Athens, Ga. – The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has approved three new members of the George Foster Peabody Awards Board. Joining other distinguished experts who select television and radio’s most coveted prize are Harry Jessell of New York, Frank-Dieter Freiling of Mainz, Germany, and Dwight Ellis of Bowie, Maryland.
“We are delighted to welcome such a distinguished group,” said Horace Newcomb Peabody Awards director. “Our board of 16 changes over time to ensure a variety of viewpoints and a range of expertise. The individuals named today will help expand that expertise and contribute substantially to the enduring importance of the Peabody Awards.”
In late March, Jessell, Freiling and Ellis will join Newcomb, 2006-07 board chair Meryl Marshall-Daniels, and 11 other veteran board members in Athens to choose the recipients of the 66th annual Peabody Awards from a field of nearly 1,100 entries from broadcast and cable television, radio and the World Wide Web.
Marshall-Daniels, a past president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, heads Two Oceans Entertainment Group, an independent production company in Los Angeles that creates, produces and sells original television programming. Her producing credits include the award-winning HBO animated series Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.
The entries, from the calendar year 2006, range from popular network-TV entertainment series to local-TV news investigative reports, and come from a variety of countries including Bulgaria, Mexico, the Philippines and Germany, as well as from the United States, Canada and England. The winners are scheduled to be announced April 4.
Jessell is editor and publisher of TVNewsday: The Business of Broadcasting, a daily online news and information service and resource for the media industries. Prior to creating TVNewsday, Jessell served as a reporter, executive editor and editor of Broadcasting & Cable, one of three leading magazines devoted to covering the media world. He has appeared regularly on TV and radio, lectured at universities and moderated numerous panels at industry conferences.
Freiling is senior vice president for international affairs, ZDF German Television. After earning a law degree from Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University, Frankfurt, he worked as a freelance journalist, focusing on foreign trade and international development aid. In 1990, he received a doctorate in international law, magna cum laude, with a dissertation on Germany and the United Nations. In 2000, he became ZDF’s director of international affairs. From 2002 to 2005, he served as president of Prix Italia, the oldest European prize for media productions, and since 2002 as vice president of the Prix Europa.
Ellis is the president and CEO of Dwight Ellis and Associates Ltd., a global business and workforce development consultancy. From 1980-2004 he was vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters. At the NAB he directed all actions of the Department of Human Resources, supervised the Broadcast Career Center and served as the NAB industry spokesman on all matters related to minorities and women. He is the recipient of the 2002 “Master Communicator Award” from the National Black Media Coalition, the 1987 Howard University Leadership in Communications Award, and the “International Achievement Award” presented by the National Association of Media Women.
The Peabody Awards, established in 1940 and administered by UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, are the oldest honor in electronic media. Today the Peabody recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. For more information, visit www.peabody.uga.edu.
Established in 1915, the Grady College provides seven undergraduate majors including advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication arts. The college offers two graduate degrees and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards. For more information, visit www.grady.uga.edu.