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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

CoastLine: Judy Girard on the Food Network, Gender Gaps in the Board Room and Classroom

Judy Girard
Judy Girard is the former President of the Food Network and HGTV. She is also the Board Chair of GLOW, Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington.

This episode first aired on April 21, 2016. 

August 25, 2017 update:  Judy Girard serves as Vice Chair of the GLOW Academy School Board which is now open.

Judy Girard started her television career in the late 1960s and worked her way through the halls of NBC in New York – where she developed shows such as Maury Povich, Jenny Jones, and Jerry Springer.  Her decision to move the Phil Donahue show to New York helped solidify it as the pre-eminent talk show in the country. 

After joining the Food Network as General Manager in 1998, she became to the President in 2001. Four years later, she took the helm at HGTV, which is owned by Scripps, the same company that owned the Food Network.   

Three years later, Judy Girard received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for her impact on television programming – that was 2008 -- the same year she retired from the business.  But she hasn’t come close to retiring from life. 

She now lives in Wilmington, North Carolina where she serves as Board Chair of the first all-girl charter school in North Carolina.  The Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington, or GLOW, is set to open this August with its first class of 100 students.

Rachel hosts and produces CoastLine, an award-winning hourlong conversation featuring artists, humanitarians, scholars, and innovators in North Carolina. The show airs Wednesdays at noon and Sundays at 4 pm on 91.3 FM WHQR Public Media. It's also available as a podcast; just search CoastLine WHQR. You can reach her at rachellh@whqr.org.