Full Name
Michelle Ray Michelle Ray
Job Title
Deputy Executive Director
Company
Walter Kaitz Foundation
Bio
Michelle Ray is the Executive Director and CEO of the Walter Kaitz Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to providing opportunities for people of color, women and the LGBT+ community in the cable, media and entertainment industries. Michelle’s responsibilities include developing and implementing the Foundation’s strategic direction, initiatives and programmatic activities.
Michelle provides oversight and management of the Foundation’s distribution of targeted grants to the industry’s key diversity organizations and collaborates with these organizations to refine and advance inclusion programs and initiatives that impacts the media and telecommunications industry. She also works collaboratively with national organizations that advocate for the social and economic interests of diverse communities and connects them with the industry’s member companies to further inclusion and equity goals.
Michelle developed the Foundation’s decade-old Hollywood Creative Forum, the first program of its kind uniting the efforts of the television industry, the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences designed to match credentialed content creators of color with networks, studios and production companies serving the industry.
Michelle is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science. She is also a 2020 graduate of WICT’s Senior Executive Seminar at Stanford University; a 2015 graduate of the prestigious Betsy Magness Leadership Institute – Class of 31; a 2010 graduate of NAMIC’s highly respected Executive Leadership Development Program at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and a 2002 graduate of CTAM’s Executive Management Program at Harvard University School of Business.
Michelle provides oversight and management of the Foundation’s distribution of targeted grants to the industry’s key diversity organizations and collaborates with these organizations to refine and advance inclusion programs and initiatives that impacts the media and telecommunications industry. She also works collaboratively with national organizations that advocate for the social and economic interests of diverse communities and connects them with the industry’s member companies to further inclusion and equity goals.
Michelle developed the Foundation’s decade-old Hollywood Creative Forum, the first program of its kind uniting the efforts of the television industry, the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences designed to match credentialed content creators of color with networks, studios and production companies serving the industry.
Michelle is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science. She is also a 2020 graduate of WICT’s Senior Executive Seminar at Stanford University; a 2015 graduate of the prestigious Betsy Magness Leadership Institute – Class of 31; a 2010 graduate of NAMIC’s highly respected Executive Leadership Development Program at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and a 2002 graduate of CTAM’s Executive Management Program at Harvard University School of Business.
