Sam Ford Email & Phone Number

Bowling Green, Oh, Us

Innovation Engine is an innovation consultancy I co-founded with Vijay Kamineni and Amanda Havard. When organizations are building something new or tackling a novel challenge, Innovation Engine helps them get from idea to action through identifying patterns and building scalable models. Innovation Engine's "Repeatable Patterns and Models" (RPM) offering helps organizations accelerate their speed to market with new approaches and realize full potential of offerings through its strategy offerings.

Suspenders of Disbelief is a storytelling and engagement consultancy founded in December 2023 by Dr. Henry Jenkins, Dr. Sangita Shresthova, and me. The founding partners have collaborated in various ways since the mid-2000s and in various combinations–co-authoring books like Spreadable Media and Popular Culture and Civic Imagination; launching and running research initiatives including the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium and the USC Civic Imagination Project; co-producing conferences like the MIT Futures of Entertainment and USC/UCLA’s Transforming Hollywood; and hosting featured talks at venues like SXSW. In recent years, this has included a range of projects in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Georgia, out of which Suspenders of Disbelief was born.

I work with organizations on innovation approaches, audience engagement, cultural intelligence, and media/storytelling strategies.I have provided these services to a wide range of organizations, including Paramount/Simon & Schuster, Univision/Fusion Media Group, MIT, Peppercomm, WNYC/New York Public Radio, WD-40, Lowe’s/Orchard Supply Hardware, the University of Southern California, MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft, The Coca-Cola Company, Kudelski Group/NAGRA, Poynter, OFS, Office Kei, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Young Presidents' Organization, Hidden Forces, Jigsaw Enterprises, 99 Antennas, McCoy Studios, Wise Action, Micki Boas Consulting, the U.S. Department of State, Alabama Media Group, beingAI, Bit Source, Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, Black Hat Enterprises, ORBmedia, Mozilla Foundation’s Coral Project, University of Chicago’s Black Youth Project, The Center for New Democratic Process' Your Voice Ohio, Part & Sum, RAADZ, Rosine Barn LLC, Mountain Top Media, and the American Press Institute--in some cases, consulting and, in others, going "in house" to help create/manage new initiatives. More details on some of those "in-house" roles below, and more details/case studies about my work at https://samford.wordpress.com/.

As executive director of AccelerateKY, I work on various initiatives to connect, inform, and inspire others in support of Kentucky’s capacity for innovation. The 2021 launch of this organization builds on work conducted from 2017-2021 in partnership with the MIT Open Documentary Lab, the University of Southern California Annenberg School’s Civic Imagination Project, and Kentucky’s being the first U.S. state to ever go through MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP). Through this role, supporting initiatives such as Digital Promise's "Appalachian Ingenuity" initiative in Floyd County and Pikeville schools, the Civic Imagination Incubator developed in partnership with WKU and USC, the Kentucky-based fellowship for the MIT Open Documentary Lab, the Kentucky Governor's School for Entrepreneurs, the MIT Spokes program, and WKU Center for Gifted Studies' IdeaFestival Bowling Green; serving on the boards of Kentucky-based organizations Canopy, Employward, and Kentucky to the World; and helping launch the Kentucky based nonprofit Metals Innovation Initiative, founded in September 2022.

Bowling Green, Kentucky, Us

I manage communications and branding work for the Metals Innovation Initiative, a nonprofit focused on bringing metals companies and ecosystem partners together to make Kentucky the destination for metals innovation. The organization began as a whitepaper created by AccelerateKY and launched in September 2022 through the support of eight founding metals companies and the Kentucky state government.

Bowling Green, Kentucky, Us

As an Innovation and Culture Fellow with the Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus, I work on new initiatives to help support the development of jobs in media and creative industries in the region; support those working remotely in creative industries jobs in the region; and drive strategies innovative regional programs around the future of work in Kentucky and the greater Nashville area.

Cambridge, Ma, Us

I helped work with and support research initiatives with the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium and the related MIT Futures of Entertainment conference through 2012. Since that time, conducting ongoing research for academic publication as a research affiliate with the department, and, since 2017, working on initiatives with the MIT Open Documentary Lab.

Cambridge, Ma, Us

I worked with graduate students, consulting researchers, and corporate partners to explore issues relating to the collision of extant media and new media forms. My research focused on multiple media platforms, transmedia storytelling, product placement, fan communities, etc. My duties included updating our blog, editing the C3 Weekly Update newsletter, writing and assisting with whitepapers, consulting and brainstorming with partners on various projects, events planning, internal communication, and public relations. I also taught a course on the history of the U.S. soap opera.

Cambridge, Ma, Us

I wrote white papers on issues surrounding social aspects of media consumption and the nature of fan communities, served as editor for the C3 Weekly Update, managed the C3 public Weblog, advised corporate partners on issues related to the consortium's work, served as faculty liaison for our consulting faculty associated with the consortium, helped organize and facilitate conferences and retreats, and traveled to speak at corporate partner locations. I also taught a course on the history of U.S. pro wrestling.

New York, Us

With Dr. Andrea Wenzel and other collaborators, I am co-leading projects on how political polarization and urban-rural divisions are impacting the lives of residents on a local level, and on interventions for strengthening the sustainability of local journalism. This work has focused on understanding how these issues have impacted the lives of people in Kentucky, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, as well as the state of local news in New York City; examining existing interventions to address strengthening local news; and exploring and analyzing the results of pilot projects we directly helped lead.

New York, New York, Us

I co-led an analyst team focused on bringing new approaches to identifying cultural patterns and applying insights from that work to decision-making around the acquisition and marketing of books, working as part of our start-up imprint, Tiller Press, and in assistance of other teams around the publishing company. Also, oversaw a marketing team for Tiller Press embedded within our cultural intelligence department. This innovation initiative was funded by the parent company at the time, now known as Paramount.

Bowling Green, Ky, Us

I have taught courses for the WKU Department of Communication, as well as occasionally in partnership with the university's Honors College. Courses taught include Introduction to Popular Culture; Special Topics: Soap Operas; Pro Wrestling and Popular Culture; International Public Relations; and The Futures of Communication: The Future of Work in Kentucky.

Miami, Florida, Us

In this role, I worked across Fusion Media Group and with our parent company, Univision, to help guide how our teams experiment with new approaches to high-quality storytelling; cultivate participation across our various platforms; and find innovative new ways to reach and build relationships with audiences key to the mission of our brands or particular stories we were telling. While there, I founded and ran Univision/Fusion Media Group's Center for Innovation and Engagement, which manageed relationships with a range of academic, industry, and nonprofit organizations that are focused on innovation and experimentation in storytelling or new ways of building deeper relationships with key audiences and communities.

Miami, Florida, Us

I consulted with Univision's Fusion Media Group on its vision and strategies for supporting innovation and audience engagement, as well as providing guidance to particular special projects. This included designing plans for the company's Center for Innovation & Engagement.

New York, Ny, Us

In this role, I worked with companies to better listen to, empathize with, understand, and serve their customers and other key audiences through communications and storytelling. This included consulting with clients on overall approach, helping build communications and marketing strategies, facilitating brainstorming, listening to cultural patterns, and creating communications that speak to the issues which their audiences care about and which build deeper relationships at the service of those audiences. In addition, I wrote for outlets such as Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, PR News, and other industry and academic publications and engage in workshops and speaking engagements about how companies better engage with the audiences they seek to reach.

New York, Ny, Us

In this position, I guided overall strategy for the online presence of our clients, consulted directly with clients and our client teams, led workshops, and wrote and spoke regularly on issues surrounding digital culture, including in academic publications.

New York, Ny, Us

In this position, I co-led the strategy of the company's emerging digital communication practice, developed a new Digital Network Assessment offering, and consulted with clients on new approaches for understanding their customers' communication practices in a changing digital communication landscape, and in light of patterns in the broader culture.

New York, Ny, Us

I consulted with the strategic communications firm on its approach to understanding its clients' customers ways of communicating in an ever-changing digital communication landscape and on larger shifts in the culture in and around this changing media environment.

I have written commentary and news stories for "The Ohio County Times-News," "The Ohio County Messenger," and "The Greenville Leader-News." In January 2007, I won the KPA award for best feature story in a weekly newspaper for the size of the "Leader-News" for a story about a heart transplant patient and the friendship he developed with a chaplain intern from Uganda. I wrote a weekly column for the "Times-News" entitled "From Beaver Dam to Boston" and later "From Beaver Dam to Brooklyn" from Summer 2005 until Summer 2009.

I was a freelance writer for the 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 versions of the Bowling Green and South Central Kentucky Magazine.

Bowling Green, Ky, Us

I planned the First Amendment First conference, co-taught class on the cultural history of pro wrestling with Dr. Pam Johnson, and helped plan for a textbook on First Amendment case studies, as well as various other research projects.

Sm, Comparative Media Studies

B.A., English (Writing), News/Editorial Journalism, Communication Studies, Mass Comm, Film Studies

Education record