Raney Aronson-Rath | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Aronson-Rath at the 70th Annual Peabody Awards | |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin (B A., 1992) [1] Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (M.A.) |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Title | Executive Producer, Frontline |
| Spouse | Arun Rath |
Raney Aronson-Rath produces Frontline, PBS's flagship investigative journalism series. She has been internationally recognized for her work to expand the PBS series' original investigative journalism[2] and directs the editorial development and execution of the series. Aronson-Rath joined Frontline in 2007 as a senior producer. She was named deputy executive producer by David Fanning, the series’ founder, in 2012, and then became executive producer in 2015.[3]
Aronson-Rath earned a bachelor's degree in South Asian studies and history from the University of Wisconsin. She received her master's from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.[4]
Early in her professional life, Aronson-Rath worked in Taipei, Taiwan, for a small, English-language daily newspaper, The China Post, where she decided to commit to a career in journalism.[5] Later, Aronson-Rath developed and managed more than a dozen journalistic partnerships with news outlets, including ProPublica, Marketplace, PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, CBC Television, and Univision.[6]
Moving to TV news production, Aronson-Rath worked on award-winning series at ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and MSNBC. She also produced, directed, and wrote several award-winning Frontline films, including News War, The Last Abortion Clinic, and The Jesus Factor.
Aronson-Rath officially joined Frontline in 2007. In 2012, she was named Deputy Editor of Frontline by David Fanning, and Executive Producer in 2015, the position she holds today.[7] She has earned new funding to expand Frontline’s investigative capacity, including the launch of a YouTube channel with original content, a commitment to interactive projects,[8] as well as a film initiative focused on accountability for institutions and public officials called the Transparency Project.[9]
Aronson-Rath currently serves on the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy, the Board of Visitors for Columbia University’s Journalism school, and the advisory board of Columbia Global Reports.[10]
She has received numerous accolades for producing the documentary feature film 20 Days in Mariupol, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival[11] and won the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 96th Academy Awards.[12] At Sundance, the film won the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition.[13][14][15] It was also selected as the Ukrainian submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, but was not ultimately nominated in this category.[16][17]
Aronson-Rath was a 2014-2015 Fellow at the MIT Open Doc Lab.[18] Aronson-Rath has been a speaker at the Skoll World Forum,[19] the Aspens Ideas Summit,[20] The National Scholastic Press Association's High School Journalism Convention, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and The Power of Narrative Journalism Conference.[21]
Since 2015, Frontline has won many accolades under her direction, including The Academy Award for Documentary Feature,[22] The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award, IRE Awards, The George Foster Peabody Award,[23] Peabody-Facebook Futures of Media Award,[24] the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Overseas Press Club Awards, The Scripps Howard Award,[25] and Writer's Guild Awards,[26] and the 2019 dupont-Columbia Gold Baton award,[27] among others.
