles. Fifteen female executives in television, representing the best and brightest in the business, will be celebrated at the gala breakfast. In addition, LaKendra Davis Moxie, VP of fulfillment operations at Cox Communications, will be honored as The WICT Network of Southern California's Catalyst Award winner at the event.

Giselle Fernandez, Spectrum News 1 anchor, was the 2023 Woman of Influence at Wonder Women of Los Angeles. Holly Robinson Peete, actress, producer and talk show host, was the Woman of Influence in 2022, and Deborah Norville, anchor of Inside Edition, got the honor in 2021. 

Multichannel News and The WICT Network: New York honored the Wonder Women of New York class of 2024 and this year’s Woman of Influence, GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, at a gala luncheon held March 21 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan. Click below for a gallery of snapshots from the event. 

Kate Morgan is all about using data and insights to help the Magid consulting firm’s media, entertainment and games clients better serve the changing tastes, needs and desires of consumers. She leads teams in both the development and go-to-market strategy for products created around core areas of Magid expertise and in custom research and consulting work across the media ecosystem. 

What kinds of products has her team of about 40 people created? One that got a lot of attention recently is SubScape, which helps predict not only when people will unsubscribe from streaming services but why, and how to plan for and respond to different kinds of churn to grow overall subscriber base and ARPU. 

Another is called DiversityLens, which measures the audience perception of cultural authenticity and diversity across most TV shows, providing information for content creators and advertisers.

A third new product, Brand EmotionalDNA, has been rolled out in beta to help media sellers and brands find optimal emotional matches between content, brands and ads. 

Magid president and CEO Brent Magid said SubScape has not only brought in new revenue for the firm, but has demonstrably helped Magid customers address a key concern, which is maximizing customer retention and subscription income. 

At a recent industry conference, NBCUniversal co-presented with Magid on using
SubScape to improve NBCU’s projection modeling on a corporate level, to inform and prioritize investments and merger-and-acquisition decisions, he said.

“Kate has two things that are just amazing,” Magid said. “One is, she’s a brilliant person. She’s just exceedingly smart. But I think more than anything, she’s really, really good with people. She has built a team and helped us build a culture at Magid that is really outstanding. She’s just a tremendous leader, a leader of people.”

Moving Into Media

Morgan joined Magid in 2016 after working for a couple of financial hedge funds and a software publishing company. She and Brent Magid had both gone to Princeton and were introduced by Magid’s brother, who was in Morgan’s class there. Morgan said she was ready for a change to a business helping entertainment companies understand what influences customers’ decisions and make determinations based on those insights.

“In today’s environment, what makes people tick is changing a lot, particularly with the younger generation,” she said. “So what we do is even more important.”

Morgan was an English major in college and wrote her thesis on Samuel Beckett, whose works are “all about the human experience.” 

“I think now I can look back and say what’s really always compelled me and motivated me and interested me is strategy, innovation, growth and people management,” Morgan said. 

She worked for an energy company that was doing deals in Japan and helped steer it toward projects that were appropriate for the culture, such as buying a wind-energy producer. At the hedge funds, she helped visualize and explain an esoteric commodities fund to everyday investors.  

Between college and business school (Dartmouth) she lived and worked in Germany, where she worked for BMW. (She speaks German.) She has lived in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and three of her four children were born in Germany.

Morgan appreciates the cultural differences sometimes reflected in different languages. In Britain, they say “take” a decision, which feels more like “take what is offered” than the American “make” a decision, she said. In Germany, they say “meet” a decision, Morgan noted, which seems different still. 

Magid research has even helped media clients shape creative directions in programs. One medical drama found that while the viewing reach of the show had not declined, viewer engagement had. It turned out that a romance introduced in the show didn’t feel authentic. The romance was mitigated and engagement rose. “That’s one example of impact, which is really cool,” Morgan said. 

Downtime, besides being involved with her four grown children, includes yoga. “And I work out quite a bit because I’ve gotten quite into hiking,” she said. This past autumn, she did the rim-to-rim hike in the Grand Canyon in one day (“24 miles, 10,000 feet of elevation”) and a five-day hike in the hill villages of Tuscany. 

Growing up in Ohio, Adrienne Roark learned about work ethic from her mom, who ran her own personal advertising business, and her dad, who taught high school English but also operated his own roofing and insulating business in the summer, taking young Adrienne along to help. She also pitched in with cleaning up and fixing the family’s various rental properties. 

“As a kid, I would complain, but I find that to be invaluable now,” said Roark, who after two years as president, CBS Stations, was named last fall as president, content development and integration, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. She’s now responsible for bringing together the teams across these businesses to create and share content while continuing to oversee CBS-owned stations in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. “I have no problem rolling up my sleeves and doing pretty much anything. Plus, it’s really handy to be able to fix stuff.”

She found her calling all on her own. “I knew that journalism was somewhere in my future when I was a young kid for two reasons: I love to write and I’m incredibly nosy,” she said. “I would call up the aunts and the uncles and the cousins and just dig up stuff about our family and create this little newsletter by hand and then send copies to my family. My mom would say, ‘You need to stop digging up family secrets and sharing them with everybody.’  ”

Roark, a three-time regional Emmy Award winner, broadened her view beyond her family, taking journalism courses at Ohio State University and then getting an internship at WBNS Columbus. “The first time I walked into that newsroom and saw the energy of these amazingly creative and passionate and somewhat out there people who had no filter, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is where I have to be.’ ”

Roark worked her way up, setting her sights on producing and then on being a news director. “I wanted to be that person helping to shape what we’re doing and protecting and guiding the journalism,” she recalled, adding that’s what led her to move up to general manager. She realized she’d have even more power to protect her journalists and resources there. 

“If you stay on a story, you can get a law changed or make people’s lives better, but it’s a big commitment and it can be difficult, especially when economic times get hard,” she said. “You have to stick by it.” 

As Roark moved up she moved on, from Columbus to Miami, Dallas and Portland, Oregon — “I covered all the weathers,” she joked — before coming to New York to join CBS in 2021. There, she also built the “Newsroom of the Future” and last year launched CBS News Detroit, a local news organization at WWJ that was built from the ground up with a streaming-first mentality. 

Roark also continues to oversee the CBS Local News Innovation Lab in Dallas-Fort Worth, where a curated team experiments with next-generation storytelling, including data journalism, and tests new products, workflows and production models. Most recently, Roark has overseen the CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures investments in data journalism, as well as investigative and environmental reporting, including weather technology and climate coverage, in ways that benefit all of the CBS News, Stations and Media Ventures brands.

Empathetic and Tenacious

“As a leader, she’s very warm and engaging, with immense empathy but also a curiosity, which some people lose because they think they know so much,” said CBS Philadelphia (KYW-WPSG) president and general manager Kelly Frank, who got her first television job 24 years ago when Roark hired her. “She asks questions and seeks other perspectives, but then she’s decisive. That serves her well when she needs to get something done. Then she’s tenacious.”

Wendy McMahon, president and CEO, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media
Ventures, said Roark has established herself as a “game changer.” 

“She has the remarkable ability to reimagine content creation and development for the future, building our data journalism and next-generation news-gathering capabilities across CBS News, Stations and CBS Media Ventures,” McMahon said. “Her commitment to distinctive journalism and signature storytelling is unmatched.”

Roark remains passionate about journalism, even tearing up a little when she describes why. “It sounds hokey but even though people think I’m goofy, I love this business,” she said. “The world needs us. And I’ve seen the power of what we do. I really believe my job is to protect journalism so we can change the world for the better one story at a time.” 

It is an eventful time at CBS News to say the least. CBS Mornings is seeing real growth against its well-entrenched rivals on ABC and NBC. CBS News Streaming is focusing on the election with daily program America Decides and the CBS Evening News franchise “Eye on America” is expanding from a weekly segment to four nights a week and a presence throughout the CBS News and Stations portfolio. 

Overseeing it all is Ingrid Ciprián-Matthews, who was named CBS News president last August, promoted from executive VP of newsgathering. Though the competition is as fierce as it has ever been, she believes it’s an ideal time to deliver CBS News content to America. “It’s a great opportunity to not only maintain the legacy of CBS News but also create more opportunities for all of our journalists to reach many more people on every single platform,” she said.

The platforms are numerous and Ciprián-Matthews has hired a key person to streamline the blast of news coming in each day and pinpoint the ideal slot within CBS News for stories to inhabit. In February, Alturo Rhymes was named executive producer of daily news, working with newsgathering teams and producers to find the best home for their content. 

“CBS News is known for its storytelling; CBS News is known for its reporting,” she said. “We could help fuel that and organize that, reporting in a more streamlined fashion, with a daily news executive producer who can help all of our stories and our reporting funnel to all of our platforms.”

Ciprián-Matthews joined CBS News in 1993, after a run as managing editor of CNN’s New York bureau. She started at CBS as a senior producer for live segments in the morning newscast, and was also London deputy bureau chief, senior producer on the CBS Evening News, and CBS News VP of news, among other posts. 

George Cheeks, CBS president and CEO, said she is “the ideal journalist and executive to lead CBS News in this critical moment when fact-based, unbiased reporting means so much. Her unique blend of work and life experience helps infuse perspective and empathy into our coverage and culture across the division.”

CBS News and the owned stations became one division in 2021, and Ciprián-Matthews said national and local continue to work together more. Station voices will play a key role as the election season heats up, with local reporters working alongside such network figures as Ed O’Keefe, Nancy Cordes and Robert Costa, to provide insights into key issues and races from Middle America and beyond. Ciprián-Matthews mentioned “embeds” in the communities of America, “listening to people, what the issues are that matter to them, why they matter to them” and sharing those insights in both local and national broadcasts.

A Unique Perspective

Ciprián-Matthews was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the U.S. around the age of 4. That has given her a different perspective than most network news chiefs. “I look at things through a very different lens,” she said. “When I came to this country, I was not what people were used to seeing. I was not supposed to be president of CBS News. I was not supposed to be a journalist.” 

Through sheer determination she made it happen. 

Ciprián-Matthews embraces the role of mentor these days, saying it is the responsibility of everyone in a leadership position and doesn’t have to be a formal corporate role. “You mentor in your conversations, listening to someone and exchanging an idea and perhaps disagreeing with what they’re saying,” she said, “but doing so in a way that actually expands horizons.”

When Ciprián-Matthews is not running a news operation in the era of the nonstop news cycle, she unwinds with meditation before the workday, and watching British mystery series and films with her husband after work. 

Wendy McMahon, president and CEO, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, said CBS News has the right person steering the ship. “Ingrid’s editorial expertise, her depth of knowledge and sensitivity to the nuance of the subjects we cover around the globe and her impeccable news judgment make her an incredible leader,” she said. “I am also in awe of her unwavering commitment to our journalism and to the people and culture of CBS News.” 

When people hear about something thoughtful Sheereen Miller-Russell, executive VP, client partnerships and inclusive solutions at Warner Bros. Discovery, said or did, they exclaim, “That’s so Sheereen.”

Esi Eggleston Bracey, chief growth and marketing officer at Unilever, first encountered Miller-Russell at a spa in Miami. Bracey didn’t know who Miller-Russell was or that she was also there as part of former BET CEO Debra Lee’s Leading Women Defined conferences.

“She asked me a question the way only Sheereen can do,” and before you know it, they were talking about careers and Miller-Russell was sharing a meditation. “Sheereen is an extraordinary soul,” Bracey said. “She’s almost like an angel.”

Soon, they were doing business together. Bracey, who pushed to pass the CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act in California, was featured in the docuseries The Hair Tales, about Black women’s hair, executive produced by Oprah Winfrey, Tracee Ellis Ross and Michaela Angela Davis.

Miller-Russell helped get the series on Disney’s Hulu and Warner Bros. Discovery’s OWN Network, with Unilever’s Dove as a sponsor.

She also persuaded Unilever brands to support other efforts, including OWN Your Vote, the OWN Spotlight: Where Do We Go From Here?, which aired after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, and the recent premiere of The Color Purple. 

When Bracey caught COVID-19, Miller-Russell sent a package full of immune boosters. “She took the time to send me the kit,” Bracey said. “It’s so Sheereen.”

Chauncey Wesley, executive VP and managing director for activation at Mediabrands, had been on the phone negotiating a sponsorship deal for L’Oreal for weeks with Miller-Russell. Wesley went to the MTV building and asked the other woman in the elevator if she was Sheereen.

“It didn’t feel like she was a stranger,” Wesley recalled. “She felt like somebody I knew. I would say one word for Sheereen is passionate.”

When Wesley had her first child, baby items showed up via Amazon from Miller-Russell. “I didn’t ask for it. She didn’t tell me it was coming. It just showed up. That is Sheereen in a nutshell. She shows up for people.” 

A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Miller-Russell dreamed of moving to
New York and being a part of the Sex and the City, Yo! MTV Raps life.

Because of her mother’s drug abuse, she and her sister were raised by her father. While attending Wake Forest University, she got an internship at Time Inc.

Later, Miller-Russell applied for an ad sales job at MTV. “She had no experience in the television business and she was far and away my first choice,” Dan Lovinger, now president of Olympic and Paralympic Sales at NBCUniversal, said. “She listened better than anybody I’ve ever interviewed. Her follow-up, based on what she hears, is impeccable.”

Miller-Russell is the best gift-giver in the business, Lovinger said. “She’s way beyond gift-giving. She’s a gift herself.”

Learning To Be Her Best Self

Miller-Russell moved to OWN in 2016 and underwent a change in approach. Early in her career, she desperately tried to be like all the white New England men who were shaped by Madison Avenue. 

“I didn’t know how to be them; I didn’t know how to be myself in the room, either,” Miller-Russell said. “My greatest successes didn’t come until I finally stood in my truth.”

At the same time, Miller-Russell’s son asked her, “Why aren’t there little boys who look like me on TV in the shows I like?”

At that point, Miller-Russell’s superpower became “to make sure everyone feels seen,” she said.

She spoke at WBD’s 2023 upfront. “I felt so honored that [WBD chief ad sales officer] Jon Steinlauf wanted us to talk about our commitment to inclusive content monetization” and how it’s critical to have resonance with Hispanic, Black and queer audiences.

“She’s a mover and a shaker,” Steinlauf said. “Her strong suit is she is able to build relationships for our companies with marketers we’re targeting for growth or for multicultural partnerships.”

Miller-Russell was a champion for Rebuilding Black Wall Street, a series produced by Black-owned Sunwise Media that appeared on OWN. “Her efforts really are the glue that makes projects like Rebuilding Black Wall Street viable to advertisers giving opportunities beyond purely general-market content,” Sunwise founder Ri-Karlo Handy said. 

Entrepreneurs have a different perspective on life.

“I started small companies when I was a kid without realizing the path I was starting to take,” said Laura Palumbo Johnson, co-founder and executive producer at Magilla Entertainment LLC. “I feel that I have a creative side to me and a business side to me. And that seems to be what naturally led me to here.”

Where’s here, besides solidifying her status as a Wonder Woman? It’s successfully running Magilla Entertainment, along with Matthew Ostrom, co-founder and executive producer. Together they built the company — and the unscripted television genre — from the ground up over 15 years. It’s the perfect path for someone who ran a babysitting business as an 11-year-old, employing her friends.

Magilla’s portfolio features powerhouse franchises such as TLC’s Long Island Medium, Discovery’s Moonshiners and HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain Hunt.

Prior to founding Magilla, Palumbo Johnson worked for City Lights Television, a startup unscripted production company in New York. She launched their production management and gained an understanding of how a company grows and evolves to a much different size. Here, she worked on HGTV’s Don’t Sweat It and the creation of Food Network’s Chopped.

After Chopped became a hit, she transitioned to international sales and was “traveling around the globe, going to MIPCOM and seeing that side of the business,” she said. “It opened my eyes to another world, the bigger world of television, and I really loved it.”

Meanwhile, Ostrom was a VP at then-production company Original Media. He developed and produced the hit series Swamp People, Dual Survival and LA Ink.

“At the time, we had conversations about going out on our own because the synergies were there,” Palumbo Johnson said. “And then talent was recommended to us, so we hit the ground running.”

Or more accurately, they took a quick ride over the bridge to New Jersey. “We went to New Jersey together with a camera,” she said. “In a matter of weeks, we pitched [Oxygen series] Jersey Couture and sold it.” 

That marked the official start of Magilla Entertainment. 

“We both understood development intuitively,” Palumbo Johnson said. “We knew that was the root of the company. We had one show up and running and we immediately went into developing other shows. We were pitching as much as we could and that led to an opportunity with Discovery.” 

That opportunity was Moonshiners. Having two series “gave the people we were pitching to the confidence that we can pivot and that we were capable,” she said. 

By the end of its first year in business, Magilla was developing what turned out to be Long Island Medium. More than a decade later, these franchises are what Palumbo Johnson called reliable IP. She noted that content fatigue has set it for many viewers and it’s why they return to the classics of unscripted TV.

Lead by Assisting Others 

There are certain people who are natural-born leaders. “Laura is the ultimate powerhouse,” Ostrom said. “She’s charming, nice, but also a badass. She has a great business mind, is extremely creative and a born leader.

“Laura is building the infrastructure around us,” he continued. “She is the nuts and bolts of the company and makes sure the lights stay on. Magilla is so much stronger because of her.” 

Palumbo Johnson makes it a point to mentor as well as contribute to industry organizations. She’s a member of New York Women in Film & Television; is on the executive committee of NPACT, the trade association for nonfiction TV producers; and has participated in the Propelle accelerator program. Administered by Realscreen in partnership with Everywoman Studios, Propelle helps develop the careers of up-and-coming female creators. 

Creators gain access to an established production company and a network of industry contacts, while learning how to develop ideas so they are pitch-ready and saleable. 

“I’m working with one specific mentee,” Palumbo Johnson said. “We brought her ideas through to a pitchable phase. I worked with her on what we thought could be a saleable concept.”

Palumbo Johnson, wife and mom to two middle schoolers, noted that television is a tough industry. Oftentimes someone has great ideas and great talent but they don’t know where to go with it. Luckily, she is there to assist. 

When Stephanie Dorman joined Mediaocean to run its client support team, the company was a small software startup called MediaBank. “We were maybe not as professional as we needed to be to support some of these large agency customers that we’d won,” Nick Galassi, Mediaocean president and chief financial officer, recalled.

That wasn’t the last problem she would fix. After MediaBank merged with Donovan Data Systems to become Mediaocean, Dorman served in senior client-facing roles for 10 years before she reluctantly agreed to run the combined company’s human resources department.

”We’d done some big acquisitions and they weren’t going super well,” Galassi said. “We were having personnel issues. She put the needs of the business first and she did an awesome job with it. She got everything working again. People love working for her.”

Once the HR department was running smoothly, Dorman moved from chief people officer to chief customer officer, which made her the main point of contact for all of its major agency holding companies. “Stephanie’s had a number of different roles at Mediaocean and she’s excelled at all of them,” Galassi said.

Dorman grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, and (Roll Tide!) went to the University of
Alabama. After the pandemic, she moved back down south to be near her family.

She said she was never one to make five-year plans. “I knew what I didn’t want to be,” Dorman said. “I didn’t want to be lazy. I didn’t want to be poor. I didn’t want to be alone. And I didn’t want to be in a position where other things dictated the choices I needed to make.”

After college she wound up on Wall Street. A former supervisor moved to Yahoo’s Right Media startup and asked her to join him.

Bill Wise, the CEO of Right Media, left to start Media Bank. About a year later, he called, and she’s been there ever since.

Dorman won over Kevin McEvilly, senior VP for technology at ad agency Canvas Worldwide, with an unusual plan to use a special team to onboard the agency rather than the team that would support the agency.

“I was skeptical, but by the time it was done, I was a fan of the approach, but a larger fan of hers,” McEvilly said. “Her personality got me over the hump and then the outcome was really very solid. That personality starts with humor, but “we work at what needs to get done,” he said.

It’s part of the way Dorman is overseeing the transformation of client service at Mediaocean, including the implementation of artificial intelligence as a way to let employees focus on providing bespoke services instead of answering basic questions.

Lisa Painter, senior director, executive experiences at Zendesk, called Dorman “one of our favorite customers.”

It didn’t start that way. After installing Zendesk’s software, Dorman was furious about the service Mediaocean received and emailed Zendesk’s chief customer officer and chief technology officer, saying she wanted out of their contract. On the very same day Zendesk went public and rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, its management sent Painter to address Dorman’s issues.

“She did a great job,” Dorman said. “She has a talent for bringing people together.”

Dorman became one of the founding members of Mindshare, an executive community started by Painter for Zendesk clients that has grown to about 500 people. “A lot of people look up to her,” Painter said. “She’s really articulate. She’s also a very straight shooter.”

Leading the Way for Women

Adina Salah, senior VP, corporate operations at Mediaocean, said that when she started at the company, she was “struck by the positive spirit that [Dorman] exudes as a leader and a woman executive.”

Dorman has been “a game changer,” Salah said. “The amount of women leaders has grown within the company and they have a voice when critical things are happening.” 

Dorman has a son, four stepkids, two grandkids and a beagle named Charlie. Her husband is opening a cabinet store and Alabamans are charmed by his British accent.

What’s next for Dorman? She said she’s in the process of trying to become a board director of a company or two in their early stages of operation or a nonprofit. “I’d prefer to work on something very different from what I’m working on today, where I feel like an outside perspective can bring a lot of help and growth.”

She’s leaning on some of her own mentors to help her prepare her board portfolio. “I just did my resume for the first time in 16 years,” she said. 

The year may only be a few months old, but GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis already has a lot to celebrate.

Ellis, who will be presented with the 2024 Woman of Influence award as part of the Multichannel News Wonder Women of New York celebration on March 21, recently marked her 10th anniversary as the head of the nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy group. Her efforts in leading the organization’s charge to create initiatives, campaigns and programs pushing for the fair and accurate media coverage of the LGBTQ community earned GLAAD the TV Academy’s 2023 Governors Award during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on January 15. 

Yet the former Condé Nast and Time Inc. executive and married mother of two teenage children has no plans to sit on her laurels. Ellis and GLAAD were set to honor Oprah Winfrey and Niecy Nash-Betts during the organization’s 35th annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles on March 14, the first of two awards ceremonies for the
nonprofit. The second will take place in New York on May 11. 

Ellis will also continue to guide GLAAD’s mandate for greater inclusion in media through the GLAAD Media Institute, which was established in 2018 to foster the organization’s research into LGBTQ representation and acceptance. 

GLAAD will also look to expand LGBTQ advocacy efforts more aggressively into the social media and gaming platforms, in an effort to make sure that all media offer a true and accurate representation of the LGBTQ and transgender communties, Ellis said. 

Ahead of the Wonder Women of New York awards luncheon March 21 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan, Ellis talked about her goals for GLAAD, her accomplishments and disappointments through her decade-long tenure, and why her family life means that she takes her work personally. Here’s an edited transcript of that conversation. 

MCN: Over the past decade, how far has the entertainment industry come in terms of its acceptance and inclusion of the LGBTQ community? 

Sarah Kate Ellis: I think our role with media — whether it be TV shows or streaming or journalism — has gone from a watchdog to more of a partnership as the culture has changed. We’ve moved into more of a partnership with the media. I’ll also say that as new forms of media, like social media, have grown and evolved, we’ve taken on more watchdog roles. So with traditional media, including streaming, I would say that our relationship has grown in a positive direction. With other, newer platforms, we’ve had to take more of a watchdog advisory role in those spaces. 

MCN: With that, has GLAAD changed its focus on the audience it wants to reach? 

SKE: What never changes is our audience, and our audience has consistently been what is “the movable middle,” those folks who understand the humanity of our community but might not have the education or information about our community. How we reach them has changed dramatically. We’ve also shifted our focus more toward the transgender community. About 90% of Americans say they know somebody who’s lesbian or gay or bisexual, but only 30% of Americans say they know somebody who is transgender. So our focus has shifted in a way around transgender and nonconforming folks, and helping to educate people about who they are as their visibility has grown through TV, theater and on video games and other various media platforms. 

MCN: Last month, GLAAD was honored with the Television Academy’s Governor’s Award at the Emmys. What did that recognition mean to you personally and to the organization? 

SKE: We’re going to be 40 years old next year, so that was a true recognition for what our founders set out to do, which was to increase the visibility of the LGBTQ community through television. And so to be recognized by the Television Academy with their Governor’s Award was a full-circle moment for the organization. And personally, having spent the last 10 years at the organization and making it a bigger partner with Hollywood by increasing storytelling, it was, for me, a moment of real validation.

MCN: During your acceptance speech, you said that GLAAD’s advocacy efforts are personal to you and your family. How does your work at GLAAD influence and gratify you on a personal level? 

SKE: For me, I came to GLAAD when my kids were 4. Being married to a woman and bringing kids into this world, I thought it was my duty to create a better tomorrow and protect my family. In my opinion, there is no better place to do that than GLAAD and all of the work that the organization does. So for me, it’s been personal since day one of accepting the job, and it’s why I accepted the job. One of our rally cries at GLAAD is, ‘it’s personal,’ and for everyone at the organization, it means the world to us to be able to do the work that we’re doing to protect our community and advance acceptance for our community. 

MCN: What has been your biggest accomplishment during your 10 years at GLAAD?

SKE: I would say creating the GLAAD Media Institute, because that has enabled us to scale our work in an unprecedented way and has increased our impact tremendously. The institute works as an adviser for Fortune 500 companies, all the major gaming companies and the major studios. We’re embedded in over a dozen Hollywood projects at any given time. Through the institute, we do a TV report and recently released our gaming report. So it’s a consultancy, a think tank and an advocacy arm on the ground, both local and globally, where we work with LGBTQ activists. 

MCN: How about your biggest disappointment? 

SKE: I think the backlash we’ve seen recently has been the biggest disappointment. When I started at GLAAD we didn’t have marriage equality yet, and pretty quickly after we were able to achieve that. To think that all of the accomplishments we had made in becoming a more equal, just and accepting society are now so fragile. How quickly they are being rolled back is my biggest disappointment. 

(Editor’s note: Ellis later said she was referring to recent state legislation and local and federal court rulings she said were harmful to LGBTQ people and other diverse communities, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, rulings on voting rights and more than 500 state-level anti-LGBTQ bills introduced last year, as well as to the group’s effort to mobilize to pass the federal Respect for Marriage Act after conservative Supreme Court justices signaled a potential rollback of rulings affirming the legality of same-sex marriage.) 

MCN: What goals have you set for yourself and GLAAD in 2024? 

SKE: We have some strategic initiatives set for next year. One of them has been really focusing on the gaming industry. No. 2 is our work on the election. We want to work through the media to make sure that it is accountable and to make sure that the candidates are being asked LGBTQ questions, and that any kind of LGBTQ conversations that come up are accurate and real and not misinformative. We also want to ensure that every LGBTQ person that’s eligible is registered to vote and has a plan to go to vote. We’ve been doing that work since 2018 and it’s been incredibly successful. 

I would say third is making sure that trans stories are being told across the board. We’re on the ground now in Oklahoma where there was the beating death of a young, gender-nonconforming person named Nex. [Nex Benedict, a nonbinary 16-year-old student, died February 8 after they were beaten up in a women’s room at their high school in Owasso, Oklahoma, according to published reports.]  

The negative forces against our community have grown and been emboldened, especially over the past six to seven years. The use of media platforms to distribute misinformation and disinformation about our community and targeting our community has led to an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation that we’ve never seen the likes of. We want to make sure that Nex’s story is being told, and that the world sees the culture that’s being created by anti-LGBTQ activists and what it’s doing to our youth. 

On the softball diamond, every player faces the batter except the catcher, who looks out at all the action, taking a broader view of the game. Young Lucilla D’Agostino played catcher on her high-school varsity team. 

“My stepfather helped me understand that the catcher was calling the shots and because I saw everything and could position players, I could help everyone on the field realize their potential and see how we could all win together,” said D’Agostino, one of unscripted television’s leading creatives and producers, with credits across virtually every content genre, including documentary, docusoap, lifestyle, and competition. Last summer, she was named head of both Evolution Media and Big Fish Entertainment (both MGM companies), overseeing creative strategy, original programming and development and leveraging intellectual property for growth across different platforms. 

“I still feel that’s my job,” she said. “If I see talent in someone and put them in the right gig I’ll make a warrior out of that person.”

D’Agostino grew up in rural New Jersey, loving writing. Fantasizing about being a war correspondent, she studied broadcast journalism at Syracuse University. Being on camera early in her career, though, changed her mind. 

“I was so insecure,” she recalled. “When they told me I needed to cut my hair, I called my mother crying. She said: ‘You are not meant for this. Don’t you love plugging everything in?’ She meant I was good at putting things together. ‘Just do that, then you won’t cry.’ ”

Putting things together and plugging them in is another good metaphor for D’Agostino’s work. In her new role, she’s now heading up two companies with properties including Evolution’s Vanderpump Rules and Real Housewives. She had previously produced The Real Housewives of New Jersey for Sirens Media. 

D’Agostino, who splits her time between her Brooklyn home and Los Angeles hotels, joined Big Fish in 2018 as its first chief creative officer and co-president. While she strives to ensure the folks at Evolution know “I’m not here to mess with your culture; I’m here to be your cheerleader,” she does intend to keep pushing both companies in new directions. “There’s such a compression in our business and wins are fewer and far between,” she said. “The status quo won’t get us where we need to go. We have to adapt.”

Adaptable Across Genres

D’Agostino has varied enough experience to adapt. She has executive produced such series as Amy Schumer Learns To Cook, A White House Thanksgiving With First Lady Jill Biden, History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne and On Patrol: Live, as well as documentaries and other series for networks such as Discovery, National Geographic and Bravo. 

“Some people have a skill set as a showrunner but not as a businessperson or the other way around but she does both well,” Barry Poznick, the MGM Alternative general manager to whom she reports, said. “She is thoughtful and mindful of people — crews love working with her — but she doesn’t waste time and is always aware of budgets and deadlines. She can walk into any room, whether it’s the White House or a Housewives house, and get you exactly what you need.”

In an era before reality TV flourished, D’Agostino went through her own evolution. She started doing satellite video news releases. She worked with Dan Cesareo, who would later launch Big Fish and bring her aboard, making content on a nonexistent budget.

“We were the producers, the writers, the shooters, the editors,” she said. “We used to pool our money and sit on the curb and share a sandwich.”

A job creating content for Sony Music on the lives of pop icons like Britney Spears and Destiny’s Child also required her to be producer, camera operator and editor, creating graphics and picking the music. The job was “wildly gratifying” and those years are “the secret to my success,” she said. 

“I understand the business from every angle,” she said. “I can break down a budget and know the grip is going to want an extra set of hands because I would have if I had that many lights. I see things holistically.”

While she has done it all, she doesn’t know it all. “I’m the type of leader that’s quite pleased to admit that I don’t know everything,” D’Agostino said. “If I have something to learn, that means I’m still growing.” 

As chief marketing officer of AMC Networks, Kim Granito must seamlessly oversee multiple disparate brands under one overall umbrella. AMC is focused on premier franchise scripted originals like The Walking Dead and the Anne Rice universe, while streaming service Acorn TV offers international dramas. Then there are anime streaming service Hidive and horror, thriller and supernatural streaming service Shudder, which each have their own sets of fans.

“There’s not a one-size-fits-all audience,“ Granito said. “Each brand is highly nuanced and very specifically tailored to the audience and their behaviors.

“Gone are the days when you show up on a specific day and date to watch a show,” she continued. “There are real advantages for businesses who understand their audiences in a very complex and data-driven way, while also showing up with one voice and the same message across business verticals. We are massively focused on creating campaigns that don’t only drive our audiences to watch our shows, but advertisers to buy and distributors to reach their goals.” 

Understanding that data and implementing strategies to take advantage of those learnings is part of what makes Granito a great marketer and leader, her colleagues said.

“Kim has a fantastic ability to transform large amounts of raw data into compelling, targeted performance campaigns, expertly balancing data-driven precision with the power of branding and strong creative,” AMC Networks chief commercial officer Kim Kelleher said.  

Granito also leads her teams through difficult tasks while maintaining high levels of collaboration between them.

“Kim can distill the most complex business challenges into winning strategies, pairing that superpower with an incredible creative sensibility and deep empathy for people,” AMC Networks executive VP of media and marketing strategy Sylvia George said.

Added Kelleher: “Kim’s leadership style is collaborative and caring — no one knows better how to get incredible work out of a team.”

Less than a year into the job as CMO, Granito has worked to unify AMC Networks’ entire marketing organization while retaining oversight over its branded integrations shop, Content Room, where “brands meet fans.”

“Kim faced the daunting task of unifying multiple talented but disconnected groups into one seamless team, moving to the same drumbeat and activating the full power of AMC Networks and its many partners to develop innovative campaigns,” George said. “She’s done this time and time again, including rallying the entire organization around reinvigorating the cornerstone franchise for the company — The Walking Dead Universe — with celebrated and highly successful campaigns for the new spinoff series: Dead City, Daryl Dixon and now The Ones Who Live.”

Right before Super Bowl weekend, Granito and her team were in Los Angeles for the red-carpet premiere of the latest Walking Dead franchise, The Ones Who Live, starring Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira in their much-anticipated return as Rick Grimes and Michonne.

“With everything we have launched, this is arguably the most anticipated moment of the franchise since The Walking Dead series finale,” Granito said.

Also coming up is AMC original series Parish, starring Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul alum Giancarlo Esposito, and the critically acclaimed Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, which shoots in New Orleans, returns this spring. 

“We have a lot of fun tactics for Interview with the Vampire that we’ll be launching around Pride in June,” Granito said. “The Anne Rice IP offers dozens of stories that we think will have real longevity across all our platforms.” Previous marketing efforts for Interview with the Vampire included the online branded Night Market, which is only open for shopping from sunset to sunrise. 

Making Acorn Ripen

The team also is rebranding streaming service Acorn TV, which mostly serves up U.K. and internationally-produced crime dramas, “because we believe there’s a broader audience for that platform,” Granito said. In January, Acorn gained visibility with five-episode limited series Monsieur Spade starring Clive Owen. That series also airs on AMC and streaming service AMC Plus.

“Because it’s a gorgeous scripted original, AMC was the right home for it,” Granito said. “But because it also offers layers of crime and drama and lean-in for the audience, something we know Acorn fans really love, it made sense to co-premiere it there. It’s one of our top-performing shows on AMC and it’s driven significant subscribers to Acorn.” 

All of the different requirements of AMC’s diverse brands make for a challenging and ever-changing role, but Granito relishes it.

“I love the process of creative collaboration,“ she said. “It’s my favorite part of the job. I love getting different areas of the business together, understanding everybody’s goals and breaking that down into a campaign that works for everyone. To get to be the orchestrator of great campaigns is a dream.” 

Taking a step back helped Kavita Vazirani take a giant leap forward to advocate for others.

Since 2022, Vazirani has led The Walt Disney Co.’s integrated research and insights team, supporting all media and entertainment distribution businesses and functions across the Disney Entertainment Group. Where she started, though, was as a research manager for Comcast Cable. Early on, Vazirani said, Comcast lacked infrastructure, and it was exciting to help build a Media Sciences Group that fueled a data-driven approach to media spend and predictive modeling to forecast outcomes. 

She was responsible for strategy development, planning and placement of more than $1.5 billion in paid or owned media across Comcast’s portfolio and rose to senior VP of media strategy and sciences.

“I loved the company and the culture,” Vazirani said of Comcast. “It was a big company, but still had that entrepreneurial feel.” 

In 2013, Comcast completed its acquisition of NBCUniversal and Vazirani became NBCU’s executive VP of insights and measurement. 

Vazirani focused on aligning NBCUniversal’s research, insights and measurement capabilities across all of the media company’s platforms and partnerships. She oversaw measurement and research initiatives across marketing and agency partners beyond traditional viewing patterns.

COVID-19’s Silver Lining

Then the COVID-19 lockdown changed everything. 

“I have three children. One has Down syndrome, and it was especially challenging to do virtual school with her,” Vazirani said.

Though her husband is a stay-at-home dad, the lockdown took a toll on the whole family. At the same time, the industry she worked in for decades was in a state of disruption.

“I was spending a ton of time at work, even though it was from home,” she said. “And I’m watching my husband try to do seventh grade with our daughter while our two other children are in their bedrooms in virtual classrooms.”

She said she felt overwhelmed with everything. 

Over the years while mentoring others, there’s talk of work/life balance. Now it applied to her and Vazirani shared great advice she received from a friend: “There’s a lot of balls you juggle,” she said. “The one that’s your family is made of glass and when you drop it, it will break. The other balls will bounce back. That advice stood out in my head.” 

Vazirani made the difficult decision to take a break from work and focus on her family’s needs. 

After six months at home, she took on consulting projects and connected with former colleague Debra OConnell, who is now president, News Group and Networks at Disney Entertainment. So, when a role at Disney opened up, Vazirani was ready and OConnell became her boss. 

“Kavita is one of the most strategic thinkers in the research and insights area,” OConnell said. “Her ability is not limited to simply viewing and analyzing this field as it is, but also discerning how this data may evolve in a changing industry and recognizing opportunities to work holistically across teams to achieve results.”

In addition to her role leading a modern integrated research and insights team, Vazirani runs the Disney Entertainment Group’s DE&I Council.

“Kavita is the type of person who is always thinking about other people, and how we can all work together to make the world a better place,” OConnell said. “It’s that kindness and thoughtfulness that makes her an incredible leader and the natural choice to lead our DE&I team.”

Advocating for Others

Vazirani was born in India, lived in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. to attend college. Her life’s journey and her family’s path make her a strong advocate for inclusion.

She supported women through mentor programs. She’s passionately dedicated to her local Down syndrome parenting groups, working tirelessly to help parents who are expecting a child, engage school districts and create a strong community for families.

“I always think about, how do we create opportunities for new thinking?” she said.

The brief career break was a move that would have scared many, but not Vazirani. It allowed her to focus on her family while positioning her to jump into a challenging new role stronger than ever. 

Multichannel News on March 21 is set to honor another group of 15 exceptional women executives at the annual Wonder Women of New York luncheon at Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom. 

The Wonder Women awards, a key fixture on the media calendar since 1999, honor excellence among women leaders in media businesses including programming and operations, streaming, marketing, advertising and technology. MCN’s luncheon partner once again is the New York chapter of the WICT Network.

In addition to the 15 Wonder Women honorees, the luncheon will also recognize Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, as the 2024 Woman of Influence. Ellis has led the 39-year-old, nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy group since 2014, overseeing the organization's initiatives, campaigns and programs toward the goal of fair and accurate coverage of the LGBTQ community. Among Ellis’s most influential achievements is the 2018 establishment of the GLAAD Media Institute, which focuses on research into LGBTQ representation and acceptance.

Hosts for the 2024 event are Victoria Arlen, host and reporter, ESPN; Kristine Johnson, host and anchor, WCBS New York; and Natasha Verma, anchor, WNYW (Fox 5) New York. 

For more on the Wonder Women of New York event, visit mcnwonderwomen.com. 

For more on this year’s honorees, click through to the profiles linked below:

2024 Wonder Women of New York

• Ingrid Ciprián-Matthews, President, CBS News
• Lucilla D’Agostino, Head of Evolution Media and Big Fish Entertainment, Amazon/MGM Cos.
• Stephanie Dorman, Chief Customer Officer, Mediaocean
• Kim Granito, Chief Marketing Officer, AMC Networks
• Barbara Maushard, Senior VP of News, Hearst Television
• Sheereen Miller-Russell, Executive VP, Ad Sales, Client Partnerships and Inclusive Solutions, Warner Bros. Discovery
• Kate Morgan, Chief Product Officer, Executive VP, Global Media Entertainment and Games, Magid
• Laura Palumbo Johnson, Co-Founder and Executive Producer, Magilla Entertainment
• Gina Reduto, Executive VP, Strategy, Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal
• Adrienne Roark, President, Content Development and Integration, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures
• Noga Rosenthal, General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer, Ampersand
• Tina Thornton, Executive VP, Creative Studio and Marketing, ESPN
• Kavita Vazirani, EVP of Research, Insights and Analytics, Disney Entertainment, News Group and Networks, The Walt Disney Co.
• Adriana Waterston, Executive VP and Insights & Strategy Lead, Horowitz Research division, MARC Research
• Lindsey Woodland, Group VP of Client Data Science, 605 and iSpot.tv

2024 New York Woman of Influence

• Sarah Kate Ellis, President & CEO, GLAAD

Lindsey Woodland, group VP of client data service at 605 and iSpot.tv, majored in math because she likes solving puzzles. “I still do math today,” said Woodland, who has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Woodland thought she would be a teacher or professor. “After grad school, I realized that you can teach at any job,” she said. “When you lead a department or a team, you’re teaching them as you go, so it’s applicable in most careers.”

Woodland used math to come up with a solution to one of the television industry’s toughest questions: How well is my advertising working?

She started to address that question after one of her professors suggested she go to work for Prognos, which specialized in projecting sales for consumer packaged goods based on pricing and promotion. Prognos was acquired by Antuit.ai, a big data solutions business.

Woodland moved to 605, Kristin Dolan’s analytics company, in 2017 and got more involved in analyzing television and advertising. 

“I felt like at my old company, we solved a lot of the math problems we were working on,” she recalled. 605 was a startup company that was planning to grow and offered more opportunities for creativity and personal career growth.

Woodland dug into the attribution issue. She found a lot of the solutions available at the time weren’t very sophisticated and did the math that proved to be the basis for 605’s attribution product, called 605 Impact. 

Woodland said she used modeling and machine learning to calculate how clients’  advertising was performing and provide that information quickly enough for clients to adjust campaigns. She also created visualizations, making the data easier to picture.

“She’s really been the leading light when it comes to product innovation,” Tom Keaveney, president of 605, said. “The most noteworthy thing she’s done is when we talk about how ad dollars work.”

The 605 Impact product is one reason why iSpot.tv decided to buy 605 last year.

Figuring out the impact ad dollars have on various aspects of consumer behavior can be complex, and if clients don’t buy in the best data goes to naught.

But Woodland can do something many other data scientists can’t. “What makes her particularly special is the people skills that she has, and in particular that ability to make complex topics understood at any level,” Keaveney said. “And no academic qualification is going to give you that. That’s something you either have or you don’t have.”

605 sends her to speak at conferences and to explain to clients what the research says, the methodology involved and which strategies and options they should pursue.

Juan Solana, global director, measurement, advanced analytics and performance-driven marketing at General Motors, first worked with Woodland when he was with Walmart. When he moved to GM, 605 and Woodland “was one of the first vendors I brought on board in order to understand better the impact of TV on foot traffic,” he said. “She’s a very good translator between business and data science.”

Keaveney said Woodland’s people skills are valuable inside the company as well. “She nurtures her team,” he said. “They all adore her. She builds incredible loyalty, but also she’s very much focused on advancing them. I’ve seen her organization and I see a whole bunch of mini Lindseys coming through.”

Woodland also develops herself, asking to understand the company’s profit and loss statement and its strategy going forward. “This is somebody who can achieve a huge amount,” Keaveney said. 

A Positive Presence

On top of that, “she’s just a good person to have around,” he added. “When she walks into the office, she just lifts everyone’s spirit. She always has a smile on her face.”

Since becoming part of iSpot, Woodland has become the 605er with the most visibility across the organization, according to Keaveney. “A lot of that is because she really felt we could do better together.”

“We now have access to our combined companies’ data, which is pretty great,” Woodland said.

Woodland has been playing golf with her family since she was a kid and was on the varsity team at her Division III school. Her people skills may not include the rule that you don’t beat clients on the links.

“I’ve heard that, but it’s hard,” she said. “Do you really want to let them win? I don’t know.”

Long before the words diversity, equity and inclusion were staples in the media business, Adriana Waterston was enlisting the power of research, insights and data to educate executives about underserved opportunities and advocate for underserved audiences.

“Doing right by these communities,” she said, “is where I feel my calling is.”

That calling came after Waterston — who had early ambitions of a career in front of the camera and studied theater at Brandeis University, alongside Debra Messing — took a job at Horowitz Research, the firm founded by her sister and brother in-law, in what she thought was a stepping-stone role. She never left. 

“I discovered research and a passion for what we do, which is so fundamental to every aspect of entertainment and, by extension, culture,” Waterston said. “The media industry in and of itself is a critical piece of culture. What we put on screen, and what we deliver to consumers every single day, changes minds and changes hearts.”

Defining moments punctuate Waterston’s decades-long career. She received the CTAM TAMI Award for multicultural marketing in 2005, and more recently the Rafael Eli Pioneer in Hispanic Television Award, which she accepted on behalf of Horowitz Research at the 2023 Hispanic Television Summit. 

“Awards are most often given to high-profile ‘movers and shakers’ from major media and telecommunications companies,” said Joe Schramm, managing partner/president of Schramm Marketing Group. “It’s less often we get to celebrate the women from the smaller firms that also have made important contributions to our industry. Adriana is one of those.

“Adriana’s work has had a tremendous influence on the cable TV industry through the research and insights she and the Horowitz team deliver to their cable clients,” he added. “In turn, those clients apply these insights in their programming, marketing and branding strategies.”

Among the most salient defining moments for Waterston was the first time, in the early 2000s, when she realized the power to elevate her work from her own lived experience as a Latina born and raised in Puerto Rico.

“It was the first attempt at doing groups that included Spanish-language groups, Hispanic-descent groups, and it became evident to me that using my experiences as a launching point to advocate for the consumers we were serving was really powerful,” she said.

Changing the Narrative

She shepherded the Horowitz Cultural Insights Forum, a pioneering event with a strategy focus, designed to educate cable companies and networks about the value of investing in multicultural content and communities. It grew from a small group to nearly 400 attendees at its last gathering in 2018 — driving a data-backed narrative that changed the early cable roadmap and continues to spur inclusive decision-making for both on-screen representation in storytelling and in the workforce.

“Every year, every data set, the ones who were most likely to pay, the people who were most excited about the technology, were Black, Latinx, Asian and other multicultural groups,” she said. “And those were the years when cable was being heavily redlined. All the inner cities, all the Black neighborhoods — people were not laying cable in those areas and the rationale was, ‘These people don’t have enough money to pay for entertainment services.’ It couldn’t have been further from the truth.”

While the pendulum is swinging in the right direction, Waterston said the industry still has a way to go in combatting structural inequities. The solutions aren’t always clear-cut. 

“It’s not a question of whether the DE&I department or executive should be there,” Waterston said. “What I’m asking is, where’s the commitment to DE&I in all aspects of the organization? Where is the support for creators of color, what pipeline do you have to bring that type of talent in? If you look at your staff at all levels and see diversity, then you’re doing well. But if without the DE&I practice you don’t see that, then you’re failing.”

Horowitz last year was acquired by MARC Research, where Waterson now serves as executive VP, insights & strategy for the Horowitz Research division. She’s excited to bring her expertise in multicultural insights to clients in other verticals, while never straying far from her first love.

“My heart is still with what we do here in the media space,” she said. “I’m so passionate about storytelling and seeing the people that are my research subjects come to life on television or on the big screen. It’s so rewarding.” 

With primary season heating up and the monumental election looming in November, the reporters and anchors at Hearst Television stations are hustling to cover the key issues, and candidates, in their communities. Barbara Maushard manages news operations for the 35 Hearst TV stations, which include WBAL Baltimore, WCVB Boston and KCRA Sacramento. Maushard expects the Hearst TV stations to provide the most timely, relevant and accurate reportage in their markets. 

“Local journalism, any journalism, is hard today,” she said. “And I’m just so proud that they continue to deliver really relevant, meaningful content in these markets and provide that service that we are required to provide, but that everybody has a real passion for.”

While every news operation in the Hearst group has its own issues and stories to cover, a couple of group-wide initiatives give the local newsgatherers some common ground. Forecasting Our Future was launched late in 2021 and addresses the issues people face in navigating changing weather patterns and their impact on communities. The stories come from stations, Hearst TV’s Washington bureau and its national investigative and consumer reporting units. Around 120 meteorologists contribute their research and observations to the mission. 

Stories include WESH Orlando’s investigation into how coral reefs damaged by climate change recover and WLKY Louisville’s report on a renewable natural gas plant in Southern Indiana that is turning garbage into energy.

“We really think that effort is critical, not only to the day-in and day-out weather coverage we provide, but to help viewers understand the impact of the weather and the climate in those individual communities,” Maushard said.

Another group initiative is Project CommUNITY, which covers the issues that divide the nation and the efforts to unite communities. Stories include WVTM Birmingham’s “Women Breaking Barriers” series; KETV Omaha hosting and airing a Teen Summit in 2023 that brought teenagers in to talk about key issues; and WBAL hosting a panel in 2020 to address and improve race relations. 

All Politics Is Local

All Hearst TV newsgatherers are also focused on election coverage. Hearst TV has  partnerships with factcheck.org as well as PolitiFact, both ensuring that viewers get fact-based reporting. Maushard called fact-checking in the era of deepfakes and disinformation “more important than ever.”

As much as the presidential race gets the big headlines, Maushard noted that every market has key issues surrounding local elections, too. “The presidential race is important, is critical and we’re going to be covering that,” she said. “But every state has something. Every community has something that they’ll be focusing on.”

Jordan Wertlieb, Hearst executive VP and chief operating officer, said Maushard is “absolutely tireless” in thinking how to improve local content. 

Before moving up to corporate, she had been news director at KHBS-KHOG
Fort Smith-Fayetteville, Arkansas; WISN Milwaukee; and WESH Orlando. Wertlieb said Maushard was a logical choice to slide into a larger leadership position in New York. 

“I describe her as one of those great athletes who move into management and just excel because they understand the playing field so well,” he said. 

Most of Maushard’s mentors early in her career were men and she’s eager to fulfill that role for aspiring female employees in the Hearst TV newsrooms. She is an executive sponsor of Hearst TV’s Employee Resource Group, and proudly shared that more women are running Hearst TV news operations than men: 16 females and 13 males. She hopes she can inspire more women to move up to leadership positions. 

“I absolutely want to be as active and as helpful as I can be to women, and to men,” she said. “To anybody who wants to grow in this business.”

When she’s not working, Maushard enjoys family time, including quality time with her 11-year-old son. She also enjoys singing and had planned to learn piano after retiring, then decided there was no reason not to learn it sooner. 

“I’ve been playing for the last few weeks, and I think I might be able to do it,” Maushard said. “I won’t be a concert pianist, but I might be able to play some songs. I’m super-excited about that.” 

For Tina Thornton, executive VP, Creative Studio and marketing at ESPN, leadership means service. “One of my reports has always called me a servant leader,” she said. “I think my leadership style revolves around listening, learning and not trying to be the smartest person in the room.”

Thornton emphasizes creating trust and collaboration. 

“Tina brings an intentionality around collaboration,” ESPN executive VP, programming and acquisitions Rosalyn Durant said. “Tina lives it and she’s known for it. She thinks about ways she can bring people along and have everyone feel like they’re a part of the same team. I don’t think our teams have ever worked more closely together than they do now. We are intentional about that.” 

Collaboration can be difficult to achieve across departments in large organizations, but Thornton focuses on it.

“I really do try to set a vision and goals for my collective team and I prioritize collaboration amongst my teams,” she said. “Collaboration and trust are extremely important to me.” 

Thornton’s emphasis on empathy, trust and collaboration gives her reports freedom to express themselves and try new things.

“Under Tina’s leadership, we’ve been given the gift of being able to show up as our full selves and give that permission to others,” Carrie Brzezinski-Hsu, senior VP, ESPN Creative Studio, said. “Tina has a unique ability to rise above her purview and lead as a neutral party, across the organization, to coach multiple divisions and leaders to collaborate and solve challenges more effectively.” 

“Tina’s leadership is unrivaled,” agreed Celia Kelly Bouza, VP, ESPN Next and social production. “Working with her, I’ve had a front-row seat to see what it means to be a transparent leader first and foremost. She also knows how to identify talent and push them outside of their comfort zone.” 

That includes Kelly Bouza, who has worked closely with Thornton over the years, advising her as a producer when Thornton was leading content operations and advising her in developing ESPN’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) strategy. 

“One of the things we are most proud of was the town halls we ran in which we created some courageous conversations and brought leaders together to talk about their experience,” Kelly Bouza said. “Tina was really a proponent of bringing people together to have hard conversations. She encouraged all of us to be our authentic selves.”

Thornton is a rarity in the industry, having spent her entire career in one place. She started at ESPN as a production assistant after interning at CNN and Turner in college. Almost 31 years later, she’s still there, leading and thriving. 

Most of her years at ESPN were spent producing and storytelling, with Thornton moving up through the production ranks until she was named VP, production and multimedia sponsorship integration and management operations in 2014. In that role, she also oversaw ESPN Next, a program that helps develop early-career production assistants into next-generation leaders. Less than a year after being named to that position, she was promoted to senior vice president. Three years later, in July 2018, she was named senior VP and chief of staff to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro. 

In December 2020, Thornton was named head of content operations and creative surround. Less than a year ago, in June 2023, she took her current role, adding marketing to her portfolio for the first time after executive VP, marketing Laura Gentile departed. 

A Versatile Player

“She’s not afraid to try new things,” Durant said. “Look at the variety of roles she’s had across the company — any one of those would have made for a successful career. She’s curious enough to be interested in learning new things while knowing that doesn’t come without some unease.”

As Thornton settles into this role at ESPN, she recognizes that things are moving faster than ever, especially as ESPN announced it would be collaborating with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox to launch a new sports streamer this fall. Through it all, she continues to focus on serving the fans, elevating the brand and bringing in younger sports aficionados. 

“Over the past two or three years, we’ve learned to move faster than ever,” she said. “I think that’s just going to continue.” 

During her 10 years at NBCUniversal, Gina Reduto has revolutionized the sales function, bringing the company into the programmatic era and now leading the team that advises brands on how to optimize their messaging to its 227 million monthly customers.

But what elevates Reduto to Wonder Women status is a quality that sits above the numbers and margins. It’s her approach to leadership — one that comprises extraordinary emotional intelligence, agility and a relentless dedication to the startup mentality she honed at companies including Atari and Glam Media even as she now helms a team of 23, with six direct reports.

“I do think empathy is a big part of building and leading a team,” she said. “Having diverse mindsets and perspectives and facilitating a dialogue to arrive at decisions has always been important, because there is never a singular answer in terms of a way to do something. So having a collective approach to how we problem-solve, hiring people from super-different backgrounds that contribute different lenses to how we’re looking at the business or certain solutions is really important.” 

Reduto arrived at NBCU in March 2014 as its first standalone executive focused on programmatic sales at a time when that category (now an estimated $20 billion slice of the U.S. TV advertising pie) was in its infancy.

“The industry was changing, and my role was all about getting people to think differently,” she said. “Nothing was broken at NBC. They were a well-oiled sales machine and were beating their goals every year and I had to come in and say, ‘But wait, we need to lean into this new way of selling and building product.’ 

“I’m not a salesperson but I thought [what] if I put myself in their shoes and think about what it would be like to have someone tell me that,” Reduto continued. “That’s how I learned to build a collaborative mindset, establish shared goals and really have the sales team be a part of the process.

“I don’t own anything as a strategy leader. My success is contingent on sales wanting to partner with me and believing in the opportunity. So the change management piece was the most challenging, but I found my way by finding those little wins, socializing those wins, having everyone be a part of those wins and building from there.”

The effectiveness of Reduto’s leadership is not lost on Mark Marshall, NBCU chairman of global advertising and partnerships, who described it in one word: Elevation. “She elevates people to do their best work. She elevates the stories that we tell. She pushes for great work from her team but does it in a manner that is inspiring and team-oriented,” he said.

“There is not a meeting, a day, a month that Gina does not make us better as an organization. Her inclusive approach is a model for all of us to follow. She is one of the most respected and admired people in our organization.”

Inclusive Team-Builder

Regarding the composition of her team — and perhaps in a nod to her first job as a junior high math teacher — Reduto follows a different kind of equation. One where intangible, often overlooked qualities combine in a whole that’s truly greater than the sum of its parts. Her strategy team is organized by industry, including finance, retail and insurance, but those specific categories are not top of mind when she hires. 

“Anyone can learn about finance or retail,” she said. “It’s things like willingness to try new things, fail fast and fail forward and collaborate, that I think are more innate and more of the mindset that allow you to be part of a winning team. And when you hire a team that way you have to flex your leadership style based on that person’s preferred way of working. 

“I never impose my way of working or my style or my hours on the team,” she added. “It’s about adjusting to meet their needs, which I think creates a more productive environment.”

When it comes to elevating women in the workforce, Reduto is equally impassioned — particularly in terms of supporting their advancement beyond junior and midtier positions. 

“Sometimes I feel like there’s an expectation for women to get to a certain level and that’s it, or to not have the same expectation in terms of career advancement,” she said. “There could be more confidence-building, really deliberate career-pathing.” 

Lawyers typically look to past legal precedents or statutes to guide their clients. In the field of data privacy law, though, “the technology is constantly changing, and the law can’t keep up,” said Noga Rosenthal, general counsel and chief privacy officer for Ampersand. 

In her 15-year career, Rosenthal has forged industry guidelines that govern how consumers’ personal information is collected and used in internet advertising. She now applies her experience to advising Ampersand and its television clients on the responsible use of viewer data to personalize advertising. 

“She is one of the absolute leaders, from a legal perspective, in data privacy,” said Nicolle Pangis, former CEO of Ampersand, the ad-sales and technology firm owned by Comcast, Cox Communications and Charter Communications. 

Rosenthal was commercial counsel for a WPP-owned tech company when she was first drawn to data-privacy law. “The federal government’s guidance to the advertising industry was: ‘Don’t be creepy,’ ” she said. “This was a subjective guideline that presents challenges in its practical application. What is creepy? How do we make sure we are not creepy?” 

Rosenthal began working with the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), first as a board member and then for three years as the association’s VP for compliance and policy, to establish standards and compliance rules. “I loved it,” she said. “There were complex moral and ethical dilemmas coming at us rapid-fire.” 

She hammered out guidelines on issues such as using an individual’s medical information, then convinced companies with different goals and business models — from small startups to giants like Google — to follow the same rules. “They didn’t always agree, but it was in all our interests to set up the right ethical standards for how we collected data and how we used it,” Rosenthal said. 

Industry associations remain her “crucial” resource for staying abreast of new regulations. She currently serves on committees for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Coalition for Innovative Media Measure­ment (CIMM).

In 2016, Rosenthal became chief privacy officer at global retail marketing company Epsilon, just as the regulatory landscape changed dramatically. The European Union had adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), requiring all websites that collect data on EU viewers to ask for their consent. The GDPR has also been the model for most of the dozen data-privacy laws passed by U.S. states, she noted. 

When Pangis became CEO of Ampersand in 2018, Rosenthal was one of her first hires. Pangis’s goal was to collect and use data from numerous sources to help marketers personalize and target ads. “Sensible use of data insights was of incredible importance not only to Ampersand, but to our owners and our partners,” Pangis said. Rosenthal “had the perfect pedigree that we needed within the company.” 

Rosenthal was excited by the challenge of learning the television industry and “taking my digital expertise, knowledge and history, and bringing it to the TV world, which was starting to grapple with the same privacy and data-ethics issues,” she said. 

A Natural Teacher

Rosenthal is an adjunct professor at Rutgers University and a frequent speaker at industry conferences. She draws on her teaching experience when explaining legal issues to executives, software engineers, and salespeople. 

“I think Noga is as good a student of law and privacy as she is a teacher of law and privacy,” Pangis said. “There were many times that we came up with an idea where Noga would say, ‘No, because these three things are likely to happen in the next three months, and you’ll have to rewind all the work on this.’ She was almost always right.” 

Rosenthal has recently been studying AI, and how its use might affect time limits on data storage: “When you’re working with AI, you want as much data as possible to make your AI models work better, and you may not care how old the data is,” she said. 

Rosenthal “educates, informs, and gets people comfortable with the why and the how,” said Patty Keenan, Ampersand’s chief people officer. “A lot of people seek Noga out for advice and guidance, and she embraces that. She’s a natural mentor, and people are drawn to her as a mentor.”

Rosenthal’s combination of specialized expertise and concern for employees make her “a well-rounded leader,” Keenan said. 

Geraldine Laybourne, the pioneering media executive at Nickelodeon and founder of Oxygen Media, will receive the Bresnan Ethics in Business Award by the Syndeo Institute at the Cable Center at the center's Cable Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 18 in New York.

Laybourne became a star media executive first as a creator of children's and educational programming at Viacom’s Nickelodeon, where she spent 16 years and ran the network starting in 1984. She then served as president of Disney/ABC Cable Networks (1996-98) and was founder, chairman and CEO of Oxygen Media, the younger-women-focused cable network that launched under an intense spotlight in 2000 and was sold to NBCUniversal in 2007. She is in the Cable, Broadcasting+Cable and Television Academy halls of fame, was in the first group of Multichannel News Wonder Women and has received numerous other awards and honors, including Emmys, Peabodys and Parents’ Choice awards. She currently is on the boards of Betaworks, Common Sense Media Growth, The Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet and the Youth Opportunity Union (YOU) Advisory Boards and is vice chairman of Vital Voices, an organization that supports and develops promising women leaders around the world. She recently retired from the Vassar College board of trustees. 

In a statement, Laybourne said: “What an honor to receive this award in Bill’s name. A role model to all of us, Bill was passionate about using business as a jumping-off point to make the world a better place. I love that so many of us, in the formative years of cable, built businesses that gave back to the communities we served. I’m particularly proud of the mentoring efforts we started that now live on all over the world. I started casually asking young women to take a walk rather than going out for a meal. We formalized it in 2006 by launching the first-ever Mentors Walk in NYC, and now there are 175 walks taking place annually. I think Bill would heartily approve of all these wise women giving advice to the next generation of leaders by taking a walk.”

Michael Willner, board chairman of the Syndeo Institute at The Cable Center, said: “Gerry is a true trailblazer in the cable industry — from building Nickelodeon into a top-rated network to creating Oxygen and leading Disney/ABC, her career achievements are unrivaled. She has tirelessly served the industry through her work on numerous boards and the thousands of women she has mentored. Her unwavering dedication to the early learning community is game changing. It is a special honor to present my good friend with the 2024 Bresnan Ethics in Business Award.”

Past recipients of the Bresnan Award include Pat Esser, Bill Daniels, Decker Anstrom, Ted Turner, June Travis, Brian Lamb and Bill Miron. More about the award and a 2000 Cable Center oral history interview with Laybourne can be found here. More about the Cable Hall of Fame and the upcoming ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom can be found here.

Future’s Multichannel News has announced the 2024 Wonder Women of New York, who will be celebrated at a gala luncheon at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Thursday, March 21. For details about the New York event please visit mcnwonderwomen.com.

The Wonder Women awards, key fixtures on the media calendar since 1999, honor excellence in women leaders in media businesses including programming and operations, streaming, marketing, advertising and technology. MCN proudly notes that the luncheon’s event partner, once again, is the New York chapter of The WICT Network. 

More New York honors, including the 2024 Woman of Influence award, will be announced in coming days. MCN also is accepting nominations for Wonder Women of Los Angeles and 40 Under 40 of Los Angeles, to be celebrated in June. Those nomination windows are open until Friday, December 8.

In alphabetical order (read their bios), here are the 2024 Wonder Women of New York. 

• Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, President, CBS News.
• Lucilla D’Agostino, Head of Evolution Media and Big Fish Entertainment, Amazon/MGM Companies.
• Stephanie Dorman, Chief Client Officer, Mediaocean.
• Kim Granito, Chief Marketing Officer, AMC Networks.
• Patsy Loris, Executive Vice President, News, Telemundo.
• Barbara Maushard, Senior Vice President, News, Hearst TV.
• Kate Morgan, Chief Product Officer, Executive Vice President, Global Media Entertainment & Games, Magid.
• Laura Palumbo Johnson, Partner, Co-Founder and Executive Producer, Magilla Entertainment.
• Gina Reduto, Senior Vice President, Client Strategy, NBCUniversal.
• Adrienne Roark, President, Content Development and Integration, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures.
• Noga Rosenthal, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, Ampersand.
• Sheereen Russell, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, Client Partnerships and Inclusive Solutions, Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Tina Thorton, Executive Vice President, Creative Studio and Marketing, ESPN.
• Kavita Vazirani, Executive Vice President, Research, Insights and Analytics, The Walt Disney Co.
• Lindsey Woodland, Group Vice President of Client Data Science, 605 and iSpot.tv.

The editors of Multichannel News honored the 2023 class of Wonder Women of Los Angeles at a June 20 breakfast ceremony at the Sofitel Los Angeles in Beverly Hills, part of Future plc’s two-day L.A. TV Week of events. Click through the gallery below for photos from the evelt. 

Giselle Fernandez, set to be honored as the 2023 Woman of Influence at the Wonder Women of Los Angeles breakfast June 20, anchors Your Morning on Spectrum News 1 in Los Angeles, and hosts L.A. Stories With Giselle Fernandez. 

Before her time at Spectrum News 1, Fernandez worked at both CBS News and NBC News, including anchoring the Sunday NBC Nightly News. 

Fernandez has sat with Fidel Castro, President Bill Clinton and President George H.W. Bush, among other global luminaries, in her career. She also produced the documentary Our Story, which addressed healthcare issues for children of low-income Hispanic families. She competed in the second season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.

Ahead of the Multichannel News Wonder Women awards at the Sofitel Hotel in Beverly Hills, Fernandez spoke about her career highlights, mentors and how she unwinds after a hectic day. 

An edited transcript follows.

MCN: What are you most proud of these days?

Giselle Fernandez: We made it through the pandemic. We made it through really trying times in newsrooms across the country where you have volatile politics, a pandemic, school closures and mass shootings almost every other day. There have been so many assaults on our democracy, on our society, on our humanity. I’m really proud we were able to keep our eye on storytelling. 

MCN: What’s a recent story you did that you’re particularly proud of?

GF: I went to Guatemala to cover the root causes of migration. With the global migration crisis across the country here at home, thousands deluging on our southern border and weaponized politics around the human crisis, Spectrum sent me to Guatemala to cover [Vice President] Kamala Harris going there [and] to look at the root causes. That was a great example of how we take on a global national story but really localize it. 

MCN Tell me about your documentary, Our Story. 

GF: That was so long ago, but it’s something where, when I die, it will be one of the things I'm most proud of. I used to sit on the board of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and I was on the air at KTLA at the time. A little boy who had cancer recognized me. His name was Dusty, and he was 11 and wanted to meet me. We ended up shooting him for months as he grappled with his illness, and his family grappled with access to healthcare. 

I don't know if it was a twist of fate or if it was my destiny, but my then-husband's entire family came to the hospital with his 16-month-old grandson. I was like, what are you doing here? They wheeled his grandson into the room with Dusty. He was diagnosed with liver cancer at 16 months old. I covered both of them and started to cover all the other children on the floor.

MCN: Have you had a mentor in your career?

GF: Many. In terms of a literary mentor, there’s a woman named Oriana Fallaci, who was a speak-truth-to-power Italian journalist. My mom has been a mentor. She followed her passion and didn’t let anybody define her. She was born in New York to a progressive Jewish family and decided she did not like the debutante, concrete jungle, society world. She heard flamenco and mariachi music and decided that her soul was a Latina. And she ended up going to Mexico, taking a flamenco dancing class with someone like 40 years older than she was, a very famous flamenco dancer. They married and I was born, a Mexican-Jewish girl. 

MCN: Do you mentor aspiring journalists?

GF: Absolutely. [News director] Jeff Wald gave me my start in television at KTLA when I was in my 20s. He teaches a class at UCLA and always asks me to be the final speaker to his graduate students. I'm proud to go every year. 

I also mentor the smart young women and men at Spectrum — especially women because we’re so very challenged, never thinking we're good enough. 

MCN: Tell me about your L.A. Stories program.

GF: I love my L.A. Stories program! We're an Instagram, TikTok, soundbite society. No one wants long form, and the only one really left is 60 Minutes. I said, ‘Yeah, I know, but I really want to do it.’ And Spectrum said, ‘Then do it.’ 

I've had the time of my life. I think it's the best work of my career. It gives me an opportunity to delve into the minds and hearts of change-makers, thought leaders, innovators, celebrities and just people making an impact in their communities.

MCN: How do you unwind from the stress of your job?

GF: I drink a lot of tequila. [Laughs.] I’m a huge animal lover. We hike a lot. I’m a big runner. I love nature. My daughter and I love art. We travel and we love music. I just saw Bruno Mars. I’m a huge Bruno Mars fan and his concert was to die for!

Multichannel News and the New York chapter of The WICT Network feted the members of the 2023 class of Wonder Women of New York March 23 during a gala luncheon at Manhattan‘s Ziegfeld Ballroom. Also recognized was the 2023 Woman of Influence, Face the Nation moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan, and inaugural Wonder Women Empowerment Award winner L’Oreal USA. Click through below for snapshots from the event. 

Margaret Brennan, moderator of Face the Nation, was named 2023’s Woman of Influence by Multi­channel News, and was celebrated at a luncheon in New York March 23. At the same event, 15 female executives in television were named Wonder Women.

In an introductory video clip, Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes correspondent, said of Brennan, “From the first time I saw her, I thought, wow — she is everything I want in an interviewer.”

Her mother Jane weighed in on the video too. “Margaret has always been intellectually curious, even as a 2- or 3-year-old,” Jane Brennan said. “She’d be playing next to me at the same time I was listening to news.”

Stahl spoke of Brennan’s days as a White House correspondent: “The White House is a job where you have to study up on everything. You’re working in an environment that doesn’t want you to know anything. Your job is to get around that.”

Stahl concluded: “Decision-makers watch those Sunday morning shows. You’re influencing policy, you’re influencing public opinion. The questions Margaret asks are making a difference.” 

Brennan, named moderator of the CBS News Sunday-morning program in 2018, was then called up onstage. She said, “A through-line I’ve seen in today’s program underscores that success is a team sport. I’ve gotten to where I am today not just because of my work and work ethic, but because of the people–especially the women–I have had the privilege of knowing and working with.”

Brennan singled out several key roles on Face the Nation held by women, including executive producer Mary Hager, and senior producers Carol Joynt, Avery Miller and Anne Hsu, along with tech manager Laura Foran. 

“I think we listen to the people we interview and try to use it to inform, and think about what they told us in order to influence the next projects we pick up,” she said. 

“To be frank,” Brennan added, “I think we overprepare and undersell. We think before we speak and think ahead, which are attributes that I find in many successful women I know, because to this day women are not automatically granted the authority some of our colleagues may get at first sight.”

Brennan closed by sharing a Face the Nation core value: “You will get information, not affirmation. You will hopefully walk away understanding the headlines, with more clarity and context.” 

Last year’s Woman of Influence, singled out at the 2022 Multichannel News Wonder Women event, was Martha Raddatz, chief global affairs correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos. ■

Rori Peters has been a major player in content distribution for three decades, but — as hard as it might be to imagine — she had a career before television.

Now senior VP of content distribution and sales for the  content distribution and marketing department at TV One and Cleo TV, Peters studied economics in college and then worked in banking for 10 years. Even then, though, Peters was making connections in this industry by working on media mergers and acquisitions, although most of her clients were in radio and broadcast. When her bank was folding its media division, it offered Peters another spot internally. 

“I couldn’t see myself doing oil and gas, so I started talking to my media clients — I was dealing at the CEO level,” Peters said, crediting Emmis Communications founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan with encouraging her to explore this “new and interesting” thing called cable that was taking off as a serious business. “He said, ‘You give me ideas and keep me from making mistakes and you’re great at building relationships, and they’ll need people like you.’  ”

Making Connections

Smulyan introduced Peters to his cable friends, including entrepreneur Steve Brill, who hired Peters to help build Court TV. She immediately plunged into meeting all the cable operators and content-acquisition players, quickly establishing solid relationships. In the first six months, it became a running joke that people were convinced she’d been in cable forever. 

Michelle Rice, president of TV One and Cleo TV, said that’s typical of Peters, a friend of hers for a quarter-century. 

“Rori scores off the charts on likability,” Rice said. “There’s a Southern saying, ‘She knows no strangers.’ That fits her. She’ll go to the bathroom and come back with three new friends. And she builds and keeps relationships.”

After seven years learning from the distribution team at Court TV, Peters moved on to boost growth at Comedy Central, AMC Networks, NUVOtv and Scripps Networks Interactive. Rice said Peters’s “deal savvy” has proved invaluable for companies in growth mode, especially because distribution partners are trying to cut budgets and increase margins — goals that don’t always sync with a network’s aspirations. 

“She understands business models because of her finance background and can get down to business with a win-win value proposition,” Rice said. 

“I don’t waste people’s time,” said Peters, who in conversation is blunt but charming. “I understood the business and could speak in broader numbers, not just talking about my network. I also start with solutions as opposed to, ‘You’ve gotta do this’ or just wining and dining boondoggles, which I never had much patience for. I’m stubborn. I say, I know I can do this, fix a problem, change someone’s mind.” 

In 2012, Rice asked Peters to come aboard at TV One for just a couple of years. “They were still trying to get distribution with a lot of companies I had done deals with, and they’d never done renewals before and had those coming,” said Peters, who is still there a decade later as a key member of the executive leadership team. She’s responsible for developing strategy and negotiating the carriage of the networks and their programming across all video platforms.

As a leader, Peters said she has learned not to get complacent, citing a recent interview with The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, where he talked about trusting his own instincts so much he had become dismissive of his team’s ideas. “So I asked myself if I’m doing that, because nobody has all the answers,” she said. 

Committed to Mentoring

She is also committed to nurturing future generations of women. She was chair of then-Women in Cable Telecommunications (now The WICT Network) in 2002-03 and helped implement the PAR Initiative, the comprehensive advocacy program (done with NAMIC) helping companies improve diversity metrics for women and minorities with respect to Pay Equity, Advancement Opportunities, and Resources for Work/Life Integration. 

Peters has also been an active member of NAMIC but said she focused more on furthering the cause for women because she historically saw gender issues as the bigger obstacle in building relationships. Lately, progress for women in the field has stalled out, in her view.

“So I spend a lot of time responding to women who reach out on LinkedIn or with the younger members of our company. It’s critically important for the future.” ▪️

People who work with Amy Campbell, chief marketing officer for MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, admire her calm demeanor in a demanding job at a company that’s gone through change in a crazy industry.

Following graduate school, Campbell discovered the production business, freelancing before joining MTV. “I gravitated to commercials, short-form, making little mini, bite-sized stories,” she recalled.

Former MTV president Christina Norman also has a production background. “You have to figure out how to get things done with five cents, a ball of string and some tape,” Norman said. Particularly in MTV’s early days, “there were a lot of balls in the air. There was no manual. Amy always delivered and it’s been great to see her move up through the organization in times of tremendous change. This might sound corny, but Amy’s a nice person. The people who work for her are lucky to have a leader who is such a humane person.”

Her boss feels lucky, too. “Everybody sees Amy as the rock in a storm, but what people don’t see coming is how crazy creative and innovative she is,” Chris McCarthy, CEO,  Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios & Paramount Media Networks, said.

Before Paramount launched the latest season of the series Yellowstone, Campbell made last-minute changes to the promotional campaign, focusing on younger viewers. Yellowstone’s share among 18-to-34-year-olds jumped almost 50%, McCarthy said. “To say she’s a hero is to underestimate how big and powerful her contributions have been.”

She’s also been a leader in MTV’s social-impact efforts. “That was a huge passion of hers from the very beginning,” said Stephen Friedman, former president of MTV, who remains a company adviser. 

Leading Pro-Social Pushes

Campbell spearheaded campaigns about youth violence, women dying during childbirth and mental health. During the last election, her campaign persuaded 700,000 young people to be poll workers. “It’s no longer about a PSA on the channel,” Friedman said. “It’s the TikTok video, it’s Instagram. It’s wherever they are. She’s the heart and soul of the brand.”

“Doing good is part of MTV’s DNA and part of what has kept me at MTV for so long,” Campbell said.

In creating campaigns, Campbell works to understand the content she’s promoting, said Pamela Post, former head of MTV Studios’ West Coast office. For RuPaul’s Drag Race, Campbell decided rather than making a spectacle of the show’s drag queens, she’d focus on their heart and talent. The campaign worked because “heart is easier to relate to,” Post recalled. “It’s much more universal.”

Said Campbell: “They’re dancers, they’re singers, they’re costume designers. The talent the queens have is incredible. But the heart of the story is about finding your family. My daughter Sullivan watches it and we talk about the different types of beauty there are.”

Sharita Petersen, VP, creative services at Paramount Networks, remembered one time Campbell brought Sullivan to a promo shoot for Love & Hip Hop. There were problems with the fire department and Campbell stepped in to support her team with her usual calm.

Said Petersen: “Even if she doesn’t have the answers, you trust she’s going to get to answers.” 

Campbell’s example as a working mom inspired Petersen to bring her son to a shoot. “I got a chance to explain to him what it is that I do,” she said. 

Skilled Motivator 

Francesca Batista, VP, MTV Entertainment Studios, added that Campbell is “the most appreciative person.” Campbell always sends a text, an email or a call to thank staffers for their work. “She’s able to motivate teams to achieve extraordinary work,” Batista said.

“I know what I put into my work, and recognizing it is really important,” Campbell said. ”I also practice this Buddhist idea of ahimsa. It’s really about respecting life in all forms, from my team to everybody in my life, and animals are in there too.”

Campbell adopted a cat, a dog and a rabbit from a downtown shelter called Animal Haven. She reached out to see how she could help and became chairman of its board. Campbell helps generate publicity for Animal Haven’s fundraising gala.

“She adopted one of our animals and the rest is history,” Tiffany Lacey, executive director at Animal Haven, said. “She showed interest in being on the board and we jumped at the opportunity. She’s a huge animal lover and so is her daughter. The whole family is really passionate about the work we do.”

“She uses her superpowers for good and I’ve seen that firsthand,” Jacqueline Parkes, former chief marketing officer for MTV, VH1 and Logo, said. “She is a rare combination of creative chops, strategic thinking and being one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in business.” ■

Soon after Sonia Coleman expanded her purview to include HR oversight at ESPN in 2021, she attended a Las Vegas Raiders Monday Night Football game with her ESPN colleagues. 

“Seeing the passion and heart of a number of teams coming together from many different leaders was an ‘aha moment’ and I’ve experienced that over and over again with the ESPN team,” Coleman said. “Everybody is clear about their purpose and that they are all there to serve ESPN fans.”

Coleman’s bar for what successful teamwork looks like was already high. After achieving early career momentum in The Walt Disney Co.’s consumer products division, she was handpicked by former Disney senior VP and chief human resources officer Jayne Parker to join the corporate team, where she continues to flourish. Today, Coleman manages two bicoastal jobs supporting two major segments of the organization. She also serves as an active mentor within the company. (After this story was published, Coleman was promoted again, to senior executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Disney.)

From Mentee to Mentor

“I had someone that was a really incredible sponsor early in my career and if it weren’t for her, I believe my career could’ve gone in a really different direction,” she said. “Since that moment I’ve thought a lot about sponsorship.

“Jayne Parker taking an interest in me and seeing something I didn’t see in myself really changed how I work and where I work, essentially,” she continued. “For me, that was a career highlight because it’s about always being open to what the opportunities are, even if you can’t see it for yourself. With the right level of investment from others, they see it for you. I’ve been in three or four industries, and I’ve been at The Walt Disney Company for 17 years. There’s not many people that can say that; I feel very fortunate.”

The feeling is mutual. Coleman is “an exceptional leader” who “leads with optimism and cares deeply about our teams,” Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden said. “As a most formidable ally who has been central to our success, we are very lucky to have her at Disney.”

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said Coleman is “precisely the right leader to both honor and reimagine our culture as we continue to evolve.”

Coleman is also evolving the HR function after the past several years have ushered in an entirely new workforce paradigm and deep reexamining of the meaning of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). 

“Over the past few years with COVID and the racial reckoning and so many other things, we have become better at truly understanding what people need and creating a culture around that rather than a culture around what the outputs are,” she said. 

When the company in January announced the return to work four days a week, Coleman made sure employees understood there would still be some flexibility as needed. She also oversaw the acceleration of an internal program that enables the team to get feedback on the employee experience on a quarterly basis. 

“Based off of that feedback we are making decisions about things like, how do we provide the right level of wellness care?” she said.

Making Inclusion a Mindset

Regarding DEI at Disney, Coleman said, “The first and most important thing is for people to know we value everyone. And that value has to be demonstrated through representation, through our leaders and also through the content we create for our audiences. We are focused on creating representation for women and people of color at all levels of our companies and zeroing in on doing it at the highest levels. It’s about the investment we make from early career to leadership roles.”

Coleman said the task extends well beyond attracting talent and working to elevate internal incubator, accelerator and talent programs — all key services in their own right. “Those are all great resources in accelerating paths for growth, but I also think it’s about the environment, the culture and the mindset of every single individual who works with us,” she noted.

“We’ve gotten better at attraction,” Coleman said. “Where I’m focused is on, how do we retain individuals? And I think that’s about the environment.” ■

Pola Changnon is an Atlanta native who made it to Tinseltown after film school and thought she’d never look back, but ended up having a Wonder Woman-level career back in Atlanta at Turner Classic Movies. 

By returning to Atlanta, first to work at Cartoon Network in 1998 before moving to Turner Entertainment Networks and finally TCM, Changnon was able to help her parents (still living there) get to know their grandchildren (two daughters, now grown).

“I thought, well, you know what, if I’m here for a couple of years, then great,” Changnon said. “But here I am 25 years later and have had the most amazing opportunity.” 

Being at TCM also means she gets back to L.A. every April for the TCM Classic Film Festival, four days when thousands of movie fans gather to watch beloved films on big screens in Hollywood, meet TCM personalities and hear from people who made the movies they’re seeing. This year’s edition happens April 13-16 and is tied in with the 100-year anniversary of the Warner Bros. studio. Last year, it drew more than 20,000 attendees.

A Joyous Ride

“As the company has evolved — you know, Turner, AOL Time Warner, Warner Media and now Warner Bros. Discovery — I’ve been really fortunate in that the things that I find joyous are also the things that seem to be propelling me forward,” she said. “So it’s been a good ride.” 

Every good career-girl movie sees the hero overcome obstacles, and Changnon faced a very big one — the global pandemic — when she took charge of TCM as general manager in January 2020. She was promoted from senior VP of marketing, studio production and talent, replacing Jennifer Dorian, who left after 20 years at TCM.

“I really figured it would be a seamless transition since I’d been with the network for a long time, but nobody anticipated what was coming around the corner in March,” Changnon said.

Clearly, the festival couldn’t have been held in April, so one of her first big decisions as GM was to cancel the in-person event. But something good came out of it, in 2020 and then again in 2021, before the comeback last year.

“The team pivoted and we ended up putting on a version of the festival on the network, at the time we would’ve had the in-real-life version, and everyone pulled together in the most amazing way,” she said. “It felt very, you know, Judy and Mickey [Garland and Rooney] — ‘let’s put on a show. My mom will make the curtains, you guys figure out what the songs are.’ A really all-hands collaborative effort to pull together something that could represent what we had wanted to do.”

In 2021, with more time to plan, the virtual festival grew to include streaming service HBO Max, “which of course is such a big priority for the company then and now,” she said. The results “validated the idea that the context and curation we bring to linear are just as valuable in the streaming environment, in some cases more. When you have so much to choose from, where do you start?”

Charles Tabesh, senior VP of programming and content strategy at TCM, praised Changnon’s leadership through so much change. “Going through these corporate mergers and just being somebody who has taken a really active and important role in making sure that TCM is well-represented with new management and that TCM is guiding us through the choppy waters has been really impressive and special,” Tabesh said. “And I’ve certainly, through that process, grown closer to her as a boss and as a friend, too.”

Blending Business, Creativity

Changnon’s predecessor, Dorian, now CEO of Public Broadcasting Atlanta, said her friend is truly a Wonder Woman. “I think what makes her different or unique from a lot of other leaders is she’s so left brain and right brain,” Dorian said. “Her blend of creative aesthetic design blended with strategy and good management makes her a great leader.

“She started her career with a master’s in film and doing creative work and became a general manager,” Dorian noted. “And that’s not something you see a lot in business or even media and entertainment. So yay for team creative when it comes to Pola.” ▪️

Last year, Crown Media Family Networks became Hallmark Media and concurrently, Hallmark Channel rebranded with a new tagline: “Where Love Happens.” For Annie Howell, Hallmark Media’s chief communications officer, that tagline resonates.

Howell was executive VP of corporate communications and media relations at Hallmark Channel from 2010 to 2014 before starting her own executive coaching and strategic communications consultancy, Punch Point Group, with which she remains involved today. But a piece of her heart remained at Hallmark during her six years away, so when the opportunity arose for her to return in a bigger role — even though it requires a weekly commute to New York from her Kensington, Maryland, home — she took it.

“I love being on a leadership team and I love running a team,” Howell said. “This is what I’m meant to do, this is what I’m really good at. It’s what fuels my joy.”

After being away from the company for six years, Howell returned to consult when Hallmark was radically transforming itself in early 2020 after it apologized for pulling ads featuring two women sharing a kiss at the altar. By that summer, the channel had blown up its entire leadership team, naming Wonya Lucas, formerly president and CEO of TV One, as CEO and adding more stories that included diverse points of view. 

Howell consulted on the transition for the first seven months of 2020 and then joined as chief communications officer that September. 

“That first year was hard because we really found ourselves dead center in this polarized debate about race, sexuality and who we are,” Howell said. “The Hallmark brand is so near and dear to the hearts of so many but we decided to walk through the fire and keep going. We had to make a decision that we were going to widen the circle and tell stories for more people. We’re all humans and we’re all worthy of love and happy endings and that kiss and everything else. That was a hard shift the first year for certain parts of our audience to accept.”

Howell’s job at Hallmark — where “Countdown to Christmas” dominates cable ratings every holiday season and beyond — is to consistently communicate that brand message.

“My job is to really put the purpose into what we communicate about ourselves and each other,” she said. “It’s managing that reputation and perception.”

Howell accomplishes that by positioning the brand externally and by making sure everyone is on point internally.

“I think that she makes people better, which makes the team stronger,” Hallmark Media executive VP, ad sales and digital media Ed Georger said. “She has a phrase that she uses often: ‘Words matter.’ One of the things I have learned from her is how to choose your words, be articulate and know that words matter, whether that’s talking to your co-worker, your mentee or your boss.”

Another part of Howell’s job, and a big piece of her career in general, has been mentoring others, whether people on her team, other women in the industry, or kids in her neighborhood. 

“As a leader, I love to teach and guide and get people to realize their potential and see them strive and thrive,” she said.

Champion of Connection

One example of that is Catherine Frymark, who worked for Howell at Discovery and is now executive VP of corporate communications at Mattel. 

“Annie has a way of connecting with people on both a professional and emotional level that is very rare,” Frymark said. “She’s a champion of this industry, of women in this industry and she’s very supportive and active in it. Mentorship is something that comes as second nature to her.”

Prominent in cable network public-affairs organizations for years, her continued leadership is seen in her role as co-chair of the Alliance for Women in Media (AWM)’s Gracie Awards and chair of the AWM board of directors.

Howell started in public relations after graduating Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology in Toronto and making her way to Washington, D.C., where she worked for Jody Powell, President Jimmy Carter’s press secretary. She was a founding member and VP at Powell Tate and an account executive at Ogilvy & Mather Public Affairs.

“I instill in my team the same things that were instilled in me,” Howell said. “If I can’t tell journalists the truth, then I try to help them. I’ve always been of the mindset — and Jody drilled it into my head — that journalists matter too, what they need matters and that relationship matters. The minute you break that trust, it’s over.” ■

Even as a young adult, Melody Smalls knew exactly what her life’s ambition would entail.

“I was always focused on bringing out the best in others — being a strategic servant leader while moving meaningful businesses forward,” said Smalls, who today serves as executive VP of global human resources for Allen Media Group. That means she is responsible for providing global human resources strategy for all the divisions in the Allen Media Group — which totals 10 television networks, including The Weather Channel, Allen Media Broadcasting and Entertainment Studios Networks. She also spearheads security and oversees facilities operations teams across the company.  

After earning her undergraduate degree in human resources and marketing from the Temple University Fox School of Business, Smalls earned a master’s in organizational psychology from Columbia University. That educational background helped her see that the key to managing hundreds of employees located at several major media companies begins by recognizing that the safety and well-being of every single employee is a paramount priority. 

Structured for Success

To do that, Smalls puts a premium on being organized, declarative and pragmatic. She makes sure her HR teams are part of a smooth-running machine that is appropriately staffed and structured. “[It’s important to] harmonize strategy and processes for efficiency and effectiveness,” she said.

Colleagues have noticed. “As head of Global Human Resources for Allen Media Group, Melody Smalls is a phenomenal executive,” Allen Media Group founder, chairman and CEO Byron Allen said.

Recognition is also due to her philosophy when it comes to managing the business
of managing people. “Structure follows strategy,” she said. “In that order. This is the question I ask in all that I do. Human resource professionals must understand and align with the business strategy first in order to build systems, initiatives, processes, etc.” 

Even as the media and entertainment industry flexed and changed through the COVID pandemic, Smalls managed to keep the human resources quadrant of the Allen Media ship upright and functioning effectively. “Like many companies returning back to a ‘new normal’ post COVID, [the priority was] reestablishing culture amidst a new work environment,” she said.

She achieved that in part by relying on her educational background in organizational psychology, a skill that has proven invaluable to the day-to-day demands of managing human resources for several hundred employees. Relationships and trust matter. And in a thriving, growing company like Allen Media Group, it’s the successful human resources leader who helps employees navigate the challenges and dynamics that exist when striving to achieve certain goals. 

Managing for Change

Smalls is also a proponent of change management, a philosophy that can be very deliberate or very organic — it depends on the “change” that needs to happen, she said. “Change management is the process by which an organization, department or group moves through change from the initial concept of change through resolution,” which can mean anything from simple steps (like showing employees how to update their benefits on their own) to more complex situations like implementing an entire organizational redesign.

One of Smalls’s best skills? She is an adept listener. That’s proven out by the honors she’s received from organizations like the National Diversity Council (which named her one of the Most Powerful & Influential Women in 2016), Savoy Magazine (which named her one of the Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America in 2018) and her status as a mentor for organizations like the Pathbuilders business management consultancy and The Cool Girls, a young female empowerment organization. 

 “I approach delicate matters in a calm, firm but empathetic manner,” she said. “I listen to understand and to ‘hear’ you. This type of approach ensures trust, which is critical when dealing with sensitive or vulnerable topics.”

Above all, Smalls emphasizes acting with integrity — a priority that applies to every conversation she has and every decision she makes, from her early days as a human resources adviser at First Chicago Trust Co., JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan Bank to her leap into human resources in the media industry at MTV Networks, TNT, TBS, TCM and Cartoon Network. 

“Priority one for me is integrity,” she said. “I always want my team to be able to share any and everything, from major successes to teachable moments.” ▪️

A Black & Red Ball at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to mark the series finale of Mad Men. An exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image on the impact of The Walking Dead. A collaboration with the Smithsonian for the conclusion of Breaking Bad that saw the donation of iconic costumes and props to the National Museum of American History.

These are just a few of the cultural impact moments masterminded by Marnie Black, executive VP of public relations at AMC Networks. And although her fingerprints are all over other AMC successes, including the series finale of Better Call Saul hitting a record 2.7 million viewers and, earlier during her 25-year career, on a legacy of activations at MTV, Black is characteristically looking ahead to the next storytelling opportunities. 

“The most exciting thing is that AMC Networks now has a portfolio of brands, and we are really beginning to look at how our shows can live and be exposed to the audiences on all those networks and streaming services, beyond just on-air promos,” she said of the family that includes BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, WE tv, AMC Plus, Acorn TV, ALLBLK and Shudder. “And the amount of data and information we can get and how we can reach potential people that are interested in that show or are interested in like shows is fascinating to me.” 

Black’s work directly impacts the entire AMC team. “Her understanding of the business and excellent strategic judgment have been invaluable to our company and its ability to have an out-sized impact on viewers and popular culture in a very dynamic and evolving environment,” Dan McDermott, AMC Networks president of entertainment and AMC Studios, noted.

Indeed, part of Black’s magic is her sense of knowing which tools in the expanding PR kit will drive momentum — and customizing some of her own.

Keeping Up With Trends

“Things like influencer engagement and custom content creation didn’t exist 20 years ago when I was at MTV, and they are now a huge part of our campaigns,” she said. “In the earlier part of my career at AMC, we did a lot of media partnerships and we aren’t doing a huge amount of media partnerships anymore. Large-scale events, festivals, things like that, have become a very key part of our campaigns.”

As well as leading media and consumer-facing campaigns, Black continues to raise the bar on the content those campaigns serve. Since 2020, she’s been a key driver of AMC’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy, partnering with groups like Color of Change and establishing an on-set Self-ID campaign through which cast and crew could anonymously disclose identity information to establish a baseline of what representation looks like for them. 

“Diversity, equity and inclusion fell under my purview, initially, because it was a crisis,” she said. “Many in the industry were asking us questions and holding us accountable, as they should have.” After leading the initial response, Black approached then-AMC Networks president Sarah Barnett and chief operating officer Ed Carroll to see if she could lead a more proactive DEI initiative.

“I wanted try to meaningfully impact the diversity both in front of and behind the camera on our shows,” she said. “I think the feeling at the time, and it certainly proved to be the case, was that if we could impact the people who were making and telling our stories, that the kind of stories we were telling would also change.”

Doing Good Is Good Business

Her pro-social inclinations date back to her days at MTV, where she worked on everything from an Emmy-winning, wide-reaching campaign about sexual health to a civil-rights campaign to the launch of video game Rock Band and countless Video Music Awards.

“Judy McGrath, who was chairman of MTV, used to say we had an obligation to use our superpowers for good,” said Black. “Obviously, we are here to entertain people, but I believe that if shows can change hearts and minds that’s incredibly important.”

AMC’s Dark Winds, which follows two Navajo Police Officers in the Southwest in the 1970s and is the No. 1 new series launch in AMC Plus history in both viewership and subscriber acquisition, is a salient example of the impact Black has spurred. The show was created by a Native American writer, is written primarily by Native American writers with the writers’ room comprising more than 50% writers from underrepresented groups and stars a Native American cast. ■