Daily Business Report-Jan. 17, 2017
In 2016, just seven percent of the top 250 domestic grossing films were directed by women. (Photo: Tallgrass Pictures)
Gender Inequality in Hollywood
SDSU study shows women are
underrepresented in film industry
By SDSU News Team
In 2016, women comprised just seven percent of all directors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films, according to the 19th annual Celluloid Ceiling report released by Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
The figure represents a decline from nine percent in 2015 and is two percent below the level achieved in 1998.
“The findings indicate that women who direct films actually lost ground in 2016,” Lauzen said. “The current small-scale remedies for women’s under-employment, while they may be well-intentioned and benefit a handful of individuals, are ineffective in addressing this issue. The efforts, such as the mentoring and shadowing programs, are simply too meager to create the kind of shift that is needed.”
In other roles, women accounted for 13 percent of writers, 17 percent of executive producers, 24 percent of producers, 17 percent of editors and five percent of cinematographers. Overall, women comprised 17 percent of individuals working in the roles mentioned. This represents a decline of two percent from 2015 and is even with the figure obtained in 1998.
“Women working in key behind-the-scenes roles have yet to benefit from the current dialogue regarding diversity and inclusion in the film industry,” Lauzen noted.
This year’s study also considers the employment of women on the top 100 and 500 domestic grossing films. The analysis of the top 500 films reveals that features with at least one woman director employ higher percentages of women writers, editors, cinematographers and composers than films with exclusively male directors. For example, on films with female directors, women comprised 64 percent of writers. On films with exclusively male directors, women accounted for nine percent of writers.
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Small Business Alliance Says Obamacare
Repeal Will Hurt Self-Employed
The Main Street Alliance of San Diego said the beginning of efforts to repeal Obamacare will hurt small businesses and entrepreneurs.
The House of Representatives took the first step toward repeal Friday with a 227-198 vote along party lines that sets up changes in the federal budget that will ultimately undermine the Affordable Care Act.
San Diego Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa voted with the majority, while Democratic Reps. Susan Davis, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas voted against the measure.
“The Affordable Care Act is not perfect, and I have voted against my own party to make critical fixes to the law to lower costs for families and ease the burden on small businesses,” said Peters after the vote. “That’s what we should be doing now — coming together on fiscally responsible improvements that make healthcare more affordable and accessible for everyone.”
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, one in five people enrolled in Obamacare’s insurance marketplaces is a small business owner or is self-employed person.
“As a business owner it’s important to know that our number one asset, our staff and their families, have access to affordable health care,” says George Thornton, owner of The Homebrewer in North Park. “Few things can be more local than ensuring access to health care for our loved ones.”
The Republican Party is pursuing a strategy of simultaneously repealing and replacing the controversial law, which has enabled some 20 million people to get health insurance coverage but caused premiums to rise.
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Astronaut Eugene Cernan Dies;
Last Man to Walk on the Moon
Cernan, the cool-as-a-breeze San Diego Navy aviator who went on to become one of NASA’s most accomplished astronauts and the last man to walk on the moon, died on Monday at 82, the space agency said. Cernan, who was nearly killed during his first spaceflight in 1966, died at a Houston hospital of “on-going health problems,” his family said in a statement.
Read the San Diego Union-Tribune
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Capt. Gisele Bonitz Takes Command
of SSC Pacific in San Diego
Navy Capt. Gisele Bonitz, executive officer of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, has been appointed its commanding officer.
She took over the post from Capt. Kurt Rothenhaus, who has been SSC Pacific’s commanding officer since 2013, during a change-of-command ceremony held at SSC Pacific in San Diego.
Rothenhaus received the Legion of Merit award from Rear Adm. Dave Lewis, commander of the Space and Naval Warfare Command, during the ceremony in recognition of his performance and contributions to SSC Pacific.
Bonitz held leadership roles at SPAWAR that include chief of staff and executive assistant as well as adviser to the chief engineering on information technology issues.
She became chief of information assurance at the Combined Joint Task Force Seven in Iraq in 2003 and months later assumed the role of deputy of the innovations and experimentation directorate at Commander, 3rd Fleet in San Diego.
The 20-year Navy veteran led the development of a communications infrastructure that supported operations of the expeditionary strike group one as assistant chief of staff for command, control, communications, computers and information.
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Balboa Park Conservancy Wins Kaleidoscope
Award for Exceptional Governance
The Balboa Park Conservancy has been named the 2017 winner of the Kaleidoscope Award for Exceptional Governance, as selected by the University of San Diego’s Nonprofit and Philanthropic Institute in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences.
The award committee chose the Balboa Park Conservancy for its commitment to excellence in governance. Three years ago, the older Balboa Park Central merged with the Balboa Park Conservancy, a complex process that entailed overcoming several risks and challenges. The award recognizes the success of what proved to be an exemplary nonprofit merger, thanks to the foresight and strong leadership on both boards, resulting in a new and stronger resource for Balboa Park.
The award was presented as part of the opening panel of the 13th annual Nonprofit Governance Symposium on Jan. 13, at the University of San Diego.
The Balboa Park Conservancy provides expertise, advocacy, and resources to envision, enhance, and sustain Balboa Park for all visitors in partnership with the city of San Diego and in collaboration with other organizations in the park and the community.
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Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors
Hosts 2017 Legal Update Program
The Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors (PSAR), a trade group for San Diego Realtors, will host its “2017 Legal Update” with Gov Hutchinson, assistant general counsel with the California Association of Realtors from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 31, at PSAR’s South County Service Center, 880 Canarios Court, Chula Vista. Cost to attend is $10 for PSAR members and $20 for nonmembers. Lunch refreshments will be served beginning at 11:30 a.m. For more information, call PSAR at (619) 421-7811 or visit www.psar.org/gov.
Hutchinson will share the latest information on legal cases and new laws, as well as rule changes on disclosure and other transaction forms. A 31-year employee at CAR, Hutchinson manages CAR’s Member Legal Services Program and CAR’s Legal Hotline, which advises Realtors on aspects of real estate law.
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TSRI Scientists Discover Master
Regulator of Cellular Aging
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered a protein that fine-tunes the cellular clock involved in aging.
This novel protein, named TZAP, binds the ends of chromosomes and determines how long telomeres, the segments of DNA that protect chromosome ends, can be. Understanding telomere length is crucial because telomeres set the lifespan of cells in the body, dictating critical processes such as aging and the incidence of cancer.
“Telomeres represent the clock of a cell,” said TSRI Associate Professor Eros Lazzerini Denchi, corresponding author of the new study, published online in the journal Science. “You are born with telomeres of a certain length, and every time a cell divides, it loses a little bit of the telomere. Once the telomere is too short, the cell cannot divide anymore.”
Naturally, researchers are curious whether lengthening telomeres could slow aging, and many scientists have looked into using a specialized enzyme called telomerase to “fine-tune” the biological clock.
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USD Online Graduate Education
Program Ranked No. 22 in Nation
U.S. News & World Report has listed the University of San Diego’s online Master of Education program among the nation’s best in its 2017 ranking of online graduate education programs. USD ranked No. 22 out of nearly 250 schools in the 2017 “Best Online Graduate Education Programs” report.
“The success of this program is a testament to how great teacher development happens in an online environment. The superb teaching in our great online program parallels our superb teaching in our face-to-face classes.” said Nicholas Ladany, dean of the School of Leadership and Education Sciences for USD.
The fully online master’s degree in education program has offered degrees since 2013 and has received recognition and acclaim since it launched. Just 16 months after its launch, the online Master of Education degree was ranked 75 in the nation by U.S. News
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2 County Schools Get Northrop Grumman
Foundation Grants to Create STEM Classrooms
Del Dios Academy of Arts and Sciences in Escondido and the Harriet Tubman Village Charter School in San Diego are winners in the Northrop Grumman Foundation’s Fab School Labs makeover contest. Each of the schools will receive a grant of up to $100,000 to help turn their current sience, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) facilities into state-of-the-art, fully equipped STEM labs.
The two schools were among five winning schools.
The Fab School Labs contest was designed to drive student interest in STEM by providing public middle school teachers and administrators the chance to create a dream STEM lab and giving students access to the latest learning tools and technologies that stimulate as well as teach. To help meet the technology-driven demands of our world, the Northrop Grumman Foundation’s Fab School Labs program is helping STEM labs become places of inspiration, imagination and opportunity for tomorrow’s innovators and inventors.
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Personnel Announcements
Zephyr Promotes Amber Frankhuizen
Zephyr, a san Diego-based real estate development company, has promoted Amber Frankhuizen to vice president of sales and marketing. In this elevated role, Frankhuizen will continue to communicate the firm’s projects and achievements with the public, while also promoting Zephyr’s brand attributes.
Formerly Zephyr’s director of marketing, Frankhuizen has extensive experience in real estate sales, marketing and project management, and oversees the sales and marketing efforts for several of Zephyr’s new developments, including The Park, Bankers Hill, 60 luxury condos and townhomes being built adjacent to Balboa Park in Bankers Hill; SummerHouse Carlsbad, high-end ocean and lagoon view condos; and South Cove, a premier barefoot community of 168 luxury residences under construction in Dana Point.
Prior to joining Zephyr, Frankhuizen was a leasing manager with Carmel Partners.
