Biography
Pat Mitchell has been a dedicated advocate for women and girls throughout her life. Throughout her career, she has pioneered new opportunities for women, utilizing media as a journalist, an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated producer to highlight women's stories and boost female representation both on and off screen. Moving into leadership roles, she became president of CNN Productions and the first female president and CEO of PBS and the Paley Center for Media. Currently, she continues her mission to connect and empower a global network of women leaders as a conference curator, advisor, and mentor.
In collaboration with TED, Mitchell founded TEDWomen in 2010, serving as its editorial director, curator, and host. She also speaks and curates for the annual Women Working for the World forum in Bogotá, Colombia, the Her Village conference in Beijing, and co-chairs the US board of Women of the World (WOW). She works with the Rockefeller Foundation to organize and lead Connected Women Leaders (CWL) forums, which focus on collaborative problem-solving among women leaders in government and civil society.
In 2014, the Women's Media Center honored Mitchell with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, now named after her to recognize other women advancing female representation in media. She has been acknowledged by the Hollywood Reporter as one of the most powerful women in media, included in Fast Company's "League of Extraordinary Women," and featured on Huffington Post's list of "Powerful Women Over 50." Mitchell also received the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Leadership. She contributed to the book Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership and wrote the introduction for the book and museum exhibition 130 Women of Impact in 30 Countries. In 2016, she was appointed by Congress to The American Museum of Women's History Advisory Council, and in 2019, she was named to Apolitical's Gender Equality Top 100 list of women leaders.
Mitchell is actively involved with numerous nonprofit organizations, serving as chair of the boards of the Sundance Institute and the Women's Media Center. She is a founding member of the VDAY movement and sits on the boards of the Skoll Foundation and the Acumen Fund. Additionally, she advises Participant Media and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia, holds a master's degree in English literature, and has received several honorary doctorates. Mitchell is the author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World. She and her husband, Scott Seydel, reside in Atlanta and have six children and 13 grandchildren.
