On March 13, the Walter Kaitz Foundation along with NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, collaborated with the Multicultural Media Caucus (MMC) to host a panel discussion on Moving the Needle on Diversity in Hollywood.
The panel and accompanying reception was held at the Rayburn House Office Building and was designed to highlight the strides being made in Hollywood to focus on increasing diversity and inclusion and to showcase the efforts of our industry to encourage and grow the talent pipeline for more diverse content creators to have a voice.
Panelists included Dr. Ana-Christina Ramona, co-author of the UCLA Annual Hollywood Diversity Report; Michelle Ray, executive director, The Walter Kaitz Foundation; Margaret Kim, founder and executive director, Future Now Media Foundation, Inc.; and serving as host was Rosa Mendoza, founder, president & CEO of ALLVanza. Panelists discussed some of the finer points from the recent findings and metrics produced from the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report and prescribed solutions with respect to how the media industry is contributing to the success around diversity and inclusion in television and film.
The panel also covered gains made from recent efforts to diversify programming and the cultural impact of those efforts. Michelle Ray further outlined how the media industry, through the efforts of the Walter Kaitz Foundation, was engaging under the Foundation’s leadership to help identify philanthropic resources and procure funding for key programs and initiatives to further diversity and inclusion efforts.
Founded in 2016, the Multicultural Media Caucus is dedicated to issues related to the state of diversity and inclusion in the media, telecom and tech industries. Promoting multicultural media and multi-interest participation is a core theme of the Caucus which is chaired by Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), Congressman Tony Cardenas (D-CA), and Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA).
To view images from the event, click here.