JOAN BRADY

Joan co-founded Spirited Media with her husband, Jim, in June 2014. As Chief Operating Officer, she expanded Spirited Media’s Partnerships and Events strategy, successfully launching innovative approaches to help identify and prove out sustainable revenue models for local news. 

Joan’s passion for news began with her  early-career work at two of public media’s most iconic public television stations: WNET in New York and WETA in Washington D.C. During her tenure in public media, Joan focused on national underwriting, station relations and pledge and audience research, working closely with public television stations nationwide as well as with PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

Joan became part of the digital media revolution when she joined America Online in 1995. While at AOL, Joan worked in digital content development, before conceiving and creating the audience analytics and analysis department and managing qualitative content research. 

In 2001, Joan left the corporate world and became an entrepreneur, starting her own photography firm and turning a hobby into a successful business. Her images have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times.com, Washingtonian Magazine, Capitol File, Children’s Voice (the magazine of the Welfare League of America), O Magazine, Professional Photographers Magazine, NBC-4/DC and in countless marketing, fundraising and public relations publications for various non-profits. 

Joan combines her non-profit interests and her news and photography skills as a columnist and reporter for the Connection Newspapers. In 2017, her series on foster care success stories earned her a first place award from the Virginia Press Association, and her columns earned her second place in 2015.

Joan’s experience working across multiple platforms and disciplines and as both a media executive and entrepreneur allows her to help each of our clients across a broad spectrum of objectives.