Geena Davis, Former FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate Launch Groundbreaking Commission on Media Images

Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning Actor and Founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Deborah Taylor Tate, former FCC Commissioner, have joined together to launch Healthy MEdia: Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls.

Davis and Tate launched the Commission saying:

“We are proud to join together to transform how we approach gender equality and images of women and girls in the media.

What children see affects their attitudes toward male and female roles, as well as impacts the value they place on girls and women in society. Working together, Healthy MEdia: Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls will lead the national conversation about how to ensure we are creating a positive media environment for all our children.”

Planning for the launch of this commission started last October with a dialogue at the Healthy Media for Youth Summit on how the industry and consumers can promote healthy images of women and girls in the media. The Girl Scouts of the USA, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), and The Creative Coalition, a non-profit, nonpartisan social and public advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment community, all attended the summit and took part in the discussion.

Now all of those same organizations are working together formally to launch Healthy MEdia with an objective to host the national discussion on best practices to promote positive and balanced images of girls and women.

The commission, whose members include media industry leaders, subject matter experts, youth representatives and the creative community, plan to convene industry leaders, subject-matter experts, youth representatives, media leadership, and the creative community to develop a blueprint on how to create a positive media environment for kids; produce concrete recommendations to media and policy leaders; champion media leaders who are promoting positive content and balanced images of girls and women; and work to secure industry-wide, public commitments to take steps toward positive change.

Participating in the launch of the Healthy MEdia commission is a great fit for Davis who is a long-time advocate for women and girls in the media.  Also founder of the nonprofit The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and its programming arm See Jane, which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters, Davis has been vocal and active in promoting the need to increase the number of girls and women in media aimed at kids and to reduce stereotyping of both males and females.

Tate was twice-nominated to the FCC by President George W. Bush where she served until 2009. Presently, she is a Senior Fellow at both the East West Institute and the Free State Foundation, and serves on numerous national boards including Common Sense Media, Centerstone Research Institute, Minority and Media Telecommunications Council and Healthstream, Inc.

She teaches and is affiliated with both Vanderbilt and Lipscomb Universities. Tate was recognized for her work on child online safety by the World Telecommunications and Information Society Day Laureate and was recently appointed the ITU’s Global Special Envoy for child online activities.

Director of Media Relations @Politic365 ; Multi-Media Strategist & Content Producer--- Prior to joining Politic365, Elesha Barnette spent nine years with Procter & Gamble. Elesha has a rich, diverse background in sales analytics as well as merchandising & marketing of Fortune 500 brands. In addition to her experiences in business development, Elesha has also run a freelance media production company that develops stories for screen. Elesha has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in Communications/Media Production.

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