Contributor

Bonnie Benjamin-Phariss

Director, Vulcan Productions

Bonnie Benjamin-Phariss came to Vulcan Productions in 2000 and oversees its film and television documentary projects. Under her management, Vulcan Productions produced This Emotional Life (a co-production with WGBH/NOVA Science Unit), a multi-platform, six-hour PBS series and 2.0 website, which was the winner of the SAMHSA Voice Award, Prism Award and NY Festivals Gold and Silver Awards; Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (a co-production with WGBH/NOVA Science Unit), winner of the Peabody Award; No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, winner of the Peabody Award and Grammy Award; the seven-part PBS series, Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues, winner of the Primetime Emmy Award and two Grammy Awards; the six-part series about global warming, Rx for Survival (a co-production with WGBH), winner of the News and Documentary Emmy Award; and Black Sky: The Race for Space (a co-production with the Discovery Channel), winner of the Peabody Award. Other productions include the four-part environmental series Strange Days On Planet Earth (a co-production with National Geographic), Black Sky: Winning The X Prize, the concert film, Lightning in a Bottle, and the critically acclaimed six-part series, Evolution (a co-production with WGBH).

Through Vulcan Productions' vision of establishing projects of enduring significance, Bonnie oversees the social action campaigns that accompany all media projects. They include the impact campaign for This Emotional Life, Early Moments Matter and A Handbook for Family & Friends of Service Members—outreach toolkits dedicated to early attachment and support of military families. She also oversaw the development and production of the web-based education initiative, Success at the Core (SAC), designed to use media to help Leadership Teams in middle schools enhance quality instruction in science, math, and literacy.

Benjamin-Phariss was previously manager of program business administration and instruction at the Disney Institute, where she led the team that delivered a variety of executive, personal enrichment, youth and training programs designed to offer a transformative learning experience. Benjamin-Phariss was also part of the entrepreneurial startup team who developed and opened the Disney Institute.

Before her seven years with Disney, Benjamin-Phariss worked as an independent on productions in San Francisco and New York. She served as director of research and development for public affairs programming for WNET in New York, working on productions including Mandela: Free at Last, Intifada: The Palestinians and Israel, and public affairs local programming. Benjamin-Phariss was also a science reporter for the nine-part series, The Mind, and a science researcher for the eight-part PBS series, The Brain. She holds a B.A. degree in psychology from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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