Pat Mitchell is a lifelong advocate for women and girls.
Why you should listen
At every step of her career, Pat Mitchell has broken new ground for women, leveraging the power of media as a journalist, as an Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer and as an activist and campaigner to elevate women's stories, ideas and leadership. As the former president of CNN Productions, PBS and the Paley Center for Media, and now as cofounder and co-lead of Connected Women Leaders, her commitment to connect and strengthen a global community of women leaders continues to be the touchstone for all her work as a conference curator, advisor and mentor.
In partnership with TED, Mitchell launched
TEDWomen in 2010 and is its editorial director, curator and host. She is also a speaker and curator for the annual Women Working for the World forum in Bogota, Colombia, and the
Women of the World (WOW) forums. In partnership with Mary Robinson, Hafsat Abiola and Ronda Carnegie, she partners with the Rockefeller Foundation to curate, convene and host Connected Women Leaders (CWL) forums, focused on collective problem solving among women leaders in government and civil society.
In 2014, the Women's Media Center honored Mitchell with its first-annual
Lifetime Achievement Award, now named in her honor to commend other women whose media careers advance the representation of women. Recognized by Hollywood Reporter as one of the most powerful women in media, Fast Company's
"League of Extraordinary Women" and Huffington Post's list of
"Powerful Women Over 50," Mitchell also received the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Leadership. She was a contributor to
Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership, and wrote the preface to the book and museum exhibition
130 Women of Impact in 30 Countries. In 2016, she received a Congressional appointment to
The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council, and in 2019 was named to the Gender Equality Top 100 list of women leaders by Apolitical. She is the author of
Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World and gave a TED Talk on the same subject in 2019.
Mitchell is active with many nonprofit organizations and is now Emerita Chair of the boards of the
Sundance Institute and the
Women's Media Center and continues as a trustee of both. She is a founding member of the
VDAY movement, serves on the boards of the
Skoll Foundation and the advisory council of the
Acumen Fund and is a director of
Participant Media.
Mitchell is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and holds a master's degree in English literature and several honorary doctorate degrees. She and her husband, Scott Seydel, live in Atlanta and have six children and 13 grandchildren.
