Cheryl Boone Isaacs is the newly appointed Founding Director of Arizona State University’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School where she leads from the California Center as well as from Tempe and Mesa. She is a past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who, during her 24 years as a board member, held every officer position and served as President of the Academy Foundation.
As President and CEO of CBI Enterprises, Inc. Boone Isaacs has consulted for companies such as MTV Films, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Lionsgate and Sony Entertainment. She previously served as president of theatrical marketing for New Line Cinema and was executive vice president of worldwide publicity for Paramount Pictures.
Boone Isaacs has been an adjunct professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, as well as at the USC Cinema and Television, Columbia College Chicago, and Mount Saint Mary’s College. She has been a guest lecturer at USC, UCLA, Harvard’s Kennedy School, Loyola Marymount, Dubai International Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Singapore Film Festival and Korea’s Busan International Film Festival.
She has an Honorary Doctorate from Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. From 2013 through 2016, Ms. Isaacs served as Chair of District 16, Rhodes scholarship selection committee. Boone Isaacs was inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame and a Trustee Emeritus of AFI Board of Trustees.