Speaker Profile

Alison Overholt is an award-winning media executive, producer and editor.

A year ago, she launched the creative content strategy and production studio Good People LLC, to support organizations and their strategic storytelling needs with good people, great ideas and exceptional execution. Her clients include WISE (Women in Sports & Events) and early-stage sports fintech startup Vestible, where she serves as strategic advisor and acting CMO. She is also an advisor in venture capital firm NexCubed’s HBCU accelerator program, currently working with pre-seed stage startup Scoutz App, an AI-powered scouting and agency platform for aspiring international pro basketball players.

A long-time ESPN executive, Alison was the first woman to run a major U.S. sports magazine when she became Editor in Chief of ESPN The Magazine in 2016; she was also founding editor of espnW. During her tenure as ESPN’s Senior Vice President of Storytelling & Journalism, Alison’s teams earned multiple Emmys, Webbys, Gracies, Folio Awards, and New York Press Club Awards, as well as the 2017 National Magazine Award for General Excellence and a 2019 Peabody Award. Adweek twice named Alison one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in Sports, and she was one of CableFax’s Most Powerful Women in Cable four years running, as well as an honoree on its Diversity List of the most influential multiethnic executives in media.

In 2021, Alison became General Manager of Oprah Daily, responsible for the launch and leadership of the new multiplatform lifestyle brand from Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Magazines. She pioneered Hearst’s interactive livestream class technology for Oprah to bring her signature wellness content to the Oprah Insiders community, which became the fastest-growing paid membership at Hearst under Alison’s leadership, and launched The Life You Want Planner, a guided meditation journal that remains Hearst’s best-selling product.

Alison teaches a course on the business of journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and serves on the boards of the Mercy College Women in Leadership program and the National Society of Magazine Editors. Alison holds a BA in government, with honors, from Harvard University.