Tina Thornton was named a coordinating producer in remote production for ESPN in 1998. She is responsible for overseeing the production of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament (since 2002) and since March 2005, has managed remote production’s coordination with the ad sales department to develop potential sales opportunities within event programming. Thornton also coordinates the department’s personnel and editing needs. In previous years (1998-2005), Thornton had served as coordinating producer for a variety of ESPN Outdoors programming, including the Bassmaster Tour, the Bassmaster Classic and the ESPN Great Outdoor Games, which debuted in July 2000 in Lake Placid, N.Y. She had also served as coordinating producer for additional NCAA Championships, plus arena football, volleyball; track and field, including the Boston Marathon, and more. Thornton joined ESPN as a production assistant in 1993 and was promoted to associate producer I in 1994 and to associate producer II in 1997. As an associate producer, she worked on college football, college basketball, NFL and the NFL Draft, and the NCAA women’s Final Four. In addition, Thornton has worked on three X Games (1995-97) and on two Winter X Games (1997 and ’98). In June 1998, Thornton was named one of “20 Under 30,” a list of successful, young women, by Working Woman Magazine. She was also accepted in the WICT (Women in Cable & Telecommunications) Betsy Magness Leadership Institute for the 2005-06 year (Class XII). A Cincinnati native, Thornton graduated from Wake Forest University with a bachelor of arts degree in communications in 1993. In 1999, she completed the Simmons College Program for Developing Managers. While in college, Thornton interned two summers at CNN.
