At the end of August, along with fellow members of the creative community, we were delighted to announce the formation of the SIE Society, an organization designed to serve as a central hub to connect, empower and create alliances between Social Impact Entertainment companies, content creators, organizations, institutions and professionals.
We are building an SIE platform and ecosystem that will engage communities in multiple SIE arenas, including film, television, new media, theatre, in order to foster discussion, advocacy and action in order to create a more positive and inclusive world. The SIES website (www.siesociety.org) currently offers Resources, for a deeper dive into published studies and reports on specific SIE subjects, as well as an Ecosystem of SIE organizations around the world, and a Calendar of SIE Events. We are currently developing plans for further SIES offerings, including producing an annual SIES Impact Summit and SIES Impact Awards event, SIES Educational Workshops and Master Classes, both in the U.S. and internationally, SIE Mentoring Programs, and an SIES Newsletter.
Key founding Partners include the USC Media Institute for Social Change, USC’s Hollywood, Health and Society, Randy Testa from Harvard’s X-Media Lab and Professional Education Division of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, Producers Without Borders, the Austin Film Festival, Yea!, SIMA Studios, Harness, and Journeys in Film. With global inclusion in mind, we expect that the list of members and allied organizations will increase dramatically in the time ahead.
Our organization is being led by an experienced team of industry professionals. Robert Rippberger and I are serving as Co-Executive Directors. Rebecca Graham Forde is the Head of Partnerships & Amplification, Tobias Deml is Head of Content & Impact; Hiroki Kamada is Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Representation, with Devon Dansky as Head of Community Engagement, Kayvan Mashayekh as Head of International, Christina Lindstrom as Head of Impact Measurement & Assessment, and Digital Domain’s Jeff Chao as Head of Finance.
We are being guided by an Advisory Board that includes Laura Herb from the Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment and accomplished producers such as Effie T. Brown, Kate McCallum, Kia Kiso, Anne Marie Gillen, Efuru Flowers, Rikki Hughes, Christina Lee Storm, Barbara Morgan, Adhrucia Apana, Michael Taylor and Miguel Sabido, as well as renowned human rights advocates Bonnie Abaunza, Marya Bangee and Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Sue Obedei, with others expected to be added as the SIE Society’s membership grows in its diversity and global reach.
We are encouraging people to please sign up for free memberships through our website: http://www.siesociety.org, where additional information about the SIES is available.
Additionally, we are active on the following social media platforms:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/siesocietyorg
https://twitter.com/siesociety
https://www.instagram.com/siesociety/
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