Lisa Paulsen

Overview

Lisa Paulsen is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a charitable organization representing the collective philanthropy of the television and film businesses. Under Lisa Paulsen’s leadership, EIF’s annual charitable giving has grown from $1.8 million to more than $100 million. As part of her growth strategy, Lisa Paulsen has engaged support from the entire entertainment industry with every president and/or CEO from major studios, networks and entertainment agencies serving on EIF’s Honorary Board of Governors, and has enlisted some of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors to volunteer their time and talent in support of EIF’s work, including Halle Berry, Pierce Brosnan, Johnny Depp, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Harrison Ford, Whoopi Goldberg, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank and Charlize Theron. Paulsen has spearheaded the launch of several national EIF initiatives; each raises awareness and significant funds for important social causes such as cancer research, diabetes awareness, creative arts and education.

Work at EIF

The Entertainment Industry Foundation is a major force in the fight against cancer, raising critically needed dollars for research and treatment, fast-tracking the most promising science, and generating awareness. Lisa Paulsen is a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer. This new EIF initiative raises philanthropic dollars to accelerate ground-breaking cancer research and bring new therapies to patients more quickly in order to end cancer's reign as a leading cause of death. Harnessing the power and influence of the media, many of the world's most renowned entertainers offered their full support for an historic, nationally-televised program, simultaneously broadcast live and commercial-free on ABC, CBS and NBC. More than $100 million was raised during this one hour telecast which aired on September 5, 2008.

EIF’s National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, co-founded with Katie Couric and Lilly Tartikoff, has been credited for the dramatic 20 percent increase in colonoscopy screenings and the colon cancer death rate is declining significantly. EIF-funded research has led to a new, highly reliable and non-invasive screening test for colorectal cancer and isolated one of the genes that may cause colon cancer, opening up doors for new research.

Created with Lilly Tartikoff and Ronald O. Perelman, the EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women (Los Angeles and New York) is one of the largest 5k fundraisers, attracting nearly 100,000 participants annually. With proceeds from this event, Paulsen streamlined the grantmaking process to help fast-track scientific breakthroughs such as Herceptin, which successfully treats one in four cases of the most aggressive form of breast cancer.

In 2003, EIF launched the Women’s Cancer Research Fund (EIF’s WCRF) with entertainment leadership support from EIF’s WCRF honorary chairs Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, along with co-founders Kelly Chapman Meyer, Jamie Tisch, Anne Douglas, Quinn Ezralow, and Marion Laurie. Paulsen and her staff brought together a new consortium of internationally recognized scientists at leading biomedical-research institutions, who are embarking upon an intensive quest to pinpoint breast-cancer biomarkers—unique proteins in the blood that may be used to detect cancer at its earliest stages, when survival rates are highest. EIF’s commitment has helped leverage an additional $100 million allocation by the National Institutes of Health to advance the science of biomarker discovery.

EIF established a program called Picture Quitting, a groundbreaking quit smoking program available to members of the entertainment industry and their families. Run in conjunction with the Motion Picture & Television Fund with support from the Motion Picture Industry Pension & Health Plan, this is the first ever industry-led smoking cessation program that combines free counseling with low-cost medication. The success rates of Picture Quitting are more than twice the national average for smoking cessation programs. As part of EIF’s ongoing effort to reduce the impact of smoking on young people, EIF united all six major studios – Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. – for an historic anti-smoking campaign. Though this campaign, these studios have committed to placing California's highly successful anti-smoking public service announcements in the opening minutes of DVDs of all new movies with tobacco use that are rated G, PG and PG-13.

EIF’s initiatives also extend to music and arts education as well as broader platforms designed to unite grassroots programs and engage Americans in all forms of service. Last year, EIF and The Black Eyed Peas launched the Peapod Music & Arts Academy, a state-of-the-art music and educational center and recording facility serving primarily foster children in Watts/Willowbrook. Next year, EIF will launch a new national initiative focused on rallying the country, especially young people, around the importance of volunteerism and public service.

Personal Connection

Paulsen has lost both of her parents to cancer—first her father, who died of lung cancer in 2005, and then her mother, who died from ovarian cancer in the fall of 2007. In their honor, Paulsen helped establish the Coleman Cancer Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. Part of a network site of the prestigious Jonsson Cancer Center at UCLA, the center gives people in her family’s hometown access to the latest developments in cancer treatment.