After 22 years, Sally Jo Fifer plans to step down from her role as CEO of documentary nonprofit Independent Television Service (ITVS) but will remain in her position until the board fills the role.<\/p>\n
During her time at ITVS, Fifer has executive produced more than 1,000 films and docuseries, including I Am Not Your Negro<\/em>, Minding the Gap<\/em>, One Child Nation<\/em> and more. She has also raised millions in public and philanthropic funding to increase the impact of documentaries around the world and tripled the nonprofit\u2019s operating budget.<\/p>\n Fifer has credit on 16 Oscar nominees, 37 Primetime Emmy winners and 35 Peabody Award recipients. She recently signed a three-year- agreement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to further secure and protect independent artists\u2019 voices, editorial control and copyright.<\/p>\n In 2017, Fifer received the Peabody Institutional Award from filmmaker Ava Duvernay, who introduced ITVS as \u201ca foundational place in the flourishing of documentary film [and public discourse] over the past generation.\u201d A few months later, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored ITVS with the Governors Award in recognition of its early commitment to diversity and inclusion in front of and behind the camera.<\/p>\n Amid the spike in post-9\/11 stereotyping and disinformation, ITVS launched the Global Perspectives Project\u2013a multi-year initiative to connect citizens to citizens, helping people in the United States and other countries see and better understand each other. And when a swell of new documentaries about gender equality foretold the #MeToo movement, ITVS responded with Women & girls Lead, which attracted 100-plus million viewers across 60 films, including Oscar nominee The Invisible War.<\/p>\n Currently, ITVS is partnered with PBS to build audiences and community solutions to reduce the harms of the criminal legal system through its multiyear Stories for Justice initiative.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a gift it has been these past 22 years to serve film artists who engage and transform our hearts and minds\u2014make us more empathetic, more just, more wise,\u201d Fifer said. \u201cThey give us hope for a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n ITVS Board Chair Garry Denny said, \u201cSally\u2019s combination of integrity, strategic acuity, fierce commitment to supporting media makers, and kindness will be simply impossible to replace. I know the documentary field deeply appreciates her for driving ITVS\u2019s programmatic expansion grounded in diversity and inclusion and its innovation mindset. The board looks forward to building on everything we have accomplished under Sally’s visionary leadership and vows to ensure ITVS\u2019s continuity of service to filmmakers. I am incredibly energized by the opportunities ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After 22 years, Sally Jo Fifer plans to step down from her role as CEO of documentary nonprofit Independent Television Service (ITVS) but will remain in her position until the board fills the role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":19212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[6885,6886,6887],"class_list":["post-19211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-garry-denny","tag-independent-television-service","tag-sally-jo-fifer","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n