Ann Kirschner is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, educator, and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

of the books Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story and ''Lady at the OK Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp''. A veteran of four start-ups, Kirschner launched the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

's NFL.COM and co-founded

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's interactive knowledge network Fathom.com. She is Dean Emerita of

Macaulay Honors College William E. Macaulay Honors College, commonly referred to as Macaulay Honors College or Macaulay, is a highly selective honors college for students at the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. The college awards full-tuition ...

of the

City University of New York (CUNY) The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

, a University Professor at the

CUNY Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the Ci ...

, and a faculty fellow of the Futures Initiative. She is the co-founder of th
Women In Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York (WiTNY)
a collaboration between CUNY and Cornell Tech to increase participation of women in computer science, and a trustee of Princeton University.

Education and early career

Kirschner's eclectic career includes lecturer, author, and media and marketing pioneer in broadcast television, cable, satellite, and interactive media. A Whiting Fellow in the Humanities, she earned a doctorate in English literature from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, a master's degree from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

, and a bachelor of arts degree from the

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. Kirschner started out as a lecturer on

Victorian literature Victorian literature refers to English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. It was in the Victorian era tha ...

and working as a freelance writer for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...

. She assisted the director of English programs at

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

, and Lola Szladits, the director of the

Berg Collection The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch, 42nd Street Library or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. ...

at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

. Kirschner has conducted research on doctorates in business, funded by grants from Texas Committee for the Humanities, and the Littauer Foundation to study slave labor camps. Kirschner was scholar-in-residence at

Rollins College Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution. History Rollins Colle ...

and

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

Entrepreneurship

Her start-ups include Request Teletext, the first full-channel cable teletext service; PrimeTime 24 - one of the first home satellite broadcast networks;

NFL Sunday Ticket NFL Sunday Ticket is an out-of-market sports package that broadcasts National Football League (NFL) regular season games unavailable on local affiliates. It carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS. The ideal customer o ...

and

NFL.com The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

- the first sports league on satellite television and the Internet; and Fathom.com, the first interactive knowledge network affiliated to leading universities, libraries, museums, and research institutions. Fathom's consortium includes Columbia University,

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, British Library, British Museum,

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, the Science Museum of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

, and

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

. She introduced

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

to the

(NFL) using emerging technologies, such as

interactive television Interactive television is a form of media convergence, adding data services to traditional television technology. It has included on-demand delivery of content, online shopping, and viewer polls. Interactive TV is an example of how new information ...

and the Internet, and founded NFL.com and Team NFL on

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

. Kirschner is president of '
Comma Communications
a management consulting company focused on strategic assessment and innovation in education, media, and technology. She co-founded Satellite Broadcast Networks and PrimeTime 24, where she was executive vice president of sales and marketing for both companies. Earlier, she was director of new business development for TelePrompTer/Group W Cable, where she won an ACE award in marketing.

Advisor and Board Director

She is a current or former board member o
Movado Group
(MOV)
Strategic Cyber VenturesApollo Group
Topps, onhealth.com,

Public Agenda Public Agenda is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and public engagement organization dedicated to strengthening democracy and expanding opportunity for all Americans. Over the years, it has focused on many issues of concern to the publ ...

Jewish Women's ArchiveMOUSEPaul and Daisy Soros FoundationFootstepsWorld Quant University
New York Media Association,

Theatreworks USA TheatreWorksUSA is a professional, not-for-profit theatre for young and family audiences founded in 1961. The company is based out of New York City, but has touring productions that run through forty-nine states as well as parts of Canada. Pl ...

, Footsteps, the Princeton University English Department Advisory Council, and the Leadership Council of the Princeton University Graduate School.

Professional recognition

Kirschner has been honored with the Above and Beyond Award (2014) from City and State Magazine, New York Award from

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

(1999), and as a distinguished alumni of

SUNY Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

and Princeton University.

Publications

Books

Kirschner is the author of Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story, the story of her mother's wartime rescue of hundreds of letters sent to her during the five years she spent in Nazi slave Labor camps. The letters include correspondence between Kirschner's mother and

Ala Gertner Ala Gertner (March 12, 1912 – January 5, 1945), referred to in other sources as Alla, Alina, Ella, and Ela Gertner, was one of four women hanged in the Auschwitz concentration camp for her role in the ''Sonderkommando'' revolt of October 7, 1944 ...

during

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. The book has also been published in German as ''Salas Geheiminis,'' in Polish, as ''Listy z Pudełka,'' in Italian, as ''Il Dono di Sala,'' in French, as ''Le Secret de ma mère, ''in Czech as ''Salin Dar, ''and Chinese (Mandarin). The book was adapted to a play entitled Letters to Sala by Arlene Hutton, which had it
New York premiere on October 2, 2015 by
and is distributed b
Dramatists Play Service
Letters to Sala
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Her second book, Lady at the OK Corral: the True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

in March 2013. It is a biography of Josephine Marcus Earp,

Wyatt Earp Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which law ...

's common law wife of nearly 50-years. According to the author, Marcus sparked the world's most famous gunfight, buried her husband in a Jewish cemetery after he died in 1929, and subsequently shaped the legend of Wyatt Earp and the

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

. In 2013, Kirschner's book was selected as an Editor's Choice by ''

'' Sunday Book Review and Kirschner was honored as best new Western author by True West Magazine.

Selected publications

Are Universities On the Wrong Side of History?
Forbes
Perfume Before Zoom, I Presume
Forward
Dad, Did Trump Lose Your Vote?
Newsweek

* Innovations in Higher Education, HAH! The Chronicle of Higher Education

*

The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...

Adventures in the Land of Wikipedia
*

Reading Dickens Four Ways
*

My iPad Day
*

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

Study Abroad to Get Ahead in the U.S. (Commentary)

References

External links

Lady at the OK Corral website

Ann Kirschner's website

Ann Kirschner
on girlgeeks.org
Ann Kirschner
on The Technology Source * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirschner, Ann Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Columbia University faculty Princeton University alumni University of Virginia alumni City University of New York faculty Philosophers from New York (state) University at Buffalo alumni