Cablefax The Magazine October 2022 - 46

Pooja Midha
EVP & GM
Effectv
THE WHY? Midha recently stood up a new 300-person Sales Development
function at Effectv, the ad sales division of Comcast Cable, and
segued into her new position this fall. She oversees Effectv's efforts with
Comcast RISE, which during its first year beginning in November 2020
provided more than $60 million in grants, marketing and tech services to
6,700 small businesses owned by people of color. She also spearheads
corporate responsibility for Comcast Advertising, including DEI, and she
serves on Comcast's DE&I Board.
SHE SAYS... " Emphasis and action to support DEI should be threaded
throughout your operations and functions. "
WHAT TV SERIES OR MOVIE INSPIRES YOU? Thanks to my Danish
husband, a few years ago I devoured the first three seasons of " Borgen. "
D&I CHAMPION
If you want to understand Miley's impact,
just take a look at some of the
people who call her a mentor: MSNBC
President Rashida Jones, Telemundo
station GM Jose Suarez, NBC News/
MSNBC broadcaster Craig Melvin.
And the list goes on.
She's worked for NBC for 31 years,
cultivating many mentorships over
that time. She also helps others connect
through weekly DEI internal
coffee chats for NBCU News Group
employees. " Sometimes the most
valuable mentorship happens alongside
your own colleagues. Most of the
people I've been in the trenches with,
in control rooms with, and working
across long hours with stick with me
and serve as mentors to me as much
as I serve as a mentor to them, " Miley
says.
The past year has seen Miley achieve
some major DEI milestone for the
group as she broadened the scope
of its talent pool. In 2021, she led the
creation and launch of NBCU Academy,
a multi-platform journalism training
and development program partnered
with 17 universities, community
colleges and institutions to provide
scholarships, education, on-campus
training, online programming, funding
for accredited journalism programs
and access to world-class journalists
from NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and
Telemundo. This year, she oversaw
the significant expansion of its reach
to 30 schools.
Miley's journalism accolades are too
long to list, but include three Emmy
Awards, 10 Edward R. Murrow Awards
and Society of Professional Journalists
Award for her role during coverage of
the Marathon Bombing in Boston. She
made the switch to the newly formed
DEI team when Cesar Conde became
Yvette Miley
SVP, Diversity,
Equity & Inclusion
NBCU News Group
chairman of NBCU News Group. " It
was scary to leave the day-to-day of
editorial. That was my comfort zone,
but I realize that this role is bigger than
me. This is beyond me. I have to answer
the call and I'm going to do my
absolute best, " she says.
She began her new role shortly after
the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When American saw an increase in violence
against AAPI individuals, Miley
challenged the News Group to act before
many other organizations did. She
continues to work closely with corporate
partners across NBCUniversal to
come up with solutions to help AAPI
colleagues feel safe and to dedicate
air-time to reporting on the continued
acts of hate for this community and
others.
In 2020, Conde set the " Fifty Percent
Challenge " -a goal to have 50% of
staffers be women and 50% of the total
workforce be people of color. Miley
said she's never experienced an articulated
mission as ambitious as this
initiative. " The time that we are living
in calls us to be bold in our ambitions,
to make a statement and to call them
out. This boldness invites criticism,
but also collaboration, " she says. " For
me personally, I find that it's a reminder
that progress, however you define
it, is more than a numerical outcome.
Progress is shown in how you feel
about where you work and the people
around you. The metrics are one
measurement and it hits me hard that
I work at a place that is not afraid to
make bold commitments to change
the industry. "
46
October 2022
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