Career Synopsis
Chelse Benham is a multi-EMMY©, Telly©, ADDY© award-winning producer, director, and editor with international, national, and regional awards, including the WEBBY People's Voice Award for the website reeltored.com.
Ms. Benham is a published journalist and author of articles on business protocol, interactive gaming, and its future relationship with film. She has experience in television program development, promotions and marketing, social media, and game design. She has thirty years of professional experience.
Among the many awards and titles she has held, Ms. Benham is notably an American Film Institute Fellow in Digital Content Design, a founding board member of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, and a two-time U.S. delegate and fellow recipient representing The Corporation of Public Broadcasting at INPUT International, a worldwide conference for documentary filmmakers.
Ms. Benham is a published journalist and author of articles on business protocol, interactive gaming, and its future relationship with film. She has experience in television program development, promotions and marketing, social media, and game design. She has thirty years of professional experience.
Among the many awards and titles she has held, Ms. Benham is notably an American Film Institute Fellow in Digital Content Design, a founding board member of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, and a two-time U.S. delegate and fellow recipient representing The Corporation of Public Broadcasting at INPUT International, a worldwide conference for documentary filmmakers.
Chelse Russell Barker Benham - curriculum vita
| chelse_benhams_curriculum_vita_12062021.docx |
Career Highlights
I believe that at the center of every innovative venture are people willing to take risks and, in the process, create an excellent product or enterprise. With the right people on a team, remarkable things can be accomplished. For more than 28 years, I have had the opportunity to acquire expertise in many different areas, working with teams of people: from launching start-up companies to working for large established organizations; from grant writing to developing pitch presentations; from network television programming development to in-house video production; from multimedia marketing to interactive website design.
In the early 1990s, I honed my television production skills working for national networks such as HGTV, A&E, and the History Channel. By 1997, I started my first video production company, creating documentaries and informational videos for non-profit organizations.
Over the next five years, I produced award-winning videos. In 2002, my family moved to South Texas, where I left the private sector to work in a University environment that afforded me entirely new and innovative opportunities.
It was at the University of Pan-American in 2004 that I developed an in-house television production unit and created a Student Internship Program (SIP) named Reel to Red Productions. It was housed in the office of University Relations. Over the next nine years, this program would go on to create award-winning programs, digital media, and an interactive game.
My first hands-on experience with interactive media came in 2007 when I received a fellowship to participate in Digital Content Design at the American Film Institute to research and develop phase one of TOYO® – an interactive television platform being developed in New York City. The experience launched my fascination with immersion technology and its effect on digital natives.
In turn, this inspired me to apply for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting American History and Civics Initiative grant with the support of University President Dr. Blandina Cardenas. I was the Project Coordinator/Principal Investigator and co-designer of the planned Educational Programming Interactive Consortium (EPIC) multi-player interactive computer game and television collaboration for education in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, and The University of Pan American (UTPA).
This ultimately led to the development of an iPhone/iPad mobile app game called Bucky Challenge – a multilevel game was used to market UTPA to junior high school students to inspire them to think about college. The app went on to win a South Texas Regional ADDY® Gold Award in the professional experimental marketing category. Soon afterward, we created a Webby® People's Voice Award and a W3® Award-winning interactive website, showcasing five years of prized work in Reel to Red Productions (R2R) – the name of the student video production program.
In 2011, I returned to the private sector when I was recruited as the Chief Marketing/Programming Officer (CMPO) for Cycle Vision Network (CVN.tv), a global online interactive television network and social community under development. CVN.tv was dedicated to the motorcycling public. The network was supported worldwide by media partners, promoters, and motorcycle industry leaders looking for a direct way to engage the international rider community. This start-up experience provided me with many challenging learning curves and technological lessons that remain an invaluable part of my professional career.
My mantras:
"Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." "Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you."
In the early 1990s, I honed my television production skills working for national networks such as HGTV, A&E, and the History Channel. By 1997, I started my first video production company, creating documentaries and informational videos for non-profit organizations.
Over the next five years, I produced award-winning videos. In 2002, my family moved to South Texas, where I left the private sector to work in a University environment that afforded me entirely new and innovative opportunities.
It was at the University of Pan-American in 2004 that I developed an in-house television production unit and created a Student Internship Program (SIP) named Reel to Red Productions. It was housed in the office of University Relations. Over the next nine years, this program would go on to create award-winning programs, digital media, and an interactive game.
My first hands-on experience with interactive media came in 2007 when I received a fellowship to participate in Digital Content Design at the American Film Institute to research and develop phase one of TOYO® – an interactive television platform being developed in New York City. The experience launched my fascination with immersion technology and its effect on digital natives.
In turn, this inspired me to apply for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting American History and Civics Initiative grant with the support of University President Dr. Blandina Cardenas. I was the Project Coordinator/Principal Investigator and co-designer of the planned Educational Programming Interactive Consortium (EPIC) multi-player interactive computer game and television collaboration for education in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, and The University of Pan American (UTPA).
This ultimately led to the development of an iPhone/iPad mobile app game called Bucky Challenge – a multilevel game was used to market UTPA to junior high school students to inspire them to think about college. The app went on to win a South Texas Regional ADDY® Gold Award in the professional experimental marketing category. Soon afterward, we created a Webby® People's Voice Award and a W3® Award-winning interactive website, showcasing five years of prized work in Reel to Red Productions (R2R) – the name of the student video production program.
In 2011, I returned to the private sector when I was recruited as the Chief Marketing/Programming Officer (CMPO) for Cycle Vision Network (CVN.tv), a global online interactive television network and social community under development. CVN.tv was dedicated to the motorcycling public. The network was supported worldwide by media partners, promoters, and motorcycle industry leaders looking for a direct way to engage the international rider community. This start-up experience provided me with many challenging learning curves and technological lessons that remain an invaluable part of my professional career.
My mantras:
"Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." "Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you."
