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SURGE is a feature-length documentary about the record number of first-time female candidates who ran, won and upended politics in the historic 2018 midterm elections. It will be released on Amazon Prime on September 1 and will premiere on Showtime’s new channel SHOxBET on September 8 @ 9pm ET and available on VOD platforms including Amazon and iTunes on October 21.

Watch the trailer.
surgethemovie.com

Can you talk a little about your Medill experience and how your time at Northwestern helped prepare you for your career?

I’m fairly sure I never got an A in any of my Medill classes. I would actually love to look at an old transcript and confirm that bit of my academic history at Northwestern. But I think because Medill was so small, rigorous and competitive and because I was not one of those exceptional standout students or particularly beloved by my professors, I became even more scrappy, ambitious and determined to prove myself outside of the classroom. Crazy enough, I landed my first job as a Capitol Hill press secretary before I had even officially graduated from Northwestern.  I had enough credits to finish a quarter early and I was worried about taking on more college loans, so I got the press secretary job spring quarter of my senior year. It was an incredible time to be in Washington, DC – a few months after Bill Clinton was elected into his first term. I can proudly say that I was the youngest and lowest paid press secretary on Capitol Hill in 1993.

When was it when you realized that you were ready to weave your experience into a book and can you briefly talk about how writing a book differed from the content creation you’d done before?

I’ve written two books – “How She Really Does It: Secrets of Successful Stay at Work Moms” (Da Capo Press, 2003) and “Fearless and Free—How Smart Women Pivot and Relaunch their Careers” (Harper Collins, 2017) The expression that you write what you know couldn’t be more true. Both of my books were inspired by what I was personally and professionally experiencing at those times. I wrote my first book after I had my first child and I was struggling with how to continue with a high-octane career while also being a fully present and engaged new mom. “Fearless and Free” comes from a very personal place. I had lost my job in 2014. Traditional journalism and media, where I had spent my career working was on life support. I was over 40 and felt like if I didn’t get a job at one of the bright and shiny media startups in New York City sometime soon, I would become a dinosaur. I was afraid of becoming irrelevant.  It also became clear that for many jobs in my industries – media and news – I was too expensive. These industries can hire young and cheap talent. It was after one particularly depressing interview when a bearded Millennial was turned off by that Capitol Hill experience, the job that used to open doors for me, when I realized I needed to switch things up. I needed to re-craft my pitch, hone my story, lean into my skillset but probably learn something new. I also understood that I might need to take a step backwards before I can move forward again.

The SURGE project is three years in the making.  Can you summarize how you got involved in the documentary and how the team came together?

The origin story of SURGE really begins with Hillary Clinton. I had worked with a group called Filmmakers for Hillary right before the 2016 election. My friend Tanya had founded the group. For months, after the first Women’s March in January 2017 there were dozens of stories about women announcing that they were running for office. Many of these women had never imagined that they would run, but now they felt compelled to take the leap.  I reached out to Tanya and told her that I wanted to do a documentary about these first-time female candidates who were running in uphill battles. Coincidentally, Hannah Rosenzweig, who had also been part of Filmmakers for Hillary, had also reached out to Tanya about the same idea. Three years later, Hannah and I just finished directing and producing SURGE. It’s my debut as a film director and producer.  A little footnote – but really important to us was that we only hired female cinematographers to shoot SURGE. This was extremely challenging in places like Texas, Indiana and even Illinois where we were filming. Women make up only about 10 percent of film DPs (directors of photography) and they are largely based on the coasts, but we were so committed to shooting with only women that we jumped through all sorts of hoops to make it happen and to locate talented, local camera women. We are incredibly proud to say that the film was literally shot through a female lens.

How did you select the candidates you chose to follow? 

To find characters for SURGE, we started by casting a wide net. We knew we wanted to follow only first-time candidates – women who were running for office for the first time. But we also wanted to make sure we had diversity among the women we followed, geographically and racially and also in their personal backgrounds. Our first shoot was at the bi-partisan Women’s Campaign School at Yale during their week-long boot camp training in June of 2017. At first, we thought the film would be the story of both Democratic and Republican women running in 2018. But rather quickly, we saw that the surge was on the Democratic side. The story of the 2018 midterms and the hundreds of local and state races that year would be about a blue wave of women running and winning.

What do you want viewers to take away from the film? 

I want viewers to feel empowered and inspired by the film. SURGE is not only a story about women running for office but it’s the story of women getting behind women running for office. It’s about grassroots activism. It’s about taking a risk and not waiting your turn or to be asked. It’s about saving our democracy. It’s about the power of elections to create real change – and not just at the congressional level – but at the state and local level. I want girls and women to watch the film and see themselves as leaders in their communities. One of the themes of the film is that you may not win the first time. It’s important to remember that even Barack Obama lost his first race. Women often don’t like to take risks because they are afraid of failing and of not being perfect. This film blows up the idea of perfection and failure. Having the audacity to run and speak out, and to make a difference in your district and community — that is success.

Why is it so important to chronicle this momentous midterm election and how do you think it will help inform the coming election?

It’s important to chronicle the 2018 elections because it was a historic, barrier-breaking election. More women and women of color ran, won and upended politics than ever before. Like 1992, the 2018 election was also coined “The Year of the Woman.” But this phrase feels dismissive. Why do women only get a year? It’s important to dig into that and question whether the enormous energy and momentum surrounding this “pink wave” is sustainable. Getting women into the pipeline is critically important, so what do we need to do to make sure this isn’t just another blip on the radar. This is why a theme of the film and a question we asked nearly everyone we interviewed was whether this was a moment or a movement.

What are you most proud of in your career?

I am a modern multi-hyphenate – an author, writer, Emmy-Award winning TV producer, media relations executive, editor in chief of a website, Capitol Hill press secretary, and now filmmaker. I have had more pivots in my career than most but the through line to my career has been storytelling and women’s issues. Directing and producing SURGE has been the most challenging but most rewarding job I’ve ever had. I’ve worn more hats than I can remember. I’m not only the co-director and producer on the film but the booker, chief fundraiser, publicist, marketing executive and fulltime hustler. But most importantly, I’m incredibly proud of the film we’ve created and am in awe of the women who we followed who put so much on the line, all in the name of trying to save our democracy at a critical time in our history. It’s incredibly satisfying to feel that we’ve produced not just a time capsule of what was happening in America between 2016 and 2020 but that this film can live on and hopefully inspire girls and women to run for office and create more gender parity and diversity in politics.

Photo: Sachs (middle) pictured with Lauren Underwood (D-IL) (right) during her 2018 campaign and SURGE cinematographer Margaret Byrne (left).

Lauren Harris (BSJ18 + IMC Certificate) is an associate animator at NBC News. She recently sat down to talk with Medill IMC about her education, career and viral illustrations for Black Lives Matter and Juneteenth. Find her art on Instagram, @loharris_art.  Interviewer/editor: Katie Smith 

Can you tell us about your time at Medill and what you learned?

I took some great classes at IMC. One class that really stuck with me was a PR class with Ernest [Duplessis]. … His advice was [that] you should defer to the experts.

And the expert might not be a bigwig expert. If you’re marketing to someone young, the expert could be a teenager… So for me, when I’m working in different teamwork situations, even if I technically am in a leadership position, I think it’s important to look at the people around me, regardless of what their title is and understand what they’re bringing to the table and what they are an expert in. [And then], create room in the team for them to step up and have their voice heard as the expert in the situation.

Can you take us through your career journey from graduation to landing a full-time job at NBC?

After I graduated in 2018, I ended up being a page in the NBC page program, which is a career development program, best known for its prominence in “30 Rock,” the show with Kenneth the Page. 

[The page program] helped me come out of my shell, and it helped me learn how to present myself, speak up for myself and network. … I got to see “SNL” cast members and [rapper] Quest Love just trying to go get a drink of water and Lester Holt in line for a sandwich. All of that was so amazing to see it as a young person. 

After the Page Program, I ended up moving into a position at NBC News, which was actually created for me. I am an associate animator on the digital team. Currently, I work across a variety of platforms in the NBC portfolio. I’ve had graphics published in Today and NBCNews.com, but I primarily [work for] NBC News Now, which is their 24-hour news streaming service and Stay Tuned, a Snapchat-based show for Gen Z-ers. 

What does your job look like day-to-day?

Some days I’m just working on the show itself, making sure that we have all the graphics we need to explain a difficult topic. And then occasionally there’s the special project that comes in. 

One recent project that I worked on was an animated video called “COVID Confessions.”  Early on in the pandemic, I teamed up with a couple of other animators on the team to visualize and animate the written “confessions” of folks who shared their experiences during COVID lockdown with NBC News. It was up to us as the graphics team to sit down and tell those stories in a creative way. That was my first feature piece, and it seemed to resonate with a lot of people.

How did you decide how and what you were going to communicate in terms of #BlackLivesMatter?

Regardless of whether or not I’m a journalist, like I’m still a Black woman, and the conversation surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement relates to my personhood and my human rights. So, for me, one way to process was to draw and to kind of get my feelings out there. And when I was making the art that I made (only a couple of pieces were explicitly aligned with Black Lives Matter), I was doing it more so for my own personal coping. I was not creating [the art] with the intention of seeing it go viral. 

I’ve seen so many people react so strongly. One of the pieces I made was called Justice. Someone made Oreo cookie fan art. They opened up the cookie and carved into the frosting to recreate my art. And I was like, “Wow.”

I felt kind of nervous when I started getting traction because I didn’t want to compromise my career in any way. My work colleagues and managers [are] super supportive of everything that’s going on with my work.

What was your Instagram presence like before your protest art went viral? How did you get started as an artist?

I was very into digital art in middle school. I bought my first Wacom tablet with my own money. I was so committed that before I had [the tablet] I was trying to draw with a mouse. And my dad got me a little Photoshop license. When I was younger, I was a part of DeviantArt.com, which is an online art community from like the early 2000s. Then when I went to college, [my art] just kind of fell off. I was just trying not to get distracted and fail out. 

In January 2020, I decided I’m just going to buy an iPad and I’m going to draw. So then I made my little Instagram account because I realized that I tend to stick to things when I have the gratification of and being able to put it out there.

Then I was like, “Okay, now I want to step it up in February, and I want to challenge myself to draw every day.” So I just made up “29 Queens,” which was a project for Black History Month. I basically drew a picture of a different Black woman every day of February: entertainers, scientists, artists, politicians, whoever I found inspiring. 

Interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Amanda Salhoot (IMC11) is the current vice president of business development and partnerships at Chill Anywhere, a meditation app that combats the current mental health crisis. Amanda has previously worked at Chicago Ideas, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Performics.

Since graduating from IMC, you’ve worked in marketing communications (marcom) for both nonprofit and for-profit companies. How does your approach differ, if at all, between working for a children’s hospital and for a digital marcom company, for example?

I became a full-time IMC graduate student after working for about 10 years. My background was in marketing, specifically in the magazine publishing industry. In addition to my full-time work, I was very active philanthropically serving on boards and volunteering for organizations focused on empowering women and children. While I enjoyed magazine publishing, the philanthropic work was what made my heart sing. I went to IMC with the objectives of merging my professional and philanthropic experience and then working for a nonprofit or social impact organization upon graduation. Plus, marketing had evolved since I studied it in undergrad — digital media, analytics and consumer behavior — so this was my opportunity to really immerse myself and sharpen my marketing skills. 

I’ve found that while the mission and the “customer” of a children’s hospital foundation and a digital marcom company may be different, each organization must put the customer at the center of what they do to be successful. For Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation, I developed donor-centered marketing strategies to advance a spectrum of fundraising initiatives through individual giving, corporate cause marketing campaigns, foundational grants and fundraising events. During my interim role at Performics, I was internally focused and developed employee engagement strategies for colleagues in offices around the world. 

What are some of the essential skills you took away from IMC and how have you used them in your career to date?

In addition to instilling in me a customer-centric viewpoint, IMC really helped me become much more driven by both qualitative and quantitative data. I now turn to data and consumer insights when developing marketing strategies and measuring the success of initiatives. While not every initiative will be a wild success, there are still insights to be gleaned that can then help shape the next thing you do.

Also, from an organizational management perspective, it is essential to set data-driven goals for your team to ensure that we are all working towards similar objectives and to measure progress along the way. It is fun to look back during a quarterly or annual review to celebrate what individuals and the team as a whole have accomplished.

Lastly, IMC strengthened my ability to work with cross-functional teams. Having the chance to collaborate with people who have different areas of expertise helps strengthen you as a marketer and also takes your work to a higher level.

During your time at Chicago Ideas, how did that organization’s concept evolve and what did you enjoy most about being part of a platform for open discussion and change?

Chicago Ideas was developed to make ideas accessible by democratizing them. For $15, you could go to the Harris Theater to see Hillary and Chelsea Clinton speak, see a DJ set with Questlove or get an exclusive tour of EY’s forensics lab. While stage programs and in-person experiences were the foundation of Chicago Ideas, we realized that content and going into the community had the power to reach even more people to inspire and activate change. For content, we invested in a content team and technology to make it possible to create videos, develop a podcast and really leverage the power of social media. For community, we had always had a youth program that engaged high school students from under-resourced communities.

In 2018, we grew the community engagement team and made a commitment to Chicago Ideas becoming a platform for the entire city. We did this by not only featuring diverse voices in our stage programs, but by having organizations throughout the city host events, by committing to having 25% of our audience come from low socioeconomic neighborhoods and by creating content about organizations and people throughout the city. In 2019 alone, Chicago Ideas partnered with over 140 nonprofit organizations.

One of my favorite initiatives the team worked on was called The 77 Project, a storytelling and media project in which we created a unique piece of content on an organization or individual in each of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. As the head of corporate and individual fundraising, I was able to connect with the country’s most forward-thinking organizations and individuals across industries. Together we would develop mutually beneficial custom partnerships that advanced their specific business objectives while supporting Chicago Ideas’ mission as a nonprofit. 

Can you talk a little about your new job at Chill Anywhere and why this technology is so relevant right now?

Chill, a modern meditation studio across the street from the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, was founded three years ago by Kellogg alum Laura Sage. We wanted to create a space of respite where busy professionals could go for a quick chair massage, a meditation or yoga class or to take a workshop to deepen their practice. Pretty quickly, businesses started to approach us to help with their employee wellness initiatives ranging from a single private session to a whole mindfulness curriculum. Since then we have worked with over 300 organizations ranging from global consumer packaged goods companies to law firms and universities, developing sessions exploring themes such as stress and anxiety management, mindful leadership and collaboration, and rest and relationships. 

Given that most of our partners are global and have employees around the world, we started to livestream the sessions. This then inspired us to create our app, Chill Anywhere, which we started to develop at the beginning of 2019. Chill Anywhere allows us to extend our mission by helping even more people “live less stressed, more mindful lives.” Users will find a growing library of over 400 on-demand meditation and yoga sessions, daily livestreamed classes and a journal to reflect on their practice and track personal goals.

For employers, Chill Anywhere is a scalable resource to help with the current employee mental health crisis. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most employers (66%) identified mental health as the top clinical priority to address by 2021, according to the Willis Towers Watson 24th Annual Best Practices in Health Care Employer Survey. This level of employer focus was driven by the rising prevalence of mental health conditions prior to the pandemic — around three in 10 employees suffer from severe stress, anxiety or depression, according to the 2019/2020 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey. As expected, further research collected during the pandemic indicates a worsening state of mental health among workers: over 9 in 10 employees (92%) now report some level of anxiety, with 55% indicating a moderate or high degree of anxiety. While counseling is a good reactive intervention, most organizations still don’t have a plan to proactively address mental wellbeing. The technology and online community of Chill Anywhere is a cost-effective and scalable resource for employers. 

What are some of the goals for the company/app?

COVID-19 forced us to close our physical studio and allowed us to fast-track the development of Chill Anywhere, which we always planned to be our sole business focus. While we have experienced great growth in our first three years, fundraising remains our top goal. We are currently in our next round of fundraising and plan to use those funds for technology product enhancements, marketing expansion and partnership development in specific corporate verticals.

Our other main focus is growing our user base through business development. Mindfulness and meditation, expected to be a $2 billion market by 2022, and corporate wellness, expected to be a $66 billion market by 2022, are converging. We believe that Chill Anywhere is positioned to be a leading vertical solution for that intersection. With three years of in-person studio experience and three years of in-person corporate programming, Chill Anywhere has the ideal foundation for bringing mindfulness and meditation to the corporate wellness market. B2B competitors can’t strike the balance of consumer brand and institutional solution, while B2C competitors are attempting to scale consumer meditation mobile apps into an enterprise space. With the pandemic being an uncertain time resulting in stress for organizations and individuals, we feel that the work we are doing is more important than ever. We are committed to helping as many people as possible. 

What advice do you have for IMC students about to graduate in December? Any hints for success?

My biggest piece of advice is to grow and cultivate your network. It will be your most valuable resource. I have secured all of my postgraduate roles through my network, three having ties to IMC. Right after graduation I had an interim role with Performics where many of their senior leaders were IMC alums. My next role at Lurie Children’s came to fruition because I was having an informational coffee with an IMC alum who worked for Feeding America. While there was not a current role at Feeding America, she asked me if there were other roles or organizations that I was interested in. I mentioned that I saw a marketing role with Lurie Children’s Foundation. She knew someone on the team and sent over my resume, and I had an interview a week later. Lastly, a former IMC faculty member, Dan Gruber, invited me to a small Chicago Ideas book club discussion he facilitated back in 2012 where I met Bonnie, a Chicago Ideas staff member. After the event Bonnie and I had coffee and stayed in touch. In 2017, when the perfect role at Chicago Ideas came up, I reached out to Bonnie who then submitted my resume.

While I know entering the job market in the midst of a pandemic may be scary, lean on your network. Your connections will be your biggest supporters and will likely play an important role in each step of your professional journey.