Breaking the Mold: Redefining Work-Life Success for Modern Professional Women.

Join a conversation hosted by BasBlue co-founder Nancy Tellem with author and Dean of the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Celeste Watkins-Hayes, on the topic Breaking the Mold: Redefining Work-Life Success for Modern Professional Women.  

Each of these women has found success in careers that have taken them to the heights of competitive and complicated fields: Tellem in business and entertainment; Watkins-Hayes in academic research and higher ed administration. As they ponder the meaning of the age-old question, "Can you have it all?" they turn the question on its head and share reflections from their respective professional, personal, and parenting journeys."

Speaker Bio:

Nancy Tellem is the Executive Chairperson of Eko (formerly Interlude), a media company that reimagines storytelling by using proprietary technology to create interactive content that respond and leverage today’s media devices. Eko is in the forefront of e-commerce by using its technology to drive deeper and immersive customer engagements and sales. 

From 2012 to 2014, Tellem, as President of Xbox Entertainment Studios, oversaw Microsoft’s TV strategy and
created a studio focused on developing and producing interactive programming. Tellem was President of the CBS Network Television Entertainment Group from 1997 to 2012, where she oversaw both CBS Entertainment Network and CBS Studios. As President, she evaluated business and strategic opportunities: content partnerships, new production models, developing technologies, and emerging media. She also oversaw all programming,
development, production, business and legal operations, and the network’s primetime, daytime and late-night lineups.

In 2020, Tellem founded BasBlue, In, a nonprofit organization and first ever women’s space in Detroit dedicated to promoting a diverse and inclusive community of women by fostering authentic connections, and leadership and growth opportunities through educational seminars, mentorship programs, and other programming.

Tellem has held and currently holds board and advisory positions at numerous digital and media-related companies, including Eko, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Rocket Companies Inc, Nielsen Holdings and Sipur, an Israeli film and tv company, and several nonprofit organizations, including the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Museum, and the Detroit
Riverfront Conservancy. 

Tellem earned her B.A. from the University of California Berkeley and her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. Tellem is married to former sports agent Arn Tellem, now Vice Chairman of Palace Sports and Entertainment, the entity that runs the Detroit Pistons, among other businesses. The couple has three sons.

Faculty Expert

Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes

Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy; Director, Center for Racial Justice; Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Professor of Sociology; Research and Community Impact Fellow, Anti-Racism Collaborative

Watkins-Hayes is an internationally-recognized scholar and expert widely credited for her research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and human service institutions, with a special focus on HIV/AIDS; poverty; and race, class, and gender studies. Dr. Watkins-Hayes has published three books, numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, and pieces in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Chicago Magazine.

• Celeste Watkins-Hayes
• Nancy Tellem
• BasBlue