LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy Foundation has announced the appointment of Anne Vasquez as its executive director effective May 13. 

In her new role, Vasquez will oversee daily operations and provide strategic leadership of its programs and fundraising to fulfill the charitable organization’s mission to identify, advance and empower future television leaders while honoring television’s legacy, the Foundation said. 

Vasquez will report to Television Academy Foundation chair Tina Perry and Television Academy president and CEO Maury McIntyre.

“We are delighted to announce Anne’s appointment to lead the Foundation’s team,” said McIntyre. “Anne’s background championing education will be critical as we look to expand the scale of the Foundation’s programs, focusing on the impact we can make in nurturing and developing the next generation of television leaders.”

“With her expertise in the nonprofit, education and media sectors, Anne is uniquely qualified for the Foundation’s executive director role,” said Perry. “Her perspective and experience will be instrumental in driving the Foundation’s mission to educate and inspire students, promote diversity within the industry, and preserve the oral history of television.”

Vasquez is a veteran media and nonprofit executive who will step down as CEO of EdSource, Inc., an award-winning California nonprofit news organization with the state’s largest newsroom devoted to education. 

During her five years at EdSource, she established groundbreaking new partnerships, expanded funder and donor support by more than $2 million, oversaw a website redesign and brand refresh, as well as led the organization through a strategic plan to position it for the future.

Prior to her time at EdSource, she served as senior vice president of strategic initiatives and chief digital officer at Tribune Publishing, where she led digital strategy across 10 news markets. Before that, Vasquez was managing editor of the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when the newsroom won its first Pulitzer Prize — the 2013 Gold Medal for Public Service. She’s also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California (USC) where she teaches a graduate course in narrative storytelling.

The daughter of Cuban immigrants, Vasquez was raised in Miami, Fla., and began her career as a reporter for The Miami Herald and later for the San Jose Mercury News in California. A passionate champion of diversity and inclusion, she became the editor of one of the country’s first race and demographics teams.

Vasquez has served on the boards of the American Society of News Editors and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is on the Leadership Council of the Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Florida International University, Vasquez’s alma mater.

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining the Television Academy Foundation,” Vasquez said. "It’s never been more important to tell the stories of our time with nuance. I’m eager to lead the Foundation in its mission to support and prepare emerging talent from all walks of life while also preserving television’s rich history.”

LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy Foundation has announced a $3 million gift from The Robert M. and Margie Bennett Foundation that will be used to create the Bob Bennett Future Leaders program.

The program honoring the late broadcasting pioneer will commence in summer 2023 and provide additional opportunities for 10 college students from the Television Academy Foundation’s Internship Program annually. The endowed fund supports paid, eight-week internship placements at major television production companies as well as housing, transportation, professional development and special leadership training.

Inaugural participants will be selected from the college students already confirmed as 2023 Television Academy Foundation summer interns. To be considered for the program, applicants must submit a 350-word essay on what innovation and leadership mean to them and how they plan to apply those qualities in their internship and future roles in television.

“We are deeply grateful for the generosity of the Bob Bennett family,” said Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy Foundation. “Given Mr. Bennett’s extraordinary contributions to our industry, it seems especially fitting that his family would choose to develop a new generation of visionary leaders who will shape the future of this industry as well. All of us at the Television Academy Foundation are deeply honored to be part of Bob Bennett’s transformational legacy.”

Philanthropist and actress Kelly Bennett, head of The Robert M. and Margie Bennett Foundation, said, “The chance to honor my father with this legacy fund supporting and mentoring television’s future leaders through education programs is extremely satisfying. I look forward with great anticipation and enthusiasm to this new, rewarding relationship with the Television Academy Foundation in hopes that it will flourish for many years to come.”

Paul Rich, CEO of BoPaul Media Worldwide and a member of the Bennett Foundation board with Kelly Bennett, helped shepherd the gift in honor of the late Bob Bennett’s inspirational, innovative and dynamic leadership style. 

“Bob was a true visionary who understood the more you learn the more you increase the likelihood of becoming a leader,” Rich said. “He prided himself especially in the development of young workers at every stage of his career.”

Robert “Bob” Bennett’s 50-year distinguished television career left an indelible impact on broadcasting nationwide. An industry pioneer and Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Famer who passed away in 2016, Bennett spearheaded the launch of WCVB-TV in Boston and guided the nation’s then largest broadcast station group as president of Metromedia Broadcasting, often referred to as the ‘fourth network,’ with its three-nights-a-week lineup of stations in 75% of U.S. TV households.”

The Metromedia entertainment empire included powerhouse television stations in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Boston; Houston; Dallas; and Washington, D.C.; 22 radio stations; as well as the Harlem Globetrotters, Ice Capades and Metromedia Producers, which distributed all of famed producer Aaron Spelling’s television series. WCVB was sold to Metromedia for a record price of $220 million in 1981. Along with legendary media tycoon John Kluge, Bennett helped build Metromedia Broadcasting, including KTTV-TV (channel 11) in Los Angeles; it eventually formed the backbone of the Fox Broadcasting television network when the company was sold in 1985 to Fox’s Rupert Murdoch.

Bennett conceived WCVB-TV as a model of what local television broadcasting could be in America, producing not just local news and occasional documentaries but award-winning scripted programs.

Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Bennett began his career in 1948 as a page at CBS Radio in Hollywood. He is a past president and board member of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), which had telecast The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon to millions of U.S. homes until the television program’s expiry in 2014. Bennett helped launch the telethon and Lewis’ national MDA Network when he was general manager of WNEW-TV in New York — the only station then carrying The MDA Labor Day Telethon. He contacted his many colleagues and convinced them to carry the weekendlong program, making it an annual nationwide event on their TV stations and famously labeling it the Love Network.

The recipient himself of many awards recognizing his personal contributions to the field, in 1985 Bennett was presented one of the broadcast industry’s highest honors: the President’s Award of the National Association of Television Program Executives. As a philanthropist, significant donations in his and his wife’s names have been made over the past 30 years to MDA; the American Film Institute; and Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California.

Until his passing, Bennett served as chairman of the board of Bennett Productions.

LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy Foundation is launching a new internship program designed to promote diversity in the unscripted/reality TV sector of the entertainment industry, with the first-ever batch of interns to take part in the summer of 2021.

The Diversity and Inclusion Unscripted Internship Program will provide five internships to students from low-income backgrounds that are attending college/university within the greater Los Angeles area; only graduating students with degrees conferred by June 2021 are eligible to apply. In addition, the TV Academy wants students who “demonstrate a commitment to promoting voices and stories of underrepresented communities and increasing diversity and inclusion” in the TV industry.

The eight-week, paid summer internship will give students exposure to professional unscripted/reality TV production in Los Angeles. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, only remote internships will be offered for this year. There will also be weekly online evening professional development, including panels with TV industry leaders, customized seminars and access to Foundation alumni.

At the completion of the internship, participating interns will join the TV Academy Foundation’s Friends and Alumni Network and be eligible to participate in career support programming provided by the Foundation.

Among the types of internships that the TV Academy Foundation has listed on its website right now are development of unscripted TV with a production company or studio and casting with a production company or office of a casting director.

Per Variety, the internship program was announced on Jan. 26 by Chris Abrego, who serves as chairman of the TV Academy Foundation. Variety quotes him as saying:

“How do we find these younger people of color who want the opportunity? I literally grew up, born and raised, 22 miles from Hollywood, but it might as well have been more than 3,000 miles. [This idea] spoke to exactly what was my story and how I got started. And it made complete sense to me. We truly want to integrate them into this business. Our ultimate goal is employment.”

The submission period for the Diversity and Inclusion Unscripted Internship Program will open on April 7 and run through May 5. Voting members of the TV Academy will select the finalists in early May, upon which finalists will have to submit a video interview to specific questions. Students selected for the program will be notified in late May. Remote internships would take place from June 13-Aug. 13.

For more information, visit the TV Academy Foundation website. 

LOS ANGELES—A pair of college students are serving as the inaugural fellows of the TV Academy Foundation's and CBS’ new internship program, the “Star Trek Command Training Program.”

Announced in the fall of 2019, the Star Trek Command Training Program seeks to provide hands-on experience in the TV production industry while also promoting two core values of the famous “Star Trek” TV series, inclusion and diversity.

The first two participants for the Star Trek Command Training Program are Faith Young from McDaniel College and Kevin Ung from the University of Southern California.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the plan for the internship had to be adapted. The program offers the students virtual one-on-ones with industry professionals, online panels with TV industry leaders and customized seminars. Both Young and Ung will also receive lifetime alumni memberships to the Television Academy Foundation.

More information for the Star Trek Command Training Program, including how to apply for future sessions, is available online. 

LOS ANGELES—A pair of college students will have the chance to boldly go into the world of “Star Trek” as interns via a new program created by CBS Television Studios and the Television Academy Foundation.

“Television Academy Foundation Internships: ‘Star Trek’ Command Training Program” will get underway in the summer of 2020 and is designed for graduate and undergraduate college students nationwide, echoing two of the core values of Gene Roddenberry’s classic sci-fi series of inclusion and diversity, as well as inspiring and educating the next generation of TV leaders.

The “Star Trek” internship program will go year round and have two interns per semester working on a “Star Trek” series. The interns will get a complete immersion into the production process, experiencing writers’ rooms, wardrobe design, on-set production, animation and postproduction. CBS will also coordinate mentorships and facilitate program curriculum. Interns will also be given lifetime professional support through the TV Academy Foundation’s alumni program.

“This partnership is an extraordinary opportunity to provide students with remarkable on-the-job training and experience in a creative environment that embodies intersectionality on-screen and behind the camera,” said foundation chair Madeline Di Nonno. “The success of our foundation alumni is a testament to the impact of our educational programs, and considering the values inherent in this new program, we have ever greater expectations for the students whose careers will be jumpstarted with this new internship experience.”

Applications for the program are being accepted from now until Jan. 21, 2020. All applicants must be 18 or older. Final selections will be announced at the end of March. More information can be found at TelevisionAcademy.com/internships.