ABC News has announced that Melia Patria has been named Executive Producer, Race, Culture & Inclusion, leading the division’s ongoing production of multicultural and inclusive storytelling and programming.
What’s Happening:
- Earlier today, ABC News President Kim Godwin revealed that Melia Patria has been named executive producer, Race, Culture & Inclusion.
- The news was announced via a memo from Godwin to the entire news division. You can read the memo in full below:
- ABC News,
I am happy to announce that Melia Patria has been named executive producer, Race, Culture & Inclusion. She will be based in New York.
In this position, Melia will lead ABC News’ ongoing production of multicultural and inclusive storytelling and programming, which reflects and represents the communities we serve each day. Melia will not only be responsible for spearheading our award-winning annual diversity specials but also work closely with all corners of the news division, partnering with executive producers and the unit’s senior producers to generate meaningful content for all programs and platforms. She will report to Stacia Deshishku, executive editor and senior vice president of News, for day-to-day work, and to Mike Kelley, vice president and lead of ABC News Studios, for work on heritage specials.
Melia has been part of the ABC News family for over 17 years. Most recently, she served as senior producer of Race, Culture & Inclusion for ABC News Studios and, previously, our Longform Unit. In this role, she worked on countless programs, developing and producing cultural specials and executive producing over half a dozen primetime programs, including the recent primetime network special The New Face of Hollywood – A Soul of a Nation Presentation, which dived into the rise of Asians in Hollywood, in honor of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage (AANHPI) Month.
Melia spearheaded ABC News’ first-ever AANHPI cultural heritage show in 2022 —the first show of its kind on any linear network. She also executive produced X / o n e r a t e d – The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice, co-executive produced The Real Queens of Hip Hop: The Women Who Changed the Game, co-executive produced and developed the Emmy Award-nominated After Floyd: The Year that Shook the World – A Soul of a Nation Special, co-executive produced and developed the Emmy Award-winning The Shot: Race for the Vaccine, and served as a senior producer on the groundbreaking and Murrow Award-winning six-part Soul of a Nation series.
Prior, Melia was a senior producer at Lincoln Square Productions, working on projects for ABC, PBS, National Geographic and A&E. In this role, she helped produce Let It Fall, ABC News’ first theatrical documentary film, directed by John Ridley. She was showrunner of the ABC docuseries 1969 and a senior producer of America Inside Out with Katie Couric: Re-righting History. Throughout her tenure, Melia also produced for Nightline and Primetime Nightline.
With Melia at the helm, I look forward to what’s next for our talented Race, Culture & Inclusion team, who, with the support of #oneabcnews behind them, brings essential reporting to life every single day.
Please join me in congratulating Melia on her new position!