On June 20, 2011,The Trustees of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) have elected Malachy G. Wienges to be Chairman of the 12,000 member Television Academy.  During the past thirty years, Wienges has served NATAS in multiple roles including First Vice Chair, Treasurer, and National Trustee from New York and Phoenix.

Wienges’ career spans 31 years at the CBS Television Network, with positions ranging from management trainee to Vice President of Sales/Marketing and Technical Systems.  He has produced The CBS Thanksgiving Day Parades, and is credited with originating the concept of remote production for daytime dramas (soap operas) when he took The Guiding Light to the Bahamas in 1976.  Since then, he has produced more than 155 television and film productions worldwide.

Wienges received a National Emmy in 1992 for the NFL on CBS, and he was awarded a second National Emmy for technical achievement for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

Wienges is President of Sedona Broadcasting, serving as a television consultant to worldwide television and media companies.  He is also an Arizona State Film Commissioner, having been appointed to this position by then-Governor Janet Napolitano in 2006.

A veteran of 35 years in television news in Chicago and President of the Chicago Chapter of NATAS, Ms. Williams-Perry joined WMAQ-TV, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Chicago in 1976.  As part of the NewsCenter 5 team, she worked as a general assignment reporter, covering stories ranging from the death of Mayor Richard J. Daley to the first running of the Chicago Marathon. During that time, she broke the story that Center for Disease Control researchers had found the cause of Legionnaire’s Disease, a bacterial infection that broke out during a convention of the American Legion. 

In 1979, Williams-Perry joined WTTW-TV, Chicago’s PBS station.  She produced an hour-long program profiling Sandra Day O’Conner, the first woman to serve as a United States Supreme Court Justice and went on to produce the weekly program, “Chicago Week in Review,” and worked as a producer/correspondent on “Chicago Tonight.” 

In 1993, Williams-Perry began her free-lance work with Towers Productions.  She wrote and produced programs for “American Justice,” working with Bill Kurtis on the series.  Since 2005, Williams has served as President of the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, where she has established new scholarships and started a Silver Circle Awards ceremony in Milwaukee, WI..

Alison Gibson serves as Treasurer and on the Finance Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and has a detailed understanding of the Academy’s current financial situation. Her expertise in budget and production management comes with decades of experience and a no-nonsense approach to cost cutting. She is the owner of MediaCool and Timeline Productions, two strategic communications companies she founded in 1991 to serve broadcasters, corporations and the legal community. 

Her 34-year experience in media production includes documentary programming for broadcasters in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the United States. Her work has been recognized with a variety of awards, including the International Emmy® award, Prix Jeunesse, and a Cine Golden Eagle.  

Ms. Gibson served as a National Trustee from the Northern California/San Francisco chapter (1994-1998 and 2004-2008). In addition to serving on the San Francisco chapter’s executive board, she has chaired their Education Committee from 1995 - 2008, overseeing a local scholarship program. She also developed new media initiatives that brought national recognition for the chapter’s media literacy program.

Norman Felsenthal is Professor Emeritus of Communications at Temple University in Philadelphia where he taught for 32 years prior to his retirement in 2005.  He is currently a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication. 

Felsenthal taught in the Department of Broadcasting and Telecommunications where he developed a specialty in the History of Broadcasting.  Earlier in his academic career, Felsenthal taught for four years in the Department of Communication at Purdue University.  He is the author of Mass Communication a textbook in the Mod-Com series that sold over 60,000 copies in two editions.  He is the author of six articles in the Encyclopedia of Television and has also contributed articles to the Journal of Broadcasting, Educational Broadcasting Review, and other academic journals.   

Felsenthal is active in both professional and academic organizations.  He is currently a Trustee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) as well as Chair of that organization’s Scholarship Program and a member of the Editorial Board of Television Quarterly.  He is a charter member of the Philadelphia Chapter of NATAS and has served as a Chapter Governor, Program Chair, and Scholarship Chair.  He is also a member of the Citizens Advisory Board of WHYY-TV-FM and of the Philadelphia Chapter of Broadcast Pioneers.

Peterson is the founder of Verite’ Productions, a multi-national award winning Production Company based in Cleveland, Ohio.  Peterson’s early broadcast experience was gathered at WXYZ-TV in Detroit where he was an innovative and bold promo producer, earning two Emmy nominations and an Emmy in 1987.  Moving to California, he honed his skills as a Senior Writer-Producer at Encore Communications, Inc., where his clients included, 20th Century Fox Television, Buena Vista Television, ABC, NBC, Fox, MCA Universal Television and Republic Pictures.  Earning numerous awards, including a PROMAX Gold Medallion, he also worked as an Associate Producer on the Columbia Pictures Television pilot “A Question of Scruples”. 

Arriving in Cleveland, he was hired as Senior-Writer-Producer for Gateway Communications, working on award winning projects, such as “On the Edge” funded by the Think First Foundation.  A true labor of love, “On the Edge” earned eight national awards, including a Telly Award; a Silver Screen Award in the 1994 US International Film & Video Festival; a Cine Golden Eagle Award, and the highly-prized Bronze Anvil Award, the Public Relations Society of America’s top honor.   Prior to founding his own company, Peterson joined WUAB-TV as Director of Marketing and Promotions, finding ample opportunities to put his unique stamp on breakthrough promotional campaigns that gathered both local and national attention.

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Harold Crump is Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., a position he has held since 1997.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Crump was General Manager of KSTP-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was owner/operator of WCSC-TV in Charleston, South Carolina. From 1983-1986 he was President of Broadcast Group, H & C Communications, Inc., where he was responsible for the purchase, evaluation and operation of H & C’s six major market television stations and one standalone AM (KPRC-TV Houston, WTVF Nashville, KVOA-TV Tucson, WESH-TV Orlando, KCCITV Des Moines, KSAT-TV San Antonio, KPRC-AM Houston).

Mr. Crump has also served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of the NBC affiliate in Houston, KPRC-TV. During that time he was elected Vice Chairman of the NBC Affiliates Board of Directors.

Mr. Crump was in the United States Air Force from 1953-1955 and attained the rank of First Lieutenant, Base Commander, Freising Air Force Base, Germany. He began his career in broadcasting a year later in sales at WLAC-TV Nashville, where he eventually was appointed Executive Vice President and General Manager. During that same period he was General Manager of 21st Century Productions, where he produced syndicated music programs, network musical specials and such nationally successful programs as Candid Camera and Hee Haw.

In addition to his corporate work, Mr. Crump is an active member of numerous community and national organizations. He is on the Board of Directors of Broadcast Music, Inc. and the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He is also a member of the Minnesota Broadcasters Association and Broadcast Pioneers. In 1997 Mr. Crump was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligation of Digital TV Broadcasters, a position he held for three years.

Mr. Crump currently serves on the National Television Academy’s Executive Committee as Chairman's Representative and is the Audit Committee Chairman. He has also served as Trustee at the Upper Midwest Chapter, where in 2003 he received a Silver Circle Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shelly Palmer is the host of NBC Universal‘s Live Digital with Shelly Palmer, a weekly half-hour television show about living and working in a digital world. He is Fox 5 New York‘s On-air Tech Expert (WNYW-TV) and the host of Fox Television’s monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living. He also hosts United Stations Radio Network‘s, Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily, a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm and
a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards).

Along with his contributions to the advancement of television, Palmer is a pioneer in the field of Internet technologies. He is the patented inventor of the underlying technology for Enhanced Television used by programs such as ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and ESPN’s Monday Night Football. In 2004, ABC’s Celebrity Mole Yucatan received an Emmy® Award in the category of Enhancement of Original Television Content. It was Palmer who led ABC’s team of advanced media professionals and spearheaded the award-winning project.

Six-time Emmy® Award-nominated, Mr. Palmer is well known for his series of “Hi-Tech” television specialsreated for Fox 5 New York. He also created Midnight Money Madness for TBS, created and produced HotPop, a teen lifestyle and music show, for Starz/Encore’s WAM! and has directed and produced dozens of national television commercials. Palmer has also enjoyed a highly distinguished career as a composer and producer. He was the recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP’s) 12th Annual Film and Television Music Award for ABC’s hit series Spin City. He was also recognized the following season in the category of “Most Performed Television Themes.” Palmer’s music credits include the theme songs for Live with Regis & Kelly, Rivera Live and MSNBC as well as the digital debut of the “real” cat singing the classic “Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow” for Meow Mix.

Palmer is a popular speaker and moderator at technology and media conferences hosted by industry organizations, like: The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), The National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB), The National Show presented by the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), The National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), Digital Signage Expo (DSE) and other major trade events. He is a guest lecturer at the MIT Media Lab, Stern Graduate Business School at NYU, The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia University, Tsinghua University, Rutgers Business School and other top tier colleges and universities.

A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, he is a weekly columnist for the Jack Myers Media Business Report, The Huffington Post and a regular technology commentator for CNN and CNNi. Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2nd Edition (York House Press, 2008) the seminal book about the technological, economic, and sociological forces that are changing everything and, Overcoming The Digital Divide: How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career (York House Press, 2011) For more information, visit shellypalmer.com.

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