SAVANNAH RE OVERTON
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California and after two years in Syracuse, New York and two years in Boston, Savannah now lives in the District of Columbia. Savannah grew up in the entertainment industry born to parents who did everything from acting, directing, producing, writing, broadcast journalism, sports broadcasting, modeling, to playing football. Growing up in Hollywood shaped much of who she is and what she wants out of life. Savannah started diversity training at the tender age of thirteen and it has become a life-long passion and pursuit which carried over into her academic career.
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF EQUITY & TALENT
HARLEM LACROSS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Aside from the day to day achievements at Harlem Lacross, Savannah is a media director, media literacy advocate, media studies scholar, adjunct professor and diversity consultant who is deeply passionate about diversity, human rights, urban studies and all things sociology. She is often called upon to speak on these issues.
Women of Power Summit Luncheon Speakers
Women of Power Summit Luncheon Speakers
Savannah earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA: in Intercultural Communication and in Sociology. After achieving her academic goals she decided to follow in her parents’ footsteps, setting her sights on the entertainment industry – only for her she wanted to be behind the scenes.
She spent three years in reality television as a Coordinator for Alternative Entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Company working as a liaison between production companies and the network on shows such as: American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Don’t Forget the Lyrics, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, The NAACP Image Awards, The Emmy Awards and so on. Her time there exposed her directly to the world of mainstream media and the entertainment business.
But as usual with Savannah, she always wants to do more. She took her efforts east, switched gears and completed her master’s degree in Media Studies at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. Her work there took her back to her roots working with marginalized and often-forgotten populations, specifically, incarcerated persons. Her thesis, Hard-Knock Life: Exploring Prisoner Perceptions of Media’s Influence on Society and Crime through In-Depth Interviews and Q-Methodology was accepted for presentation at the 2013 George Gerbner Conference on Communication, Conflict, and Aggression in Budapest, Hungary. After graduation she became an Adjunct Professor teaching courses in Race, Class & Gender and School Violence. In 2014 she was recruited as the Director of Admissions at the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts where she once again became involved in shaping the minds of our youth. She is currently DESA's Director of External Affairs and Community Engagement.
Summer 2016, Savannah served as a team leader in the Education First Study Abroad Program for D.C. Students in the 8th and 11th grades. After the week training session in Barcelona, Spain, Savannah lead a group of 11th grade students to Lima, Peru and Machu Picchu studying art and culture while also participating in a service project in Peru's Sacred Valley. She was invited to return to Barcelona's training program in 2017 but this time as an instructor and in Summer 2017 she took her second group of students to explore Senegal, West Africa. Truly a life-changing experience visiting Ghoree Island, building facilities for a village middle school in Ndianda, The Island of Shells, a safari at the Reserve de Bandia, a little R&R at La Pierre de Lisse, and culminating at the foot of the Monument de la Renaissance Africaine. Summer 2018 found Savannah leading students in Quito, Equador serving on another service mission. And in 2019 she will return to Europe to lead another group of students to Italy.
January 2017 found Savannah front and center of the Woman's March on Washington D. C. protest to the newly sworn in president. Over two million participants in over 670 venues around the world gathered in support of women's rights and other issues that find themselves in the crosshairs of D. Trump and his administration. Half a million of those participants were in Washington. Initially it was The Daily News who posted a picture of Savannah at the rally, then came Reuters, The New Yorker, The New York Times, AOL Front Page and many others. By the end of the evening even Bernie Sanders was posting "A Face Of The March" and by morning it seemed to have gone viral as it appeared on the front page of The Jerusalem Post along side the inauguration picture of the president and his wife... Savannah Overton front and center. January 2018 found this same iconic picture as the flyer for the Women's March on Las Vegas. It seems this photo will become a face of the times throughout history as it still lives on in publications many years later.
Savannah also works as an independent consultant and researcher. Her honors include: the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Leadership Conference Scholar, Syracuse University Liu Fellow, and the Syracuse University Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society for the highest GPA in the Media Studies Department's 2012 graduates.
In addition to teaching, consulting, and shaking up the world, she loves to volunteer with youth organizations and is an avid sports enthusiast – that too runs in the family. Savannah is Bill Overton and Jayne Kennedy Overton's first daughter together.