Union College News Release 8-29-05: Renowned Film Producer, Kathy Eldon, to Speak at Union College

Renowned Film Producer, Kathy Eldon, to Speak at Union College

Film producer, activist and founder of Creative Visions Foundation, Kathy M. Eldon, will be the keynote speaker at Union's annual Fall Convocation. Eldon will speak at Union this Thursday, September 1 at 9:30 a.m. in the Conway Boatman Chapel.

Eldon and her daughter Amy launched the Creative Visions Foundation, a nonprofit that offers grants to young people who are using media to stimulate positive change in the world. The foundation's emphasis on young leaders and visionaries is inspired by the memory of Kathy's son Dan, a 22-year old Reuters photographer who was killed in war-torn Somalia.

Kathy Eldon has launched numerous projects on her own and through Creative Visions, including three heavily trafficked web sites, two award-winning documentaries, three half-hour television programs, a ground-breaking PBS travel series, a feature film distributed by Columbia Pictures, eighteen books and traveling exhibitions that have touched on four continents. Kathy and her daughter Amy have delivered scores of lectures at colleges and prestigious institutions including: The United Nations, The Freedom Forum, Overseas Press Club, UCLA, Boston University, Wellesley College, Columbia University, Duke University and Cornell College.

Originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Eldon, at age 16, traveled to South Africa as an American Field Exchange student and developed a lifelong passion for exploration and discovery. She later graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Art History, and taught art at the American School in London where she lived with her husband and two children, Dan and Amy. In l977, the family moved to Nairobi where Kathy worked as the Travel Editor of Signature Magazine, Editor of Kenya Airways Magazine, Food Editor for the Sunday Nation, and the author of eight books and a frequent contributor to many travel publications, including Conde Naste Traveler, Bon Appetit, The International Herald Tribune and The Washington Post.

Kathy promoted tourism to Kenya as the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the East African division of Abercrombie and Kent and spoke extensively at zoo and museum conventions throughout the States. She worked with paleontologist, Richard Leakey as a volunteer coordinator of special events at the National Museums of Kenya where she produced a three-day Living Museum Festival that attracted 30,000 people. Together with her husband and family, she frequently entertained tourists groups in her home, mixing visitors with local celebrities, journalists and writers.

In 1988, Kathy moved to London where she founded Creative Visions and co-produced her first film, Lost In Africa, distributed abroad by Colombia Pictures. In July of 1993, Kathy's life took a dramatic turn when her son, then a 22-year-old Reuter's photographer, was killed in Somalia. Since then, Kathy has been involved in organizing exhibitions and symposia on issues of journalistic safety and freedom. In 1998, her daughter Amy, a graduate of Boston University's College of Communications, joined her to produce books, films, television, and speeches that inspire people of all ages to celebrate their passion for life.

Amy originated the concept for the team's Emmy-nominated two hour TBS special, Dying to Tell the Story, about journalists on the frontlines, and worked with Kathy on their moving CNN documentary, Soldiers of Peace, a Children's Crusade, about the Children's Peace Movement in Colombia. Both films premiered at the United Nations, and were distributed through CNN to 220 countries. Kathy also produced Global Trek, in Search of New Lebanon, a pilot for CNN International that laid the way for their latest series, GlobalTribe, which premiered in January with episodes in Mexico and The Philippines, and includes an on-line streamed segment on South Africa. The Packard Foundation and the AOL Time Warner Foundation funded GlobalTribe.

Creative Visions is currently producing GlobalTribe as a 13-part series, and is also poised to move into production on a feature film about the life of Dan Eldon (starring Orlando Bloom).

Kathy and Amy have also co-authored three best-selling self-guided journals, Angel Catcher, Soul Catcher, and Love Catcher, which have sold nearly 200,000 copies and have been featured on the Oprah show.

Dan Eldon's biography and richly textured journal pages in the Art of Life and The Journey Is The Destination (sold over l00,000 copies) edited by Kathy Eldon and published by Chronicle Books, continue to inspire educators, artists, and young people to find their true path in life. Kathy enjoys taking the messages of "know thyself" and "the Journey is the Destination" to young people at colleges and universities across the country. She lectures frequently and continues to be a fiery spokesperson to protect the rights of journalists abroad.

Together with her daughter, Kathy and Amy have discovered how to transform extreme misfortune into positive action and results. Their lectures include such topics as stimulating creativity in kids, journaling your way to success, dealing with grief and the renewal of the human spirit. Their message has awakened hundreds of thousands of people to seek their passion and to live the life of their choice.