The Ad Council is the largest producer of public-service communications programs in the United States. A nonprofit organization, the Ad Council received more than $1.6 billion in donated media support on behalf of its 40 national public service campaigns in 2013. The nation's leading advertising agencies produce the creative for free, addressing issues including autism awareness, foster care, adoption, bullying, and texting and driving.
When the Ad Council announced plans to search for a new president and CEO earlier this year, Lisa Sherman applied. A longstanding part of LGBT community, Sherman had the goods to make the grade: She helped launch Logo TV, co-founded the Women's Sports Network ( a marketing services company dedicated to reaching teens, women and families through their passion for sports ), and held a number of senior level marketing, advertising and operating positions at Verizon over the course of 17 years.
One thing that never came up in conversation during the job interview: whether Sherman was gay.
"That never came up in a four-month search process, and that's amazingly great news," Sherman said in a telephone interview with The New York Times. "Five years, 10 years ago, that may not have been the case."
"Along with Lisa's significant experience in the communications industry, she embodies altruism and the tenets of the Ad Council, and has a great passion for the work we do," said Peggy Conlon, the Ad Council's former president and CEO. "I look forward to watching Lisa and our talented team take the Ad Council into the future."
Sherman now leads the Ad Council.
"Well, the truth of the matter is, I had never met Peggy until I was selected and I only knew her by reputation, which was really quite impeccable—she has a great, impeccable reputation, but I've had the real benefit of spending a fair amount of time with her over the last month. She's been incredibly generous with me as far as helping me to get up to speed and get on board, and so I'm very grateful for that," Sherman told Windy City Times.
Conlon was there through November. "The board really wanted to ensure that there was a very smooth and thoughtful transition," Sherman said. "I have the benefit of having her here for a period of time so that I can bug her with questions every day. I mean she's been here 15 years. ... She's got an institutional knowledge that is, I'm sure, quite deep. I'm happy that she's willing to share it with me."
Being part of history is old hat for Sherman. The former Logo exec was there at the channel's launch in 2005, and saw the network through its share of ups and downs.
"The opportunity to launch and lead Logo was really one of the highlights for me, professionally and personally, of my life to do something that was so historic. And Logo was launched with the thought that we would be a multiplatform business from day one, because media was changing so much even in 2005 when we launched it," Sherman said. "And so I feel like I've had an opportunity to be in the middle of a lot of the media transformation that's been happening."
Logo was considered by many to be a transformative media that often received backlash for not being inclusive enough of lesbian content, something Sherman offered insight on.
"It's so interesting because I will only tell you that when I was at Logo and you think about the diversity of the LGBTQ community—which is hugely diverse—at any given point there was some aspect of the community that felt underrepresented," she said.
Fast forward nine years and social media spirals on nanoseconds, and celebrity gossip dominates. Where is the substance in today's media? And how can reputable businesses get their critical messages to the masses?
"I think that the mobile and social technologies that we have are incredibly powerful and from the perspective of the work that the Ad Council does can be very powerful and very helpful in terms of getting these very important messages out in very personal and relevant ways, because the nature of those platforms are very personal," Sherman said. "There's nothing more personal than your mobile phone. And so to be able to figure out how to connect with people on the other end of those phones and then also have them become ambassadors for our work is really something very exciting and something that we want to continue to build on and leverage."
Cracking the glass ceiling again at the Ad Council, Sherman became the first open lesbian to secure the prominent position. Although the importance of the situation is not lost on Sherman, she relayed that it wasn't entered into as a means to an end. In fact, it was an afterthought.
"I don't think [my being gay] entered into the consideration set at all. I think the most important thing was finding the person they thought would be the next best leader for this amazing organization. And so I think that was exactly how it went down," Sherman said.
A woman first and foremost, Sherman is composed of many interlocking facets, none of which take center stage over the other, she said.
"The way I've always approached my life is to try to live it as authentically as possible in everything I do," she said. "And so that's what I brought to this, and that's what I will continue to bring to this. And in that authenticity I'm a fairly multi-dimensional person, and so being a woman is part of who I am, being a mom is part of who I am, being a lesbian is part of who I am, being hopefully a great leader is part of who I am."
Learn more about the Ad Council by visiting www.adcouncil.org .
