Mary Nissenson

Mary Nissenson

Mary Nissenson (born April 1952) is an award-winning American television journalist, who also has been an entrepreneur, social activist and university instructor.

Contents

Early life and education

A summa cum laude graduate of Vassar College in 1974, Nissenson received her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1977, where she was the first woman elected president of the law students' association in that institution's history.[citation needed]

Broadcast journalism career

After practicing briefly as a corporate litigator with the Chicago firm of Hopkins & Sutter, Nissenson was hired as chief investigator of the consumer affairs unit (Factfinder) at WBBM-TV Chicago. She received her first Emmy Award[citation needed] eight months later for her investigative reports into violations of child labor laws -- a series also honored with a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association in 1979,[1] a Jacob Scher Award for investigative reporting, and a Peter Lisagor Award.

In 1980, Nissenson was hired as a reporter/documentarian for WTVJ-Miami. Shortly thereafter, Nissenson went to Israel and Poland to produce Pages of Testimony, which documented a Holocaust survivor's return to Auschwitz and the donation of the Auschwitz Album, a valuable pictorial record of the Holocaust, to the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem.

While in Warsaw, Nissenson was tapped by CBS Network News to cover Lech Walesa's Solidarity Movement and ensuing labor strikes which led to the democratization of Poland. Nissenson's series of reports, Poland: Changing Nation, received a George Foster Peabody Award[2] (television's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) just two months after she had begun her first full-time on-air reporting job.

Nissenson was hired by NBC Network News in 1982, where, in addition to being a correspondent on three presidential campaigns,[3] she sometimes guest-anchored on Today,[4] NBC News at Sunrise, NBC News Overnight and NBC News Digest. She left the network in 1985 to report and anchor for WABC-TV in New York.[5]

From 1987 until 1988, Nissenson worked as a reporter at WBBM-TV in Chicago.[6] In an interview with Chicago Sun-Times TV columnist Robert Feder, Nissenson denied that she resigned from the station in May 1988 because she was unable to obtain an anchor slot at the station. "I simply want to be my own person," she told Feder.[7]

Career as an entrepreneur

In 1988, Nissenson formed Foresight Communications, Inc. (FCI). FCI's worked with Fortune 500 companies to divert monies from traditional marketing and advertising to public service ventures, earning Nissenson recognition as one of the "Socially Responsible Entrepreneurs of the Year" by INC Magazine and induction into the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.[citation needed] During this same period, she and husband Bill Scheer (now deceased), founded Assignment Desk, Inc. the first worldwide fully computerized booking agency for videographers.

Nissenson's company, Foresight Communications, Inc., served as principal architect (Agency of Record) for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month[8] for its first decade.

Plastic surgery mishap

In 1995, a disastrous plastic surgery mishap left Nissenson homebound and disabled with an incurable pain condition, then known as cranial reflex sympathetic dystrophy[9] - ranked along side terminal bone cancer as one of the most painful conditions in the world. The mishap was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in countless newspapers and magazines, and several documentaries, including America the Beautiful (2007). She spent most of the next 14 years bedridden. During this period, Nissenson founded the Triumph Over Pain Foundation,[8] one of the first pain patient advocacy groups in the country,[citation needed] and wrote a column to offer advice and encouragement to other pain patients.

She also became an accomplished self-taught glass artisan and award-winning jewelry designer[citation needed] and opened the Bali Muse gallery in Chicago, whose revenues supported the work of her pain foundation.

Left by her husband and dropped by her insurance company, Nissenson lost her home[4] and life savings, paying for medical expenses well into the millions of dollars. In 2007, she moved to Kauai in the hopes of healing and regaining her strength.

Today

Nissenson now lives in Sausalito, California, where she is an instructor of graduate multi-media at San Francisco's Academy of Art University. She recently formed Global Gravitas, Inc. (a 501c3[clarification needed]) which specializes in strategic planning for international peace summits and global healthcare campaigns. Among their current projects are: A.M.E.N. (the first global campaign to fight MRSA) in cooperation with the President of the US Federation for Middle East Peace, and OMB (Obesity Must Go) a nationwide campaign to combat childhood obesity, in support of First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" efforts.

Personal life

Nissenson was married to Chicago TV reporter Mike Parker until 1989, when they divorced.[10] She married Bill Scheer in 1994.[11]

References

  1. ^ "American Bar Association / Gavel Award Winners / 1970s". American Bar Association. http://www.abanet.org/publiced/gavel/newsg1970s.pdf. Retrieved September 29, 2010. , p. 36
  2. ^ "George Foster Peabody Award Winners". Peabody Awards. http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/PeabodyWinnersBook.pdf. Retrieved September 29, 2010. , p. 42
  3. ^ "Democratic National Convention". Vanderbilt Television News Archive. http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/siteindex/1984-Specials/special-1984-07-17-NBC-2.html. Retrieved October 1, 2010. 
  4. ^ a b Dennis Rodkin (October 15, 2009). "Former CBS2 Reporter Faces Lincoln Park Foreclosure". Chicago magazine. http://www.chicagomag.com/Radar/Deal-Estate/October-2009/Former-CBS2-Reporter-Faces-Lincoln-Park-Foreclosure/. Retrieved October 1, 2010. 
  5. ^ Surfacing Anchor. New York magazine. October 14, 1985. http://books.google.ca/books?id=78MBAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=NBC+Mary+Nissenson&source=bl&ots=vGl84OZXa2&sig=9a5_65_KCIx97EF7cFdCDNKxHes&hl=en&ei=_YmmTNXpFMX_lgfuu_QY&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=NBC%20Mary%20Nissenson&f=false. Retrieved October 1, 2010. 
  6. ^ Feder, Robert (May 24, 1988). "Channel 5 boss Lobo moves to Miami post". Chicago Sun-Times: p. 47. 
  7. ^ Feder, Robert (May 24, 1988). "Channel 5 boss Lobo moves to Miami post". Chicago Sun-Times: p. 47. 
  8. ^ a b Elaine Gusac (March 29, 1998). "Bead It Disabled Marketer Takes Aim On A New Life Through Jewelry Design". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-03-29/features/9803290242_1_beads-marshall-field-chronic-pain-sufferers. 
  9. ^ Eloise Parker (July 30, 2008). "New documentary exposes horrors of botched plastic surgery". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2008/07/31/2008-07-31_new_documentary_exposes_horrors_of_botch.html. 
  10. ^ Kupcinet, Irv (September 17, 1989). "Kup on Sunday". Chicago Sun-Times: p. 10. 
  11. ^ Kupcinet, Irv (July 12, 1994). "Kup's Column". Chicago Sun-Times: p. 38. 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mike Parker (reporter) — Michael J. Fishel (born September 27, 1943), known professionally as Mike Parker, is a former news anchor and a longtime reporter for WBBM TV in Chicago. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Professional career 3 Personal …   Wikipedia

  • WBBM-TV — Chicago, Illinois Branding CBS 2 HD (general) CBS 2 News (newscasts) Slogan The Heart of Chicago Channels Digital: 12 (VHF) …   Wikipedia

  • UNITED STATES LITERATURE — The Influence of the Bible and Hebrew Culture The Jewish influence on American literary expression predated the actual arrival of Jews in the United States in 1654, for the Puritan culture of New England was marked from the outset by a deep… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • 1931 college football season — The 1931 college football season saw the USC Trojans win the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as national champion under the Dickinson system. Rockne, who had coached Notre Dame to a championship in 1930, had been killed in a plane crash on March 31 …   Wikipedia

  • National Book Award for Fiction — The National Book Award for Fiction has been given since 1950, as part of the National Book Awards, which are given annually by the National Book Foundation. Of all the awards given, the Fiction award is the only one that has been given… …   Wikipedia

  • 1935 college football season — The 1935 college football season was the last one before the Associated Press writers poll was used in selecting the mythical national champion. The Dickinson System, consisting of the calculations of University of Illinois Professor Frank… …   Wikipedia

  • Liste von Persönlichkeiten aus Brooklyn — Diese Liste enthält Persönlichkeiten, die in Brooklyn, einem der fünf Stadtbezirke von New York City, geboren wurden: Inhaltsverzeichnis A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Melvyn Douglas — Born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg April 5, 1901(1901 04 05) Macon, Georgia, U.S. Died August 4, 1981 …   Wikipedia

  • 1928 college football season — The 1928 college football season had the USC Trojans recognized as champions under the Dickinson system, but the Rose Bowl was contested between the #2 and #3 teams, California and Georgia Tech. The game was decided by a safety scored by Roy… …   Wikipedia

  • 1933 college football season — The 1933 college football season saw the Michigan Wolverines repeat as winners of the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as national champion under the Dickinson system. Thirteen members of the old Southern Conference split off in 1933 to form the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”