Joy DiBenedetto

Joy DiBenedetto is the Founding Chair, CEO and Managing Director of the humanitarian media Company (HUM): Human Unlimited Media, LLC; and the portfolio of (HUM) companies which include HUMNEWS, HUMMEDIA, HUMMOVIES, HUMMUSIC, HUMMARKETPLACE, HUM Research & Reports, and HUM Labs & Technology as part of the world’s first and only `all-nation’ content and information agency. An award-winning 22-year media veteran she’s covered every major global event in successively senior positions, from the studio and in the field; domestically and internationally; as a producer, manager and entrepreneur.

She is the immediate past President and CEO of the venerable, Friendship Force International (FFI); an NGO founded by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, serving from July 2013-November 2015. (FFI) is a worldwide network of clubs (local chapters) and individuals who strive to advance a mission of promoting global understanding across the barriers that separate people by conducting almost 400 cultural travel exchange programs in more than 70 countries each year. The organization was honored with a Nobel-peace prize nomination in 1992; and under her leadership transitioned to a new 3-year strategic plan, launched the global `NextGen Youth Council’, and returned the organization to the Nobel arena with the largest children’s peace art exhibition displayed at the 2015 Barcelona, Spain `World Summit of Nobel Laureates’; and most recently at the Jordan National Museum in Amman (March 2016).

Until March of 2008, she was the global vice president of network booking and research for the CNN News Group, where she oversaw daily and long-term guest coverage for CNN’s domestic and international news networks and platforms, managing a worldwide editorial staff.

Prior to this, DiBenedetto served as director of network booking for CNN’s domestic networks. While at CNN she developed and managed the Newsource affiliate guest booking service called “GuestSource”; created the first internet interview programming for CNN.COM; and worked to build CNN’s exclusive guest booking system. Before joining CNN, she worked in Turner Broadcasting’s corporate finance division; and previously worked for CARE, the international humanitarian group as a Press Officer for Southeast Asia and Latin America; and as a caseworker handling senior citizens for New York City.

Her collective work throughout a professional career spans both the media industry and a devotion to humanitarian interests, global development and international non-profit work at both a high and grassroots level; and is reflected in a multitude of projects produced and designed to bring both of these passions together. The most recent example of this is her founding of the `F.L.O.W.’ (First Ladies of the World) conference and development bank, which she is working on with partners from the United Nations. DiBenedetto believes that media can enlighten and make positive change in the world and that we need to `Close the Geographic Gap in Media, Worldwide’ in order to progress peacefully as humanity.

She is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College with a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology/audiology. A recipient of a George Foster Peabody award, a DuPont, and a Jack Myers Media award for Innovation; she is also a Marshall Memorial fellow, a UN Foundation `Global Health Press Fellow’, and a member of the current 2016 Leadership Atlanta class; who sits on numerous advisory and directorial boards. She often speaks publicly about the media industry, international business strategy and the need for a more globalized geographic landscape to highlight what unites us as a world community, not what divides us.

DiBenedetto is a world trekker who often walks, roller skates and bicycles to work; and who has survived Dengue Fever. You can read more about her work here: http://linkedin/JOYDIBENEDETTO

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