The Changemakers series is part of our Professional Membership. This series features Global thought leaders sharing insights on change, adaptation, and acceleration in today’s evolving world. 

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Dr. Jennifer E. Turner, Executive Vice President, Tristar Television and Founder, Mad Cool Fitness/Mad Cool Community

Working on both the business and creative sides of television, Dr. Jennifer Turner has been leading and managing divisions within large media companies such as Disney, NBCUniversal, and Sony for over 20 years. Dr. Turner is currently EVP and head of TriStar Television, the boutique label of Sony Pictures Television. She is responsible for developing and producing bold, new stories from diverse perspectives, and championing underrepresented stories driving cultural conversations airing on premium cable and streaming platforms. In addition to creative oversight of the label, Dr. Turner is responsible for setting TriStar’s overall strategy and leading and managing TriStar’s operations.

Dr. Turner has been recognized for her achievements many times throughout her career including being featured in Variety’s Inclusion Impact Report 2019 and Variety’s New York Women’s Impact Report 2021. In 2022, she was a Multichannel News Wonder Women LA honoree. She was also the recipient of the 2023 African American Film Critics Association “Salute to Excellence” award, and the 2023 recipient of the Garden State Film Festival’s “Exceptional Women in Film” award.

Dr. Turner is an advocate for health empowerment in people, organizations, and communities, with a particular focus on women and girls. She is the founder and CEO of MAD COOL FITNESS, an inclusive, edutainment healthy lifestyle brand that uses behavioral science to facilitate health empowerment. She also founded non-profit MAD COOL COMMUNITY which partners with local community organizations addressing the social determinants of health. MAD COOL COMMUNITY is initially focused on the health empowerment of youth in schools.

Dr. Turner is a self-proclaimed, “Fitness Activator”; it is her life’s mission to “activate” everyone’s innate ability to have a healthy lifestyle and achieve empowerment, the way she has, through good health. Dr. Turner leverages her media and entertainment background, and knowledge of health behavior change theoretical models, to design innovative wellness programs for individuals and communities. These programs are based not only on Dr. Turner’s professional and academic backgrounds but also on her personal experience as someone who formerly struggled with weight and health issues. Her health coaching programs are the nexus of health and leadership, helping both women and adolescent girls to be more empowered leaders in work/school and in their lives.

Dr. Turner holds a Doctor of Public Health, DrPH, specializing in health education and behavioral science from Rutgers School of Public Health where she is also an Adjunct Professor. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University, a Bachelor of Finance from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Japanese Language from the University of Pennsylvania. She is an avid runner and a classically trained violinist.

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