ITVS Board Elects Three New Members

(San Francisco, CA) March 1, 2010 — the Independent Television Service (ITVS), which brings independently produced, high-quality public broadcasting and new media programs to local, national, and international audiences, announced the election of three members to its board of directors. 

“We are honored to have these very talented individuals — all tremendous experts in their fields — on our board,” said Sally Jo Fifer, ITVS president and CEO. “All three bring a strong commitment to ITVS’s mission of serving independent producers and public broadcasting as we all continue the transition to reaching and engaging citizens in the 21st century.” 

The standing ITVS board nominates and selects new members to ensure diverse points of view and varied skills. "All three new board members bring a wide range of experience and leadership that will inform the tremendous work ITVS is undertaking in the public media realm," said Garry Denny, ITVS board chair and director of programming for Wisconsin Public Television. 

The ITVS board welcomes: 

Lisa Cortés is a widely respected and versatile Brooklyn, N.Y., film producer with deep roots in both the film and music industries. She served as an executive producer of the critically acclaimed Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, directed by Lee Daniels and starring Mo’Nique, Gabourey Sidibe, and Mariah Carey. The film has won, among other awards, the Grand Jury Prize, Best Actress, and Audience Awards at the Sundance Film Festival (2009), the People’s Award at the Toronto Film Festival, the TVE Otra Mirada and Audience Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Chicago Film Festival. In 2010, Precious was nominated for six Academy Awards®, including Best Picture. 

In late 2009, Cortés started a production company, Cortés Films, which has several projects in development. Cortés serves on the 2010 Advisory Board of the Independent Feature Project, and on the board for Yaddo, the artists’ community in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and for the Trajal Harrell Dance Company. Cortés is a graduate of Yale University. 

Cheryl Head is chief operating officer of Livingston Associates, a Baltimore executive search firm specializing in public media and other nonprofit placements. She joined the firm in 2009 after nine years at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where she served as vice president of public media engagement. Head has spent more than 25 years in public broadcasting as a program producer and administrator, station executive, and national program officer. She worked as a producer, executive producer, and ultimately vice president of production and community development during her 10-year stint (1980-1990) at WTVS, Detroit. Head was also deputy director of programming and, later, senior vice president of corporate services at WETA, Washington, D.C. from 1990-1994. 

Malinda Maynor Lowery is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her book Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation will be published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2010. She has published articles about American Indian migration and identity, school desegregation, and religious music. Maynor Lowery also has produced three documentary films about Native American issues, including the award-winning In the Light of Reverence, which showed on PBS in 2001 to over three million people. She centered two of her earlier films, Real Indian and Sounds of Faith, on the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, of which she is a member. Maynor Lowery serves on the board of directors of the Carolina Arts Network, and is a nonprofit producer of the outdoor drama Strike at the Wind! She has also served on the boards of Working Films and the Southern Documentary Fund. Maynor Lowery holds a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard University, a master’s degree in documentary film production from Stanford University, and a PhD in history from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her previous teaching appointments include Harvard University, North Carolina State University, Duke University, and San Francisco State University. 

Along with Cortés, Head, and Maynor Lowery, the ITVS board includes: Garry Denny, Chair (Director of Programming, Wisconsin Public Television, Madison); Jane Wagner, Vice Chair (Filmmaker, New York, N.Y.); Peter Ludé, Treasurer, (Senior Vice President, Sony Electronics, San Jose, Calif.); Bathsheba Malsheen, Secretary (President and CEO, MiNo Wireless, Santa Clara, Calif.); Celia Alaria, Member (Communications Strategist, Moab, Utah); Maurice “Moss” Bresnahan, Member (President and CEO, KCTS 9, Seattle); Peter Jaszi, Member (Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C.); Robb Moss, Member (Lecturer, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.); Ted Russell, Member (Senior Program Officer, The James Irvine Foundation, San Francisco); and Margaret Wilkerson, Member (Consultant, Berkeley, Calif.). 

About ITVS The Independent Television Service (ITVS) funds and presents award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy® Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens on Tuesday nights at 10 PM on PBS. ITVS is a miracle of public policy created by media activists, citizens, and politicians seeking to foster plurality and diversity in public television. ITVS was established by a historic mandate of Congress to champion independently produced programs that take creative risks, spark public dialogue, and provide for underserved audiences. Since its inception in 1991, ITVS programs have revitalized the relationship between the public and public television, bringing TV audiences face-to-face with the lives and concerns of their fellow Americans. More information about ITVS can be obtained by visiting itvs.org. ITVS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. 

Contact: Voleine Amilcar, ITVS voleine_amilcar@itvs.org 415-356-8383 X 244