At Lifetime, a woman’s place is in the executive suite.

Women handle the top jobs, collaborating, multitasking and doing the work necessary behind the scenes to ensure that other women are hired, supported and heard.

Every key department is headed by a woman, from scripted and unscripted content and acquisitions to publicity and marketing. Among the team leading the charge at Lifetime are Amy Winter, executive VP and head of programming; Tanya Lopez, executive VP, scripted content; Brie Miranda Bryant, senior VP, unscripted development and programming; Kannie Yu LaPack, senior VP, publicity, public affairs and social media; Katie Buchanan, senior VP, scheduling strategy; Valerie Albanese, senior VP, brand creative; Annahita Palar, VP, acquisitions and co-productions; Jara Radom, VP, consumer marketing and media; and Kristen Leonard, VP, programming and market research.

“I find that women are doers,” says Lopez. Having previously worked at another network dominated by men, she says at Lifetime, female voices are amplified.

“I work for a network that programs for women, and we have women that work within our company from all different ages and backgrounds,” she says. “I think that does give us some latitude and credibility that we are making the right content.”

It also makes for an atmosphere of support for the wider group of women.

“The colleagues that I work with at Lifetime — we have an unbelievable trust in each other and can be incredibly candid and open about how we see things,” says Winter. “It’s also a bunch of people who have enough self-confidence that when we hotly debate something, nobody takes it personally.”

Palar adds, “They afford you the right to have your voice be heard.”
When production was halted during COVID-19, Palar was tasked with helping to fill the pipeline with acquisitions. One of these — “List of a Lifetime” — will premiere in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month as the centerpiece of the network’s Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign.

But acquiring the film is just the start. It’s the imprimatur of the network and the scheduling, marketing and publicity prowess behind these projects that give content the proper spotlight.

While Palar was working closely across different departments as part of a process she describes as “very collaborative,” the network’s esprit de corps was heightened by the pandemic.

“Our kids are running through the background of our video calls,” Winter says. “We’re on until 6, and we’re waiting for the question, ‘What’s for dinner?’

“To understand that each of us are going through that, it’s really a powerful thing.”

Photo: Jeff Katz Photography

The communication and coordination of these women behind the scenes can be felt at every stage of the process, ultimately translating to audiences at home.

“People who are watching it or marketing it or promoting it have a connection to the project that you won’t get at a male-run network,” says acquisitions and co-productions VP Palar.

Winter adds, “There’s an emotional layer that Lifetime has that nobody else does, and I do think that has a lot to do with the fact that we embrace women storytellers.”

Part of Lifetime’s aim is to foster those female storytellers, from casting directors to producers to directors — not just because it helps women, but because it helps the network itself.

“I started to see a pattern in our top-rated movies,” says Lopez. “They were directed or produced by women. The data kept coming back saying empower the women to do it because you are designing and creating programming for the audience we want.”

And the same thing is happening in the executive suite.
“Everybody sits at the table,” Lopez says. “No one sits in the back row. What always happens is we scoot our chairs around and slide in.”

Palar concurs. “We all lean in at the executive suite table.”

Photo: Jeff Katz Photography

In executive years, Karen Gray is a newbie.

The former attorney joined A+E as executive VP of human resources in summer 2019. Coming to A+E, which includes Lifetime, meant bringing not only her legal chops but her analytical and people skills.

Those skills include everything from data analysis to offering support to network rising stars, such as two Black women podcasters. “They just called and said, ‘Let’s chat,’ so having a job where you can just sit for a while and chat with talented people is really exciting,” Gray says.

Gray is aware of just how important diversity, equity and inclusion is to Lifetime — and to herself, having lived in neighborhoods, attended schools and worked at jobs where she was one of the few Black people. Those experiences, some of which she calls “very good” while others were “very difficult,” are her motivation for wanting to create a path that focuses on “fairness” and “comfortable environments” for everyone.

“Karen is a force,” says Kannie Yu LaPack, Lifetime’s senior VP of publicity, public affairs and social media. “She has only been with A+E Networks for a short time, but she has made incredible strides in ensuring diversity and inclusion are on the forefront of everything we do at the company, including who we employ and who we hire to create our content.”

Setting up executive committees around diversity, establishing companywide diversity goals and publishing the company’s DEI statistics on the corporate website in the first diversity report are among the projects implemented by Gray.

Having such programs in place moves the network’s DEI goals forward, but Gray applauds its long tradition of working with first-time executive producers and directors. “Lifetime was offering people that chance, to build a portfolio, to tell their stories, to get trained to be successful,” she says.

Photo: Jeff Katz Photography