Sam Ford
About Sam Ford
I work with organizations on innovation approaches, audience engagement, cultural intelligence, and media/storytelling strategies. I am co-founder of Innovation Engine with Vijay Kamineni and Amanda Havard and co-founder/managing partner of Suspenders of Disbelief, with Dr. Henry Jenkins and Dr. Sangita Shresthova. I've led innovation projects with a wide range of organizations, including Paramount/Simon & Schuster, Univision/Fusion Media Group, MIT, Peppercomm, WNYC, Lowe’s Hardware, WD-40, Kudelski Group, the University of Southern California, MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft, The Coca-Cola Company, Poynter, the U.S. Department of State, University of Southern California, and University of Chicago’s Black Youth Project. I am also executive director of the nonprofit AccelerateKY and Director of Strategic Communications for the Metals Innovation Initiative. I serve as a research affiliate with MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing, a Knight News Innovation Fellow with Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and an Innovation and Culture Fellow at the Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus, where I work on projects with the Central Region Ecosystem of Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (CREATE). I co-authored the 2013 NYU Press book Spreadable Media, co-edited the 2010 University Press of Mississippi book The Survival of Soap Opera, and have published published more than 25 academic essays on media/marketing. I've been a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Inc. and have written for various publications, including Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, Advertising Age, Slate, Huffington Post, and Christian Science Monitor. I began my career as a Kentucky Press Association award-winning reporter and columnist for rural newspapers. I've spoken at a wide range of events like SXSW, Social Media Week NYC, Future of Storytelling, the Media Insights & Engagement Conference, Front End of Innovation, Media Days Munich, NeoTVLab in Argentina, Cartagena Inspira in Colombia, Encontros de Comunicação in Brazil, and Yr Simposiwm Reslo in Wales. My work has been featured in a wide range of places, too, like VICE’s Lil Bub and Friendz, Grant McCracken's Chief Culture Officer, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, Elle, the BBC, CNBC, Fortune, Bored Panda, Forbes, Venture Beat, Slashdot, Investor's Business Daily, Reader’s Digest, Buzzfeed, ESPN, Soap Opera Weekly…and, most proudly, as trivia on Jeopardy! and NPR’s Ask Me Another, as well as The New York Times crossword.