About | GreenLight Women

GreenLight Women is a source of community, support and encouragement for hundreds of highly successful, diverse professional women facing the career challenges with getting older.

Our purpose is to fight ageism, promote diversity and help each other achieve our individual goals. By providing our members with access to the tools, the training and the experts in a wide range of fields, we can share our knowledge and experience with the next generation and change attitudes about aging in our industry.

GreenLight Women is a forum for advocacy, change and self-discovery, and defining the future on our terms.

OUR MISSION

The mission of GreenLight Women is to support and champion women over 40 in entertainment and media, and to advocate for a collaborative, diverse, inclusive, equitable and sustainable industry.

Iris Grossman
President

Partner, Echo Lake Entertainment

Betsy Pollock
Treasurer

Academy Award, Short Films, Two Soldiers, Former Associate Dean, Production, AFI

Lillah McCarthy
Vice President

Producer/Manager/Director
TNT/TBS, FOX alum

Hollace Davids
Secretary

Author/Filmmaker/Marketing and Publicity Consultant Universal, Columbia Pictures alum

Ivy Kagan Bierman
President Emeritus, Co-Founder

Chair, Entertainment Labor Group Loeb & Loeb

Neema Barnette

Director / Writer / Producer

Judy Chaikin

Emmy-nominated Documentarian, Writer/Producer/Director

Michelle Dennedy

CEO, PrivacyCode, Inc.
Partner, Privatus.Online

Rahwa Ghebre-Ab

Chief Ethics and Legal Compliance Officer, Lionsgate

Deirdre’ Dix Hunt

Principal & Brand Strategist
Edge of a Dream Company

Ghen Laraya Long

International Entertainment and Technology Attorney

Gladys Stennis-Mixon

Kimberly Ogletree

Award Winning Producer
Founder, Karat Entertainment

Marcia Ross

Emmy-nominated Documentary Producer, Disney Films, Warner Bros. TV Casting alum

Dana Sims

Agent, CAA

Lucy Webb

Award-winning Actress, Writer/Executive Producer

Barbara Weintraub

Senior Director, NYFA
Founding Director Movietime/E! TV Producer

Co-Founders: Ivy Kagan Bierman and
Marion Rosenberg O.B.E.

Stephanie Austin

Tessa Bell

Beth Bohn

Zane Buzby

Judy Chaikin

Hollace Davids

Kathleen Davison

Lisa Gewirtz (Honorary)

Iris Grossman

Cheryl J. Kagan

Penka Kouneva

Danica Krislovic

Kathy Fields Lander

Ghen Laraya Long

Lillah McCarthy

Deborah Miller

Evette Murphy

Nina Nisenholtz

Kimberly L. Ogletree

Judith Parker Harris

Betsy Pollock

Pat Quinn

Kim Roberts

Pamela Rodi

Carol Savoie

Nancy Schreiber

Helene Shaw

Bonnie Spence

Sabrina Stephenson

Nancy Rae Stone

Michaela von Schweinitz

Lucy Webb

Barbara Weintrab

Roslyn Wolf

GreenLight Women

c/o Echo Lake Entertainment
9696 Wilshire Blvd. 3rd floor
Beverly Hills, CA. 90212

310-789-4790

Iris Grossman

Beginning her career as an assistant at the talent agency ICM, Iris Grossman quickly climbed the ranks and was upped to talent agent. After several years with the agency, she was given the opportunity to become the Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting for Turner Network Television (TNT). In that capacity, Grossman oversaw all talent and casting issues related to TNT Original Films and series. Grossman was instrumental in bringing TNT such top-name stars such as Diane Keaton (Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight); Robert Duvall (The Man Who Captured Eichmann); Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie (George Wallace) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Good Old Boys). She also cast Alec Baldwin (Nuremberg); Julianna Margulies, Angelica Huston and Joan Allen (The Mists of Avalon); Chazz Palminteri (Boss of Bosses); William H. Macy (Door to Door) and John Turturro (Monday Night Mayhem). Grossman spent nine years at TNT, and in October 2001, returned to ICM Partners as a talent agent. In 2013, Grossman joined Paradigm’s Talent Department for three years before moving to Echo Lake Entertainment as a talent manager in 2016.

Grossman is a former two-term President of Women In Film and is WIF’s President-Emerita. She won a CSA award for casting George Wallace, and received an Emmy nomination for the same. Grossman has received awards from Big Sisters, Hadassah and NOW.

Betsy Pollock

Betsy Pollock is Associate Dean of Production and Director of First Year Production Services at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Hollywood, California. She created the comprehensive program designed to introduce students to the “real world” challenges of filmmaking, and it is highly respected throughout the industry. The program admits over 130 new students every year, and with them, Pollack produces up to 85 short films.

An accomplished and experienced producer, writer, educator, film-curator and fundraiser, Pollock started her career in publishing in New York. Relocating to Los Angeles and joining the film business, Pollock worked her way up the ranks as a line producer, a unit production manager, a first A.D., a co-producer and a producer. She has produced over 75 feature-length and short films, commercials and music videos. Pollock co-produced the 2004 Academy Award® winner for Best Short Film, Two Soldiers.

Prior to AFI, Pollock was head of the producing department at University of North Carolina. She has maintained her unique “dual careers” in producing and education throughout her professional life.

A long-time Board member for Women In Film, Pollock co-founded two successful programs for the non-profit – the PSA Program and the Film Finishing Fund. A jury of industry professionals selected annually 4-5 unfinished films for funding. The grants have resulted in two Academy Awards®: for Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, which won Best Documentary in 1994, and Freeheld, which won for Best Documentary, Short Subject in 2007.

Pollock is a member of the DGA.

Lillah McCarthy

Lillah McCarthy is a television producer and entertainment consultant whose extensive career includes senior management positions at three networks, studio executive, producer, manager, actor, and director.

As Senior Vice President of Original Programming for TNT and TBS, Senior Vice President of Series Programming for the Fox Network and as an Executive Producer at Sony Television, Lillah developed and produced an extraordinary roster of hit shows including The Simpsons, Married…With Children, Chris Elliott’s cult classic Get A Life, Early Edition starring Kyle Chandler, The Closer, Saving Grace, Rizzoli & Isles, My Boys, Men of a Certain Age, The Last Ship and Falling Skies, among many others.

Beginning as an actress in New York and regional theatre before joining the television executive ranks, Ms. McCarthy quickly rose from a current programming executive at ABC to senior executive positions at three networks, first at Fox and later at Turner where she supervised the development of all series programming at TNT and TBS for more than twelve years and worked with such talent as David E. Kelley, Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, the late Stephen Bochco and Sam Raimi, to name a few. In between those positions, McCarthy supervised television development for the late Stephen Cannell and had an overall deal at Sony Television where she produced and directed both comedies and dramas. After her years at TNT and TBS, Lillah was named Head of Television for Allison Shearmur Productions. Presently working as an independent producer, Lillah has projects in development with various venues. She is also an active industry consultant—she traveled to China pre-pandemic to work for Imagine Entertainment on a local Chinese television series-- a script consultant, a career coach and an adjunct professor at the AFI.

The daughter of actors Kevin McCarthy and Augusta Dabney, Lillah is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Hollywood Radio & Television Society, Screen Actors Guild, Women In Film, and is Vice President of GreenLight Women.

Hollace Davids

Hollace Davids has spent most of her career planning and executing events – from dinner parties for 10 to premieres for 10,000. Currently, she serves as Senior Vice President of Special Projects at Universal Pictures in the Feature Film Marketing Department. She is responsible for planning and implementing all Universal’s movie premieres, most recently Fate of the Furious, Girls Trip, Despicable Me 3 and Pitch Perfect 3. Davids also works on the Academy® and other award campaigns, film festivals and special projects including retreats and meetings.

Davids began her career at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition where she was the Filmex Society Coordinator. She became a publicist at Columbia Pictures and was promoted to Vice President, Special Events. Before joining Universal in 1995, Davids ran her own marketing and special events consulting agency, with Paramount Pictures, Turner Pictures and the William Holden Wildlife Foundation as clients. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America. Davids served as President of Women In Film from 1978-2000 and served on the Board of Women In Film. In 2000, she was honored with the Jim Yeager Award for Public Service from the Publicists Guild and was named as the Mother of the Year by California Mothers Association.

With her husband, Paul, Davids has written seven books, including Star Wars novels, and has produced the independent films Starry Night, the Saturn-award winning documentary The Sci-Fi Boys, Before We Say Goodbye, The Life After Death Project and Marilyn Monroe Declassified. Davids holds an A.B. in Psychology, cum laude from Goucher College in Baltimore, and an Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.

Effective 2018, Davids will re-open the Hollace Davids Company and continue to consult on events, awards and film publicity.

Ivy Kagan Bierman

Ivy Kagan Bierman is Chair, Entertainment Labor Practice at Loeb & Loeb, LLP, where she represents entertainment and related companies in high profile transactional and litigation matters. She is Director, Entertainment Track of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Program at the University of Miami. Bierman was honoured as “Entertainment Lawyer of the Year” in 2015 by the Beverly Hills Bar Association. She has also been recognized in The Hollywood Reporter’s list of industry “Power Lawyers” and Variety’s “Legal Impact” Power of Law issue, among other accolades.

Throughout her career, Ms. Bierman has committed herself to giving back to the entertainment industry and to the community through social, political and philanthropic endeavours. She has been actively involved with the Anti-Defamation League for more than twenty-five years, and is currently serving as the Chair of the Pacific Southwest Region. Bierman serves on the Hollywood Radio & Television Society Board, served for many years on the Women In Film Board and is one of the founders of GreenLight Women, a newly-formed entertainment industry women’s alliance.

Bierman is passionate about the advancement of women and diverse individuals across the legal and entertainment industries. She is a member of her firm’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee and one of the heads of her firm’s Women’s Affinity Group. She is also a member of American Women for International Understanding (AWIU), an organization that works to support girls and women globally. She regularly speaks on panels and at events addressing diversity issues.

Bierman received her J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law and her B.S., magna cum laude, from Duke University.