Ruth Ann Harnisch (born 1950) is an American investor, activist, philanthropist, writer, and coach. A former

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

and radio talk-show host, according to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' she was "one of the first women to anchor evening news, and had an award winning career in radio and print media." Her on-air reporting for

WTVF-TV WTVF (channel 5) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV (channel 28). WTVF's studios are located ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

resulted in an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nomination, after which she opened a

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

coaching practice as a professional coach. Harnisch founded and is president of the Harnisch Foundation, through which she founded programs such as Awesome Without Borders, SupporTED, and Funny Girls. Among other grants, the institution has funded the formation of the coaching department at

McLean Hospital McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and neuroscience research and is also known for the large number of ...

and the journalism departments at Kennesaw State University and Baruch College. Earning the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Coaching in 2016, the year prior

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

named her one of "11

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

activists you should know." She has served as an

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

on films such as ''Unrest,'' '' The Hunting Ground'', '' The House of Tomorrow'', ''Columbus'', ''Love the Sinner'', and '' Lucky''.

Early life and education

Ruth Ann Harnisch was born in 1950 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, where she spent her childhood. As a teenager in the 1960s she worked as a teen

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

for the Buffalo radio station WYSL-FM, using the name Karin Kelly. On June 1, 2011, she was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Baruch College in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. On May 10, 2012, Kennesaw State University in

Kennesaw, Georgia Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

awarded her its 14th

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

Career

1960s-1997

Early in her career Harnisch went into media, reporting and journalism, subsequently spending three decades in the field. She started her writing career with the ''

Buffalo Courier-Express The ''Buffalo Courier-Express'' was a morning newspaper in Buffalo, New York. It ceased publication on September 19, 1982. History The ''Courier-Express'' was created in 1926 by a merger of the ''Buffalo Daily Courier'' and the ''Buffalo Morning ...

'', and after her time as a DJ with WYSL she worked briefly with the Buffalo-based stations

WGR-TV WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Ro ...

and WKBW-TV. In the 1970s she joined WLAC (later

), the CBS-TV affiliate in

, as an on-camera consumer reporter and as a street reporter. She became a WTVF-TV

television anchor A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for ...

, where her on-air reporting resulted in an

nomination. During her fifteen years with the station she was the first female anchor on WTVF-TV and one of the first in the evening news in Nashville. Beyond her television appearances, she hosted a daily talk-radio program on WLAC-AM, the "Ruth Ann Leach Show," and worked as an

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

columnist for the ''

Nashville Banner The ''Nashville Banner'' is a defunct daily newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, which published from April 10, 1876 until February 20, 1998. The ''Banner'' was published each Monday through Friday afternoon (as well as Saturdays unti ...

'' for seventeen years. After retiring from her career in journalism, Harnisch became

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of More Than Money, a national nonprofit helping the wealthy invest in philanthropy. While with More Than Money she developed an interest in the organization's coaching program, and began studying the field of professional coaching herself. She became an International Association of Coaching (IAC) Master Certified Coach as well as a Board Certified Coach, and also joined the IAC and the

International Coach Federation The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to professional coaching. ICF has been called "the main accrediting and credentialing body for both training programs and coaches". ICF defines coaching as partne ...

. Harnisch founded a "strictly pro bono" coaching practice.

1998-2013

Described as a proponent of “creative philanthropy,” in 1998 Harnisch created the Harnisch Foundation, becoming the organization's president. With a philanthropic focus on projects promoting gender equity, diversity, racial equality, "social innovation," and "sustainable" journalism, one of the foundation's first grants was to a local Nashville chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Subsequent investments have included projects such as

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaigns, social impact films, and "convenings." Harnisch's unusual charitable investing through the foundation was covered on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'' and '' The Today Show''. In 2006 Harnisch co-founded and began supporting The Foundation of Coaching, which provided coaching-related research grants. Around 2008 she donated $2 million to found

's Institute of Coaching at Harvard, and she subsequently funded the annual International Coaching Research Forum, the Coaching Commons, and the formation of the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University, and the formation of the Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions at Baruch College. After serving as a founding funder of the TED Fellows program with Renee Friedman she co-founded the coaching and mentoring support program for the Fellows, or SupporTED. Recruiting professional coaches to coach TED fellows for free, SupporTED later led to the TED Fellows Collaboratorium events. In 2013 the Harnisch Foundation formed Awesome Without Borders, its own chapter of the

Awesome Foundation The Awesome Foundation for the arts and sciences is an international network of autonomous 'chapters' (groups) of philanthropists that provide small grants for projects to "people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe." ...

which distributes weekly $1,000 grants to project creators. Harnisch has invested in women-owned startups.

2014-2018

In February 2014 Harnisch and her husband invested seed money in the job search company The Muse. The Harnisch Foundation underwrites professional coaching programs to "support women in their leadership," and in 2014 she supported the Sundance Women Filmmakers Initiative Fellows with funds for personal coaching and mentoring. The Harnisch Foundation "refocused its mission on helping women and girls" in late 2014, with Harnisch splitting her time between her work with the Harnisch Foundation and her pro bono coaching practice.

named her one of "11 women’s rights activists you should know in March 2015," also publishing a feature on her through its Women's History Month series. Also that month Harnisch hosted a workshop with Feminist.com and launched #NotJustAStat, an online campaign featuring celebrities such as Lena Dunham and

Gloria Feldt Gloria Feldt (born April 13, 1942) is a ''New York Times'' best-selling author, speaker, commentator, and feminist activist who gained national recognition as a social and political advocate of women's rights. In 2013, she and Amy Litzenberger ...

. In 2015 and 2016 Harnisch and her foundation created the Funny Girls initiative, which involves teaching leadership through improv. Involved in several film projects as a

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

, in 2015 Harnisch served as an

on '' The Hunting Ground''. Also working with the filmmakers of ''

Hot Girls Wanted ''Hot Girls Wanted'' is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus. The film follows the lives of several 18- and 19-year-old pornographic actresses. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was rel ...

'', she was executive producer of the 2017 films '' The House of Tomorrow'', ''Unrest,'' ''Columbus'', ''Love the Sinner'', and '' Lucky''. In June 2017, she moderated a panel at the

Greenwich International Film Festival The Greenwich International Film Festival (or GIFF) is a non-profit organization that celebrates the visual arts in Greenwich, CT, with an annual film festival in June and supporting events throughout the year. The Festival, located in downtown Gr ...

. Harnisch remains head of the Harnisch Foundation.

Directorships and memberships

Harnisch has been or remains involved with organizations related to philanthropy, women's rights, journalism, and professional coaching. Early in her career Harnisch joined the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

(SPJ) and the

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ty ...

of the SPJ's nonprofit arm, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. She was a member of the

Radio Television Digital News Association The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dire ...

and on the boards of the International Association of Coaching, the International Coach Federation Foundation, and the Thomas J. Leonard Foundation. She is also a former chair of More Than Money. A long-term member of the former Broadcasters Foundation, Harnisch is a current member of Women at

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada *Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood *Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated place ...

, New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT), the Film and Media Circle of the Women Donors Network, and the Women Moving Millions (WMM) organization, where by 2014 she was co-chairing's WMM's Film Circle, of which she is a member and founder. She is also a member of Rachel's Network. She is also a current member of the International Women's Forum, American Women in Radio and Television, and the Buffalo Broadcasters Association.

Personal life

Ruth Ann Harnisch and her husband William Harnisch maintain a residence in Southampton, New York.

Recognition

*2011 - Honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Baruch College *2012 -

Honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from Kennesaw State University *2014 - Forty over 40 List of Women - honors "women who are upending the perception that 40 is past your prime" *2017 - ''Good Housekeeping'' - Ten Power Players Blazing New Trails Beyond The Boardroom *2008 - Harvard Coaching Conference - first recipient of the Vision of Excellence Award *2016 - '' Inside Philanthropy'' - 50 Most Powerful Women in U.S. Philanthropy *2016 - The International Association of Coaching - Lifetime Achievement Award

Production history

*2014 - ''The Sand Storm'' (short by Jason Wishnow) - associate producer *2015 - '' The Hunting Ground'' (documentary by director Kirby Dick) - executive producer *2017 - ''Unrest'' (feature film by director Jennifer Brea) - executive producer *2017 - '' Lucky'' (feature film by director John Carroll Lynch) - executive producer *2017 - ''Love the Sinner'' (feature film by director Jessica Devaney) - executive producer *2017 - ''Columbus'' (feature film by director Kogonada) - executive producer *2017: '' The House of Tomorrow'' (feature by director Peter Livolsi) - executive producer

References

External links

The Harnisch FoundationRuth Ann Harnisch's blogAwesome Without Borders
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnisch, Ruth Ann Philanthropists from New York (state) American women philanthropists Living people 1951 births Writers from Buffalo, New York American reporters and correspondents American broadcast news analysts Activists from Buffalo, New York American women television journalists 21st-century American women