Ruth Ann Harnisch

Early in her career Harnisch went into media, reporting and journalism, subsequently spending three decades in the field.[24][22] She started her writing career with the Buffalo Courier-Express,[23] and after her time as a DJ with WYSL she worked briefly with the Buffalo-based stations WGR-TV and WKBW-TV. In the 1970s she joined WLAC (later WTVF-TV),[2] the CBS-TV affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee,[1][7] as an on-camera consumer reporter[3] and as a street reporter.[2] She became a WTVF-TV television anchor,[1] where her on-air reporting resulted in an Emmy nomination.[7] During her fifteen years with the station[23] she was the first female anchor on WTVF-TV[21] and one of the first in the evening news in Nashville.[3] Beyond her television appearances, she hosted a daily talk-radio program[7] on WLAC-AM,[21][24] the "Ruth Ann Leach Show,"[25] and worked as an op-ed columnist[7] for the Nashville Banner for seventeen years.[24]

After retiring from her career in journalism, Harnisch became chair of More Than Money, a national nonprofit helping the wealthy invest in philanthropy.[21][26] While with More Than Money she developed an interest in the organization's coaching program, and began studying the field of professional coaching herself.[21] She became an International Association of Coaching (IAC) Master Certified Coach as well as a Board Certified Coach,[8] and also joined the IAC and the International Coach Federation.[21] Harnisch founded a "strictly pro bono" coaching practice.[8]

Described as a proponent of “creative philanthropy,”[22][27] in 1998 Harnisch created the Harnisch Foundation, becoming the organization's president.[7] With a philanthropic focus on projects promoting gender equity, diversity,[7] racial equality,[28] "social innovation,"[7] and "sustainable" journalism,[29][7] one of the foundation's first grants was to a local Nashville chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.[30] Subsequent investments have included projects such as crowdfunding campaigns, social impact films,[7] and "convenings."[4] Harnisch's unusual charitable investing through the foundation[31] was covered on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Today Show.[32]

In 2006[8] Harnisch co-founded[21] and began supporting The Foundation of Coaching, which provided coaching-related research grants.[8] Around 2008 she donated $2 million to found McLean Hospital's Institute of Coaching at Harvard,[10] and she subsequently funded the annual International Coaching Research Forum, the Coaching Commons,[24][33][8] and the formation of the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University,[7] and the formation of the Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions[34] at Baruch College.[7]

After serving as a founding funder of the TED Fellows program[23] with Renee Friedman[7] she co-founded the coaching and mentoring support program for the Fellows, or SupporTED.[3] Recruiting professional coaches to coach TED fellows for free, SupporTED later led to the TED Fellows Collaboratorium events.[7] In 2013 the Harnisch Foundation formed Awesome Without Borders, its own chapter of the Awesome Foundation[35][36] which distributes weekly $1,000 grants to project creators. Harnisch has invested in women-owned startups.[7]

In February 2014 Harnisch and her husband invested seed money in the job search company The Muse.[37] The Harnisch Foundation underwrites professional coaching programs to "support women in their leadership," and in 2014 she supported the Sundance Women Filmmakers Initiative Fellows with funds for personal coaching and mentoring. The Harnisch Foundation "refocused its mission on helping women and girls" in late 2014,[4] with Harnisch splitting her time between her work with the Harnisch Foundation and her pro bono coaching practice.[7] MSNBC named her one of "11 women’s rights activists you should know in March 2015,"[13] also publishing a feature on her through its Women's History Month series. Also that month Harnisch hosted a workshop with Feminist.com and launched #NotJustAStat, an online campaign featuring celebrities such as Lena Dunham and Gloria Feldt.[4] In 2015[38] and 2016 Harnisch and her foundation created the Funny Girls initiative, which involves teaching leadership through improv.[11]

Involved in several film projects[3] as a film producer, in 2015 Harnisch served as an executive producer on The Hunting Ground.[11][15] Also working with the filmmakers of Hot Girls Wanted,[4] she was executive producer of the 2017 films The House of Tomorrow,[16] Unrest,[14] Columbus,[17] Love the Sinner,[18] and Lucky.[19] In June 2017, she moderated a panel at the Greenwich International Film Festival.[39] Harnisch remains head of the Harnisch Foundation.[40]