Asha Moore-Smith’s Experience at the 2024 Gracies Leadership Award
On Tuesday Nov. 19 I attended the Gracies Leadership Awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media at Tribeca 360 in New York City. I was one of 7 women selected for the 2024 Alliance for Women in Media (AWM) Foundation Fellowship. I met students from George Washington University, LIM College, Drake University, and University of Kentucky. We were facilitated by AWM President Becky Brooks, and AWM Director of Awards & Projects, LaTonya Jackson. This was an important opportunity for me that I’m so grateful to have received as a digital media student attending Washington DC’s only public land-grant HBCU.
It was an honor to be in attendance as AWM celebrated the legacy and achievements of eight women who are trailblazing leaders in media, while uplifting and fostering the next generation of women in media. The awardees included NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, whom we met and took a group photo with. While speaking during a special fireside chat with Libby Leist, Executive Vice President of TODAY and Lifestyle, Mitchell gave wonderful advice to students who are upcoming journalists and rising professionals in media. One key takeaway I gleaned from Mitchell’s chat is when she said, “It’s not important to be first, you have to be accurate.”
It’s uplifting to see a diverse group of women and their work being honored at the Gracies Leadership Awards. It was a full circle moment to speak briefly with Rashida Jones, president of MSNBC, who was in attendance, because she was the 2024 commencement speaker for UDC. It was also encouraging to see her there because representation matters. As a black woman who is interested in multimedia storytelling and production, it is very important to see people who look like me in these rooms who are thriving, telling impactful stories, and holding high level positions such as Jones, who is the first black woman to lead a major cable news network. Another one of these women is my professor, Nikole Hannah-Jones whose investigative journalism course I took at Howard University this fall, through the UDC consortium. Though she was not in attendance at the luncheon, it was encouraging to read that she won a Gracie Award in May of this year for her work hosting the 1619 project docuseries.
Through attending this event, I was able to see what is possible for me to achieve as I continue to explore career paths in both digital media and music. I felt immense motivation and welcoming energy from the women I met and shared space with at this special event. Through participating in the Gracies Leadership Awards luncheon and my AWM foundation fellowship, I look forward to fostering lifelong connections with the brilliant women I met and will continue to meet on this journey.
Asha Moore-Smith is a recipient of the 2024 AWM Foundation Student Fellowship. She is studying digital media at the University of the District of Columbia, and we look forward to seeing how she continues to shape the world of media in the future.