Dianne R. Bartlow

California State University, Northridge gender and women’s studies professor Dianne R. Bartlow has been nominated for a regional Emmy Award for a piece spotlighting organizations that serve the homeless in Santa Monica.

“Santa Monica Cares” aired on Dec. 31, 2014, on CityTV of Santa Monica and was a joint effort by members of the Women’s Steering Committee of the Directors Guild of America, of which Bartlow is a member. The program was nominated for an Emmy in the public, municipal and operator-produced cable category. The winner will be announced at the 67^th Los Angeles-area Emmy Awards presentation on Saturday, July 25.

Bartlow, an accomplished television director, writer and producer, said she was honored to receive the nomination.

“It’s pretty cool,” she said. “It’s been over a decade since I’ve been nominated for an Emmy. It’s kind of nice.”

Joining Bartlow in the nomination are fellow producers Jerri Sher and Melanie Wagor, executive producers Mary Lou Belli and Robin Gee, and associate producers Al Johnson and Evan Zissimopulos. The team produced three segments featuring Santa Monica-based organizations that work with the homeless: Bread and Roses Cafe, Step Up on Second and OPCC (Ocean Park Community Center).

Bartlow, chair of CSUN’s Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, produced the feature on the Bread and Roses Café of the St. Joseph Center. The café, headed by chef Derek Walker, provides homeless men, women and children with a nutritious meal in a comfortable, welcoming environment.

“It’s a phenomenal place, where the homeless are able to get gourmet food and, at least for a short period of time each day, be treated with respect,” she said. “It’s a place where they can go to eat quality freshly prepared food and for a little while, forget they’re homeless.”

Bartlow, who has been teaching at CSUN since 2002, started her career as a news director and producer. She spent more than a decade in the broadcast journalism arena, garnering several Emmy Award nominations along the way. She worked on the “Two on the Town” magazine show for KCBS through the 1980s. When the show ended, she worked as a freelance producer for a number of years before returning to school to get a doctorate in communications, with an emphasis on critical cultural/media studies, gender, race and discourse, cognition and human interaction. Her research focuses on representations of African-American women in popular music, culture and film; 19^th-century black feminism; pedagogy and diversity; mothering, and violence against women.

She is currently developing two documentaries: “Justice Denied: Mothers Who Lose Custody” and “New Agenda: African-American Women and Music.”