Money Matters: Changing the story of poverty, prosperity & opportunity

Entertainment panel: How entertainment has portrayed poverty and prosperity in TV storylines

DAVID AMBROZ (moderator)—Ambroz is the incoming president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, where he begins in April. Until recently, he served as the executive director, corporate social responsibility for Walt Disney Television, where he led all pro-social and philanthropic efforts, including issues of representation, diversity, equity, inclusion, and pro-social script integration. Prior to joining Disney, Ambroz was the executive director of the Los Angeles City College Foundation. An attorney, Ambroz received a juris doctorate degree from the UCLA School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Vassar College. He’s been active on issues regarding homelessness, stemming from his early years of being homeless himself and living in a series of foster homes and group facilities.

STEVEN CANALS—Canals is the Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning co-creator, executive producer, director and writer of FX’s drama series, Pose. Since its breakthrough premiere, the show has received an AFI Award for TV Program of the Year (2018, 2019), as well as Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominations for Best Drama Series, and a Writers Guild Awards nomination for Outstanding New Series. Canals was featured on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter for the inaugural Pride Issue, and named to its list of 2020’s “50 Most Powerful LGBTQ Players in Hollywood.” He is a queer, AfroLatinx creator who grew up in New York City and whose work aims to center communities that have been under-represented onscreen. He recently signed an exclusive overall deal with 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox TV), where he will continue to develop projects that highlight voices and stories from historically marginalized communities.

LINDA YVETTE CHAVEZ—Linda Yvette Chávez is the co-creator, co-showrunner and executive producer of Netflix’s hit series Gentefied, produced by America Ferrera and Macro Studios. The show’s first season was nominated for three Imagen Foundation awards, including Best Comedy Series. While producing Gentefied, Linda adapted I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, a New York Times bestseller by Erika L. Sanchez, into a feature film for Anonymous Content (The Revenant, Spotlight). She also spent time in the writers room of Nickelodeon’s Emmy award-winning series The Loud House. Linda’s a graduate of the WGA’s Showrunner Training Program, a Sundance Momentum Fellow, and was named a writer/creator to watch by Robert Rodriguez, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Zoe Saldana in their LATINXT LIST (2019, 2020). She is currently writing a film for Fox Searchlight, showrunning season two of Gentefied, and preparing to direct her first feature film, Fieras.

MARVIN LEMUS—Lemus is an award-winning screenwriter, director and producer with a passion for telling unapologetic stories. His eclectic body of work ranges between the film festival circuit and the digital world. Most recently, Lemus co-created Gentefied, a bilingual dramedy series on Netflix that’s executive produced by America Ferrera and Macro Studios. Gentefied originally premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival as a digital series directed by Lemus. Currently, he is co-showrunning the series in its second season.

ANTHONY SPARKS—Sparks is the showrunner, executive producer and writer for Queen Sugar (OWN). He’s written and produced for several dramas, including The District (CBS), Lincoln Heights (ABC Family), Undercovers (J.J. Abrams/NBC), and the hit NBC series The Blacklist. He is also a scholar-artist of media studies, performance studies, and African American politics and culture. For his TV work he received and/or was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards, and two Sentinel Awards from Hollywood, Health & Society. Sparks’ play Ghetto Punch was presented at several off-Broadway venues. He began his career as an actor, performing in the hit theater show STOMP in New York and on tour. He earned a B.F.A. in Theater, and M.A. and Ph.D. in American Studies & Ethnicity, all from USC.

ERIKA GREEN SWAFFORD—Green Swafford is a consulting producer and writer with the NBC series New Amsterdam. She began her career at Oxygen, where she was on an executive career track until she switched to writing. Training in the Warner Bros. writers’ workshop led to Green Swafford’s first job on CBS’ The Mentalist, where she spent six seasons, rising to producer. She then joined ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. Her work on the show earned her an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. She also won a 2020 Sentinel Award presented by Hollywood, Health & Society for the New Amsterdam episode, “Righteous Right Hand.” She’s currently developing new projects with Universal TV. Green Swafford is a graduate of Cornell University and the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

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Research panel: New research on narratives of poverty and wealth in popular culture

RIKI CONREY, Ph.D.—Conrey is director of Science at Harmony Labs. She leads a team that uses the big data that flow through our culture to help artists make the world better. They work on what our audiences are interested in when they’re not paying attention to social issues, and in what we can say to them when they are. Lately, Riki’s team has discovered where people get their stories about how poverty and money work in America (mostly from TV news), which American audiences are most interested in stories about Native Americans (the same ones who care about history), and what kinds of stories about immigration connect with audiences whose core values include security, tradition, and family (everyone’s from somewhere). Riki holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from Northwestern University and has spent more than 20 years directing survey and big data research on attitudes, attitude change, and communications.

ERICA ROSENTHAL, Ph.D.—Rosenthal has spent 20 years studying media and communication initiatives addressing health and social issues. Her passion is for the power of media narratives to challenge preconceptions, move people to action, and generate lasting culture change. As the director of research at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, she oversees a portfolio of research focused on understanding media narratives and studying their impact on audiences’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Current projects focus on health equity, economic mobility, gun safety, and the societal impact of technology. She has a Ph.D. in social psychology from Claremont Graduate University.