Northwest television Trailblazers in Diversity

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Northwest Chapter is pleased to offer Northwest Television Trailblazers in Diversity. This hour long talk show looks at the history of television through the lens of diversity in the NW.  We visited Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Alaska to learn more about trailblazers in these states.  We highlighted television professionals who faced and overcame obstacles. Many of these stories have never been shared before publicly. These are stories that need to be told and need to be heard.  

This unprecedented program is a complete volunteer effort by the NATAS NW Board and is being provided for free to television stations in our five-state region.  It will also be offered to media teachers to share with their classes.  This is our way of honoring trailblazers in our markets and it is also a way for us to give back to the community.  

The original “Trailblazers in Diversity” video project was created and led by our diversity committee in the Spring of 2023. We wanted to take a thoughtful look back through the lens of diversity as we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Northwest Regional Emmy® Awards. 

NATAS Northwest would like to thank all of these trailblazers for opening up and bravely sharing their stories with us. We would also like to thank all of the television stations who helped us including the Seattle Channel, KTUU in Anchorage, KREM-TV in Spokane, Idaho Public Television, and Montana PBS. We are very grateful to the following individuals who helped to make this completely volunteer effort possible:

Maria Downey, Randy Eng, Kevin Glantz, Jessie Kane, Aaron Kunz, Eric Larsen, Pat Metzler, Doug McManis, Daryl Mitchell, Nicole Sanchez, Scott Sterling, Victoria Taylor, and Greg Thies