Ellen Schneider
Executive Director
Active Voice

Ellen Schneider is founder and executive director of Active VoiceT, a division of American Documentary, Inc. Active Voice (AV) uses powerful documentary films as the basis for community-involvement campaigns that inspire participants to positive action - civic engagement, volunteerism and coalition building. AV specializes in projects that deal with issues of race, culture and increasingly, demographic change.
AV evolved from of the Television Race Initiative - one of the few media models to be recognized by the President's Initiative on Race -- which Schneider created in 1997. Before that she was executive producer of the PBS series P.O.V. where she developed High Impact Television, a model for connecting grassroots groups and national organizations with social issue public television programs. Schneider also serves on the National Center for Outreach Advisory Panel, as an advisor to American University's Center for Social Media, and consults on a number of film and new media projects.