Women Who Inspire Us
Education

Ann Kirschner

Ann Kirschner, Ph.D., is president and CEO of Fathom, the first interactive knowledge network associated with leading educational and cultural institutions.

Dr. Kirschner has been a pioneer in both media and marketing. In broadcast television, cable and interactive media, she has created innovative and unique products ranging from the first full-channel cable teletext service to the first home satellite broadcast networks, the first sports league on the Internet, and now Fathom.

Before co-founding Fathom, Dr. Kirschner headed up new media for the National Football League (NFL), overseeing the introduction of new programming ventures in emerging technologies such as interactive television and the Internet. She is the founder of NFL.COM, superbowl.com and Team NFL on America Online.

Dr. Kirschner served as president of Comma Communications, a telecommunications and interactive consulting firm. She also co-founded Satellite Broadcast Networks and PrimeTime 24, where she became the first executive vice president of sales and marketing of both companies. Earlier, she was the director of new business development for Westinghouse/Group W Cable, where she won an ACE award in marketing.

Dr. Kirschner began her career as a lecturer in Victorian literature at Princeton University and has also been a freelance writer and editor at CBS, the New York Times, and several publishing companies. She was the assistant director for English programs at the Modern Language Association, and worked as an assistant to the director of the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library. She has received grants from the Texas Committee for the Humanities for a study on Ph.D.s in business and from the Littauer Foundation for a book on the Holocaust.

Dr. Kirschner serves on the board of directors of Theatreworks USA, the Topps Company, onhealth.com and the Princeton University English Department Advisory Council. She is a member of the National Cable Television Association and the New York New Media Association. She was the founder and first chair of the Satellite Marketing Council.

A Whiting Fellow in the Humanities, she received her Ph.D. in English literature from Princeton University, an M.A. from the University of Virginia and a B.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.