Tuesday, November 12th, 2019

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Track I: Herscher Hall, Guerin C, Webcast Live

Women on the Creative Edge: From Film & TV to Innovative Lifestyle & Technology: Experiences in a Changing Landscape

Terry Hurlbutt, Vice President and Executive Editor, ABC News Digital

Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, Astrophysicist, Author, Musician and FIU CASE Board Member

Lauren Appelbaum, Vice President, Communications, RespectAbility

Shelley Andagan, Director, Game Studio Relations & Executive Producer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Tanna Frederick, Producer, Director, Actress, and Activist, Moderator

Terry Hurlbutt serves as Vice President and Executive Editor for ABC News Digital. In this integral role, she oversees the editorial operations of ABC News’ digital brands – ABC News, FiveThirtyEight and GMA Digital. Prior to this position, Hurlbutt led “Good Morning America’s” rapid news and lifestyle-focused digital expansion, including content creation, distribution, opening of new revenue streams and identifying opportunities to expand audience reach. During her tenure GMA Digital launched a new website, a newsletter and a robust, original slate of video franchises and features. From spotlights on first generation college students, including a special message from former first lady

Michelle Obama, and women running for office in the 2018 midterm elections to stars offering advice to their younger selves in “Take It From Me,” Hurlbutt’s content and distribution strategy grew GMA’s target audience by 70% in its first year. Hurlbutt joined ABC News in 2015 and launched the News division’s first Audience Development team and developed strategies across the Disney | ABC Television Group’s brand portfolio, including ABC Entertainment, Freeform and Disney Channel. She instituted a data-driven focus on content and distribution decisions that impact news alerts, live-streaming, mobile-first programming best practices and new initiatives including Google AMP, Facebook Instant Articles and Facebook Live. Hurlbutt previously worked at Google and YouTube, where she co-led North America partnerships for the launch of YouTube Kids, led the lifestyle vertical for the first wave of YouTube Originals, and managed strategy for media partnerships across Google. She is a graduate of Stanford University and received her MBA from UCLA.

Dr. Fiorella Terenzi, Astrophysicist, Author, Musician and FIU CASE Board Member: Internationally renowned astrophysicist, author and recording artist, Dr. Fiorella Terenzi has a doctorate in physics from the University of Milan. In research at the Computer Audio Research Laboratory, University of California,  San Diego, she pioneered techniques to convert radio waves from distant galaxies into sound - released by Island Records on her acclaimed CD "Music from the  Galaxies". Her award-winning CD-ROM "Invisible Universe” (Voyager Company) and best-selling books  "Heavenly Knowledge", "Musica Dalle Stelle", & "Der Kosmos ist weiblich” (Harper&Collins) weave astronomy and music, science and art into a tapestry for the senses.  She has appeared on CNN and in The Wall Street Journal, People, Time, and Glamour, and lectured at UCSD, Stanford, and MIT. Dr. Terenzi’s ground-breaking video for fashion designer Ermenegildo Zegna's Men's Collection was described by the New York Times as "Zegna's Very Big Bang”, and her high-energy show  “Let’s Get Astrophysical”, performed at the Miami Beach Centennial, featured the first Top-15 Stellar-Themed Song  Countdown combined with live DJs, musicians, dancers, and acrobats. Her FIU CASE "Physics & Ferraris” seminar showcased a variety of exotic Ferrari sports cars along with renowned inventor and former Walt Disney Imagineering R&D President, Bran Ferren to "Entertain, Educate, Enlighten, and Enthrall".  As a recording artist,  she has recorded "Quantum Mechanic" and “N.E.O" tracks for Billboard Top 20 Music Video "The Gate to the Mind's Eye with Thomas Dolby (Giant/Warner Bros. Records); Beyond Life, a Mercury Records dance/trance CD tribute to Dr. Timothy Leary (Polygram Records); "Trance Planet Vol. 5”  ( Triloka Records) and others. Terenzi's global media appearances include television and radio features on The Dennis Miller Show, Sci Fi Channel, NPR Talk of the Nation, Weekend Edition and Science Friday, Newsweek on Air, Strange universe, History Channel's "The Universe and "Ancient Aliens and others.

Tanna Frederick is a producer, director, actress, and activist. In her decade plus collaboration with indie film icon Henry Jaglom, she has starred in and helped produce six of his feature films, including the recently released, The “M” Word, the highly anticipated, Ovation, and three of his plays, including Train to Zakopane, which just completed a  run at the Edgemar Theatre in Santa Monica. Frederick — who got her start performing at the Steben’s Children’s Theatre and then the University of Iowa — is also a mainstay of the Los Angeles theatre community.  She has starred in successful productions of A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia, Richard Nash’s The Rainmaker — which was a Los Angeles Times Critic’s Pick — and Claire Chafee’s Why Why Have a Body, which also marked Frederick’s directing debut. She and Jaglom also collaborated on the stage adaptation of his film, Always… But Not Forever and the yearlong run of his original play Just 45 from Broadway, which was later adapted to the 2012 film of the same name. An Iowan by birth and a Californian by choice, actress Frederick is passionate about both of her home states. She is also the cofounder of the Iowa Independent Film Festival and of Project Cornlight, an initiative aimed at bringing film productions to the Hawkeye State and through which she produced her upcoming film Garner, Iowa. Project Cornlight currently has two other films are currently in development. Frederick has been hard at work producing the series, DEFROST in collaboration with Randal Kleiser, a revolutionary virtual reality experience using the Oculus Rift. She has a great skill for seeking out talented and dedicated individuals for her team. In California, Frederick fell in love with surfing and in 2007, she founded Project Save Our Surf, which is dedicated to ocean conservation, the improved availability of freshwater to those in need and exposing a wide range of people to the joys of the ocean through surfing. Since 2012, Project Save Our Surf Camp has reached thousands of underserved children and teens in Southern California and Mexico, educating them on environmental issues and giving them hands-on instruction in yoga and surfing. She has been instrumental in coordinating fundraising events, camps, beach clean-ups, and carrying out the mission of Project Save Our Surf. For her work on an off stage, Frederick has received numerous awards, including Broadway World Best Actress Award for Rainmaker, Best Actress awards from the Wild Rose Film Festival, Worldfest Houston, the Fargo Film Festival and the Montana Independent Film Festival. She has been named “One to Watch” by MethodFest and received the CineCause Award, the University of Iowa’s Distinguished Alumni Award, Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival’s Maverick Award.

Lauren Appelbaum the Vice President, Communications, of RespectAbility. Behind the scenes in the entertainment industry, she engages decision makers and creative executives to improve the quality and number of authentic, diverse and inclusive presentations of people with disabilities on TV and film so audiences can see people with disabilities as vital contributors in America and around the world. She has consulted on projects with A&E, Disney/ABC Television, NBCUniversal, Netflix, and The Walt Disney Studios, among others. She also enriches the pool of disabled talent in Hollywood by connecting them to those who can assist with their careers, both on the creative and business sides of the industry. She is the author of The Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit, which was created to help entertainment professionals to be as inclusive of people with disabilities as possible, and the creator of an innovative Lab Program for entertainment professionals with disabilities working behind the camera. Appelbaum has a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University; she also has undergraduate degrees from Columbia University (Political Science) and the Jewish Theological Seminary (Midrash). After graduation, she served as a digital researcher with the NBC News political unit for the 2006 midterm and 2008 presidential elections.

Shelley Andagan, Director, Game Studio Relations & Executive Producer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.: Shelley Andagan is an experienced Executive Producer and Operations leader.  She spent over 10 years in feature film and television with major motion picture studios and independent producers alike.  Shelley worked on key title releases, such as Marvel’s “The Runaways,” Disney’s “Jungle Book,” and New Line Cinema’s “San Andreas,” followed by many years producing Gaming and XR content.  She led teams at the forefront of technological advancement in content production at Activision, VR Playhouse, and 3DPaint/FX while also developing and maintaining their strategic partnerships across the industry. As Director of Game Studio Relations & Executive Producer at Qualcomm, Shelley works with the Head of their Advanced Content & Gaming Group to ensure the company leads the charge on creating cutting edge technology for optimized gameplay and content visualization across the industry. Shelley shares her expertise as an accomplished guest speaker at a myriad of professional conferences and events.  Her most notable speaking engagements were at NAB in Las Vegas, Digital Hollywood in Los Angeles, and AWE in Santa Clara.  She is also a guest lecturer, educating media professionals of the future.  Shelley’s most recent contributions to higher education were at Gnomon School of Visual Effects and Emerson – LA, where she guest lectured on innovative & immersive media. Shelley holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Television, Radio & Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.