Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sagittis mi eu elementum malesuada. Maecenas arcu felis, suscipit vitae mi in, posuere ultricies nunc. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut ante velit, condimentum eget erat a, suscipit porttitor nisl. Pellentesque in semper nunc
What does it take to harness the power of media to drive social change? How do we design and implement a social impact campaign? Join Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmaker, Beth Levison and Impact Strategist, Alice Quinlan, Co-Founder and Partner at Red Owl, who will discuss how they engaged networks and mobilized communities to raise awareness about the relationship between democracy and local journalism with their campaign for the documentary, STORM LAKE.
Nominated for a 2021 Peabody Award, STORM LAKE by Jerry Risius and Beth Levison tells the story of a newspaper, a family, and a community. It highlights the struggle to keep a community business and local newspaper, The Storm Lake Times. alive. Helmed by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Art Cullen, whose editorials challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in small-town Iowa, is now wrestling with local journalism’s slow death and its threat to democracy. The story centers on Art and his family’s commitment to unite and inform their growing muti-ethnic and multicultural Iowan community of farmers and migrant workers.
“Fascinating…a portrait of American resilience and
unity through fractious times” -- The Hollywood Reporter
ABOUT OUR PANELISTS
BETH LEVISON
Beth Levison is an award-winning producer/director based in NYC. Most recently, she executive produced GRAND THEFT HAMLET (SXSW 2024 Grand Jury Prize winner for Best Documentary Film) and produced A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY (True/False 2024). Her 2022 producing effort, THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT, premiered at Sundance, launched on Netflix, and was nominated for a 2023 Academy Award (Best Documentary Short), while STORM LAKE, which she directed alongside DP Jerry Risius and also produced (Independent Lens, 2022), was shortlisted by the IDA as one of the best films of 2021. Other producing credits include Emmy-nominated MADE IN BOISE (Independent Lens, 2020), Emmy-nominated PERSONAL STATEMENT (PBS, 2018), and 32 PILLS (HBO, 2017). Levison is the founder of Hazel Pictures, a co-founder of the Documentary Producers Alliance, teaching faculty with Sarah Lawrence College, and a member of the Academy.
ALICE QUINLAN
Alice Quinlan is an impact and engagement producer with more than ten years of experience using storytelling to drive social change. As a Partner and Co-Founder at Red Owl, she leads campaigns with responsive strategies and an eye for creative partnerships and community-based work. Previously, as the Director of Community Engagement and Education at POV, Alice developed national engagement campaigns for POV documentaries, produced resources around POV's features, shorts and digital projects, and facilitated hundreds of free screenings nationwide every year with her team. Prior to joining POV in 2014, she founded the KRTS Youth Media Project in Marfa, TX, a part of PBS Student Reporting Labs. Alice is the director of programming at the Dome House, a community space and studio in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, which seeks to provide artists of all mediums with space for creativity, contemplation and wonder.
Moderated by Jen Van Der Meer and Neyda Martinez. Produced by Justyna Kedra.
Presented by The New School’s Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative and Media Management Graduate Program at the School of Media Studies.
By joining this online event, you will be prompted to accept Zoom Terms of Service. If the session is recorded, you acknowledge that by participating, your name, phone number, and profile picture might be visible to the public. You can customize your personal information when creating your Zoom account. The New School may use any recorded material from the event.
New School students seeking accommodations should contact the Student Disability Services office at studentdisability@newschool.edu.
Event guests seeking accommodations may contact the event organizer by clicking the "Contact the Organizer" link at the bottom of this page.
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders.
To receive updates about public programs and events at The New School, subscribe to our mailing list. Visit our Livestream and YouTube channels to watch select events live and recorded.
Desiree Almodovar is a strategic growth leader and an angel -investor. She works with Consumer, B2B, Healthtech and Real Estate brands to plan and execute on their go-to-market strategy to accelerate growth.
As the Founder of The Inlay, an NYC start-up innovation consultancy, Desiree works at the intersection of product, marketing, strategy and operations. She has partnered with dozens of pre-seed to series A brands, including Getaway, Common Living, Veracity, Included Health and The Muse. Many have gone on to reach major fundraising milestones with notable VCs and investors, such as L Catterton, Human, Silas Capital, 23andMe and more. Through this work, she fostered meaningful relationships with founders, and began angel investing in order to further support category defining brands.
Previously, Desiree served as a Senior Brand Strategist at several agencies, where she led high-performing teams to develop digital product strategy and award-winning campaigns for some of the world’s most influential brands, including Google, Viacom and Autograph Collection Hotels. Her work on interactive campaigns for the launch of Google Photos helped the platform secure over 100 million users after just five months.
Concurrently, her love of music has allowed her to curate sounds for numerous hospitality brands, such as Soho House, Edition hotels, and Soho Grand, where she’s opened for James Murphy, Haim, RAC, Phantogram and more.
Desiree has recently been featured in Nasdaq and on The New School’s Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative. She currently serves on the Council at Skowhegan, and continues to discover new tunes on the daily.
