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Digging into crime data to inform news coverage across beats
Keri Putnam is a producer, strategic advisor to companies and nonprofits, former senior executive and CEO, and public company board director who works at the intersection of the creative and business sides of the media and arts fields. As CEO of Sundance Institute, President of Production at Miramax, and Executive Vice President at HBO, Putnam guided strategy and led global creative and production teams to support, develop, finance, and supervise production on a wide array of highly acclaimed work from new and established talent.
In 2022, Putnam founded a production company, Putnam Pictures, to make television and film projects focused on premium stories from creators with distinct and adventurous vision. She was the ’23-24 Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy KERI PUTNAM FORMER CEO, SUNDANCE School’s Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy, Board Director at AMC Entertainment where she serves on the audit and nominating committees, Board Chair at New_Public, and co-founder of ReFrame which advances women in the screen industries.
Putnam is a consultant or advisory board member to media companies, foundations, arts organizations, and start-ups including Portrait, Picturestart, and First-Look Media, Pivotal Ventures, among others. She is a frequent speaker, an A.D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University, mentor at the USC Stark Producing Program, and advisory council member at Brooklyn College’s Feirstein School of Cinema. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Theater History and Literature.
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Center News
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Center News
Center News
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Center News
Attend the 2026 Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Shorenstein Center Director, Nancy Gibbs, will hold a fireside chat with Burns in the JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School.
Event
JFK Jr. Forum, HKS
6:00 PM
Join The Journalist’s Resource for an hourlong webinar on where to find reliable crime data and how to use it responsibly
Event
Zoom webinar
12:00 PM
Nancy Gibbs will moderate a bipartisan panel with Governor Spencer Cox (Republican of Utah) and Congressman Jake Auchincloss (Democrat of Massachusetts) focused on reducing partisanship in our political landscape.
Event
John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, HKS
January 28 - 6:00 PM
Take part in a conversation with the recipients of the 2025 David Nyhan Prizes for Public Policy Journalism, Judd Legum and Samantha Maldonado. The discussion will explore their career accomplishments and the ethos behind their work, including a candid, peer-to-peer exchange between the honorees.
Event
1:00 PM
Join Shorenstein Center Director Nancy Gibbs for a timely and insightful conversation on today’s rapidly shifting media landscape.
Event
Zoom Webinar
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
For decades, U.S. colleges and universities where at least 25% of undergrads are Hispanic have received federal grants to help them expand educational opportunities and improve graduation rates for Hispanic students. In September, however, the U.S. Department of Education slashed funding for these schools, formally designated as “Hispanic-serving institutions.” Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit making its way through the courts argues that distributing public money to higher education institutions based on their percentage of Hispanic students is discriminatory and violates the U.S. constitution. This free webinar focused on the fate of hundreds of public and private colleges and universities, which, together, serve most of the nation’s Hispanic undergraduate students.
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Zoom webinar
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Next Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Learning Resources v. Trump, a case central to the fate of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariff regime imposed since he took office in January. Join The Journalist’s Resource and Econofact for an hourlong, on-the-record webinar about the potential economic consequences of the case, important legal arguments, and the history and future of administrative authority in the U.S.
Event
Zoom webinar
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on the media and American Politics, with CNN’s chief political correspondent, and anchor of Inside Politics, Dana Bash.
Event
John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Join the Behavioral Insights Student Group (BISG) in conversation with Judd Kessler on his recently published book, “Lucky By Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.”
Event
HKS campus, Taubman Building - T-520 Nye B & Zoom
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
In this talk, Professor Lyons will explore the question “Why do older adults engage more with misinformation online, even when they often identify falsehoods correctly in surveys?” This event is part of the Speaker Series on Misinformation, co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.
Event
Rubenstein Building - R-414-AB David Ellwood Democracy Lab & Zoom
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM