As Senior Director of Programs and Strategic Initiatives of The Walter Kaitz Foundation, Michelle Ray is responsible for developing and implementing the Foundation’s strategic direction, initiatives and programmatic activities. She also assists in the Foundation’s strategic and long-term goals, and is responsible for deploying marketing strategies for the Foundation’s varied programs.
Additionally, Ray is principally responsible for the Foundation’s annual fundraising dinner which, in 2008, raised over $1.8 million to fund diversity programs and initiatives of the industry’s three leading diversity groups. She also has oversight of the cable industry’s national supplier diversity initiative which brings together women and minority-owned business enterprises together with procurement officers from cable member companies.
She has also been instrumental for launching the Foundation’s first electronic newsletter produced on a quarterly basis and distributed largely to the cable industry and affinity groups. The content of the newsletter helps to position the Foundation as a leader in diversity issues and to disseminate information about the Foundation and its activities.
Prior to joining the Walter Kaitz Foundation, Michelle spent more than 15 years in the cable industry at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). While at the NCTA she was responsible for marketing the association’s annual tradeshow both domestically and internationally.
With a keen interest in live television production, Michelle has worked on the Emmy Awards, the CableACE Awards, NCTA’s Vanguard Awards, the Community Spirit Awards as well as other live shows. She currently serves on the Board of Cable Positive’s Baltimore & Washington, DC Chapter as its Treasurer and on the organization’s Tony Cox Fund for Local HIV/AIDS Programming on its Steering Committee. She is a member of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS).
Michelle is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science. She attended Harvard University’s Executive Management Program in June of 2002.
