Alina Falcon, executive vice president for news and alternative programming at Telemundo Media, will be the year’s first speaker for the Media Management Association later this month.
A 1983 graduate of the broadcasting program, Falcon has had a distinguished, 29-year career in Spanish-language broadcasting. Before moving to Telemundo, she served as president of the news division for Univision Communications, where she was responsible for news programming and production across all platforms, and as executive vice president and operating manager of the Univision Network. She also held top positions at the TeleFutura Network.
At Telemundo, Falcon oversees the news division and its properties and supervises the network’s alternative programming, which includes non-scripted productions such as the court show Caso Cerrado con Ana María Polo and specials such as the Billboard Latin Music Awards and Miss Universe.
“I really admire Alina for working her way up in the industry, and I think a lot of women interested in the media industry could learn a lot from what she has to say,” said MMA treasurer Michelle Avalos. “She has experience in a lot of fields, and her position heading news and alternative programming will also be of interest to journalism and broadcast students.”
Falcon was included in a list of the country’s 25 most powerful Hispanic women in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, and one of the 25 most powerful women by People en Español. She will speak at 5 p.m. Sept. 18th in CIB 2055.
Falcon is the latest in a series of notable speakers brought to campus by the MMA, a student organization created last year to raise awareness about the media management major and to help students with networking and career opportunities. In its inaugural year, the group invited Rich Martinez, national sales manager for the Miami NBC affiliate; Armando Boniche, circulation director for the Miami Herald, and Sandy Lighterman, a film commissioner from the Miami-Dade Office of Film and Entertainment.
“Besides networking, the most important thing for our students is to be able to listen and learn from what our guest speakers have to say,” Avalos said. “Though they have vastly different job descriptions, they all offer great advice in succeeding in the professional world.”
Avalos said MMA is for students interested in working in media, film and entertainment with a special focus on the business side. She added that the organization hopes to bring in members from the School of Business as well as from the School of Communication.
The president of MMA is Ally Blumenfeld. The vice president is senior Courtney Kimmey, from Los Gatos, Calif., who first came to the School of Communication as a broadcast journalism major and found that her original career choice “wasn’t quite right.”
Kimmey credits Associate Professor Paul Driscoll, the vice dean for academic affairs, for the guidance that helped her change her major to media management.
“The classes are very interesting,” Kimmey said. “They are a mix of media economics and media law. And I like the fact I can get a business minor in marketing just by taking a couple of extra courses.”
