Athens, Ga. – One of the “most influential female executives in the entertainment industry” will receive the DiGamma Kappa Distinguished Achievement Award in Broadcasting on Tuesday, Feb. 8, during the group’s annual banquet on the University of Georgia campus.
Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), will be honored for her exceptional service to the industry. Five years ago, she brought to PBS a distinguished background as a former network correspondent, award-winning producer, television executive and college-level educator.
Under Mitchell’s leadership, PBS has energized its programming and strengthened its commitment to serve the American public through the 349 locally owned and operated PBS stations throughout the country. Over the last four years, the organization has been the recipient of an unprecedented number of awards for excellence in programming, expanded its public affairs offerings, and renewed its commitment to education through enhanced teacher resources, curriculum and literacy initiatives.
Because of its fresh programming, strategic partnerships and public service initiatives, Forbes magazine recognized PBS as one of the “Magnetic 40” companies in America and The Hollywood Reporter cited Mitchell as one of the “most influential female executives in the entertainment industry.”
Mitchell is a member of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of United Way America, the Sundance Institute and the Women’s Advisory Council of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She lectures widely on leadership and the role of media in society, including testimony before both the U.S. Congress and the British House of Lords. A magna cum laude graduate of UGA, with a master’s degree in English literature, she is a resident of both Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
DiGamma Kappa (DGK) is the nation’s oldest student broadcast society and was founded in UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1946. DGK presents its Distinguished Achievement Award each year in conjunction with the Georgia Association of Broadcasters’ Winter Institute. Among the broadcasters who have received the award are Ted Turner, Bob Costas, Charles Kuralt, Ted Koppel and Barbara Walters. For more information on DGK, visit www.uga.edu/dgk.
Celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2005, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers seven undergraduate majors: advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication arts. The college also offers two graduate degrees and is home to the Peabody Awards, one of the premier programs in broadcasting.
