Chantilly, VA - Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) today named Brooke Johnson winner of its 2010 Woman of the Year award and Veronica Sheehan winner of its 2010 Woman to Watch award. The awards will be presented during WICT's Touchstones Luncheon on September 13 at the Hilton New York, in conjunction with the annual WICT Leadership Conference.

"WICT is proud to recognize Brooke and Veronica for their contributions to the cable telecommunications industry," said Ellen East, 2010 Chair of WICT. "These awards celebrate their achievements and encourage others to emulate their successes. In both their personal and professional lives, Brooke and Veronica each provide us with exemplary testaments to forward-thinking leadership."

The Woman of the Year award is bestowed upon a woman in cable media who has made increasingly significant contributions to her own company and the overall cable telecommunications industry throughout her career. She is at the top and shows great resolve to help others along their path.

The Woman to Watch award is bestowed upon a woman in cable who shows tremendous promise for transforming the industry through her professional accomplishments. She has already demonstrated exemplary leadership skills as well as a strong dedication to the industry and her organization.

About Brooke Johnson
Named President of Food Network in 2004, Brooke Johnson was elevated in 2010 to head of the entire food category at Scripps which includes Food Network, Cooking Channel, Foodnetwork.com, Cooking Channel TV.com, Food2.com, Recipezaar.com and Enterprises, the new business and licensing and merchandising arm of the company. She had served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Food Network since May 2003. She's been named one of the most influential women in cable by CableFAX.

Johnson previously worked for many years at A&E, where she launched the Biography Channel, and proposed the original concept for History Channel and crafted its programming strategy. Prior to joining A&E, Johnson was Program Director for WABC-TV in New York where she launched first the local and then national syndication Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee.

Johnson's numerous industry affiliations have included the Board of Trustees of the WICT Foundation; the board of the National Association of Television Program Executives; the CTAM Summit Planning Committee; and a founding trustee of Cable Positive, the cable industry AIDS fundraising and awareness organization.  She was also one of six cable industry executives selected by the National Cable Television Association to serve as a representative on the TV Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Board. A graduate of Northwestern University, Johnson holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and a Masters degree from the University's Medill School of Journalism.

About Veronica Sheehan
Veronica Sheehan is senior vice president of network operations for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc's (TBS, Inc) Turner Entertainment Group, responsible for leading technical, operational, administrative and financial activities for the Network Operations division. The Network Operations division provides 24-hour technical and operational support for Turner Broadcasting's entertainment and animation networks, including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, Boomerang, truTV, NBA-TV and NBA-TV International, as well as VOD offerings and products on emerging platforms, such as mobile and broadband.

Sheehan joined Turner Broadcasting in 1999 as director of broadcast operations. Previously, she was director of operations/division services for National Video Center/Recording Studios, Inc. in New York City.

Sheehan is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE).  In 2002, WICT inducted her into the prestigious Betsy Magness Leadership Institute and in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 she was named one of the most powerful women in technology by Cable World magazine. She has also received WICT Atlanta's Red Letter Catalyst Award for Woman in Technology. Sheehan is the founding chair of Turner Women Today (one of Turner Broadcasting's business resource groups), and since 2008 has served as the National Chapter Advisor for the WICT Atlanta Chapter and had recently written a monthly blog about leadership for Atlanta Woman Magazine. Sheehan earned a bachelors degree in communications and journalism at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY and currently serves on the President's Council, advising the college on the evolution of the cable and broadcast industry.

ABOUT WICT
For over thirty years, Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) has partnered with cable and telecommunications leaders to provide professional development programs, research, and services that help advance women in cable media. With nearly 8,000 active members, WICT is the oldest and largest professional association serving women in the cable and telecommunications industry. Comcast, Rainbow Media/WE tv, Time Warner Cable and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. are WICT's Strategic Touchstone Partners. Please visit www.wict.org for more information.

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