Joetta Di Bella Sautter ’69

Joetta Di Bella Sautter holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Montclair State. Deviating from her initial plans to become an English teacher, Joetta instead launched a successful career in television and broadcast media production that took her from Manhattan to Hollywood. An Emmy Award-winning producer, she received several Los Angeles area Emmys for her work with KTLA Channel 5 and has served on the Television Academy’s Diversity Committee and its Foundation’s Education Committee.

During her career, she also produced the station’s Family Film Festival along with producing and writing a number of Hollywood Christmas and Rose Parades. Before retiring, she put her love of history to use as an archivist for the Pasadena Tournament of Roses.

Most recently, after visiting the campus for her 50th reunion together with her husband, Chris, they were struck, in particular, by the direction of the School of Communication and Media and its state-of-the-art building. Together they decided to lend their generous support to the School and its students by naming the Center for Strategic Communication. The new Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication is a state-of-the-art communication hub in the School of Communication and Media that brings industry-leading tools to a dynamic teaching and learning space. The Center will help to prepare the next generation of strategic communication professionals through hands-on instruction on social listening platforms, consumer insights analytics, content creation applications, and nimble media production tools.