CNN - Forces of Change: The Black Scientific Renaissance (Anthem Award Winner, .5 Million Views).
Akil Gibbons directed this CNN series “Forces of Change” for AT&T profiling the inventor of the modern microphone, a black man from the Jim Crow South Dr. James West, who led a Black Scientific Renaissance at Bell Labs - considered the most influential corporate laboratory in the world - helping to launch programs that funded scholarships and led to careers of hundreds of successful Black scientists in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Today, his daughter Ellington West carries on his legacy as CEO of a medical device and software company working at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. She cites her father’s work advocating for women of color as a model for how she runs her company and a reason why she continues to push for change.
AT&T: Forces of Change - The Black Scientific Renaissance
Role: Director/Producer
With half a million views on CNN’s Facebook - This series “Forces of Change” examines how society can create systems that uplift historically marginalized groups and doing so can lead to breakthroughs that have the power to change the world. Compelled in part by the Civil Rights Movement, AT&T developed a pipeline of technical talent from underrepresented groups that fed into the Bell Labs system. Now referred to as the “Black Scientific Renaissance,” these pioneers made tremendous advances that altered the course of history.