Mary Donahue
Mary Donahue is Senior Vice President of Development & Programming for History at the A&E Television Network. She graduated from Sussex with an American Studies BA in 1985.
The foundation of critical thinking I learned at Sussex as a student was truly important in my career in journalism” Mary Donahue
What inspired my passion for American Studies and for broadcast and production? Both were somewhat happy accidents, both prompted by study abroad in the UK. I went to Williams College in the US and at first, I thought my major would be history, with a concentration in medieval history, until, that is, I arrived for my junior year at the University of East Anglia and went to my first medieval history class, which happened to be on Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight. The class was reading in what I think was middle English—I couldn’t understand a word! In a state of total panic, I signed up for open classes in American Studies and found I loved it! To learn about my country’s history and culture though a very different and often critical lens was a true privilege. I changed my major to American Studies and went on to pursue an MA degree in American Studies at Boston University and then a further MA at Sussex on a Rotary scholarship, again in American Studies.
I ended up in broadcast journalism by the same happy accident. I had a work study grant at BU that by complete chance was at WGBH, the public radio station in Boston. A reporter broke her arm back in the day when tape recorders were really heavy and in desperation, they sent me out as a substitute. I ended up reporting on a big story and surprisingly, was good at it. I reported for the station all year. The summer I wrote my MA thesis at Sussex, Charles and Diana got married and I had a student work permit. I wrote the three US networks, claiming “extensive journalistic experience” (!), got a job working for ABC’s Good Morning America as host Joan Lunden’s assistant and fell in love with TV. I never looked back.
Going to Sussex introduced me to broadcast TV and gave me a further career development in radio journalism, as I continued on to study at Sussex in the PhD program in American Studies for several more years. I paid for myself by working as a radio reporter for BBC Radio Brighton doing a weekly half hour show for what was then Brighton Polytechnic. I also worked as a freelance desk assistant for ABC news and then NBC News in London, eventually working my way up to desk editor.
The foundation of critical thinking I learned at Sussex as a grad student was truly important in my career in journalism, in factual entertainment and as a storyteller. Learning to research, to process and understand conflicting materials and viewpoints and to condense that into clear, straightforward and balanced storytelling has been fundamental to my success.
I also learned to look at the US from at international perspective. The viewpoints in classes in American Studies I took at Sussex were very different than those I took in the US, even though the subject matter was the same. I learned to look at events from multiple perspectives as a result. I was also introduced to two areas of study which weren’t pursued in the US, which were very helpful to me: post- structuralist film criticism and popular culture studies. I was lucky enough to teach British Popular Culture for the Open University, which was a blast.
After graduating from Sussex MA program in American Studies, I enrolled in the PhD program and freelanced as in TV news. I eventually realized I wanted a career in TV more than I wanted to teach and moved from job to job, trying to gain experience, most particularly experience working in the field with TV crews, which was not all easy for women when I was coming up. I moved back permanently to the US after nine years in the UK and moved from news, to syndicated talk and to cable, chasing field and executive experience. I am now Senior Vice President of Development and Programming for History with the A&E Television Networks, a brand and company I absolutely love. I’ve been lucky enough to be nominated for ten Emmys and to win four and many of the shows I’ve helped create are nationally recognized hits. My goal is to create new hits, win more Emmys and of course, I’d love to be an Executive Vice President and head a brand for A&E. My dream is to have my career come full circle and head the broadcast and TV department at a US university. And what I’d REALLY love? Win a Peabody!