Tara Wall
Tara Wall is a television journalist, filmmaker and media strategist. She’s worked as a national on-air personality for CNN, PBS, The Washington Times and local ABC, CBS, and NBC television affiliates. She continues her work as a television correspondent, anchor, executive producer and writer as CEO of Princess Tara Productions, LLC (PTP). PTP is a multimedia production studio and creative agency established in 2010 with projects, partners, and clients that include Essence Magazine, AFRICA TODAY TV, The Republican National Committee, Romney for President, the Tim Tebow Foundation and others.
Wall is an ESSENCE Magazine Contributor for the 2016 Presidential election cycle; director, executive producer and writer for "Souled Out: The Documentary," with a to-be-announced 2016 release date; she is creator, executive producer and host of the docu-series "Africa In America" and creator, chief anchor and executive producer of "AFRICA TODAY TV This Week," airing on MHz Networks and online. She hosted and executive produced the 2016 GOP presidential candidate interview series, "In Focus" and was a senior media strategist/producer of several multimedia campaigns at the RNC from 2013-2015.
Wall is also the founder and chairman at the non-profit PTP Foundation for Media Arts,[1] a 501(c)3 aimed at cultivating the talent of like-minded filmmakers. Additionally, Wall hosts, produces and publishes online video programming including a Media Bootcamp series and Tara's Two Cents. Tara's Two Cents is an online video series analyzing media culture, urban politics and social policy from a conservative perspective. She first created the video commentary segment in 2003 as creator, executive producer and host of the CBS Detroit program "Street Beat," reintroduced the series as an online video blog at The Washington Times and moved it to its current online platform in 2011. She has produced a number of award-winning documentaries for editorial, non-profit, and corporate entities.
An award-winning Fortune 500 corporate communications executive from 2009-2011, Wall is a former columnist, deputy editorial page editor and news anchor for The Washington Times, a daily newspaper founded in 1982. In January 2009, Wall conducted the final Oval Office interview with President George W. Bush while at The Washington Times. The interview netted Wall an exclusive, above-the-fold story with Mr. Bush's reaction to the announced plan that President-elect Barack Obama would close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. She was an on-air CNN and CNN.com political contributor for the 2008 presidential campaign. A Presidential appointee in the George W. Bush Administration, Wall's public service includes roles as Communications Director and Spokesperson at the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding at the Department of Homeland Security and Director of the Office of Public Affairs (OPA) at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2007-2008. Prior to her appointments, Wall was a senior adviser and Director of Outreach Communications at the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2004-2007.
Tara took her political reporting chops to Washington DC in 2004 after more than a decade as a television newscaster and talk show host, extensively covering local politics and education reform and working up through local television broadcast affiliates in Detroit, MI (WXYZ-TV), Alpena, Michigan (WBKB-TV; CBS), Lansing, Michigan (WILX-TV; NBC), Grand Rapids, Michigan (WOOD-TV; NBC), St. Louis, Missouri (KDNL-TV; ABC) and Detroit, Michigan (WWJ-TV/WKBD; CBS). Wall broke the exclusive, infamous "Mayor's Memo" story involving Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2002, for CBS Detroit where she was Public Affairs Director and creator, executive producer and host of the station's weekly public affairs program 'Streetbeat.'
Wall holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern Michigan University with a major in Telecommunications & Film and a minor in Law & Government.[2]
She has received first place and honorable mention awards from PR News in 2010 & 2009 for her corporate video projects and from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), for her documentaries on race in America in 1997 and 1998.
References
- "Tara Wall Director, Office of Public Affairs". acf.hhs.gov. Administration for Children and Families, Dept. of Health and Human Services. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- "Tara Wall". Column list (The Washington Times). Retrieved 2008-10-23.
- "Commentary: Obama and Bush are not so far apart". CNN Politics (CNN). October 13, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-23.