WS Chronicle

Debra Langford, a longtime executive in the media and entertainment industry, will deliver North Carolina A&T State University’s Fall Commencement address.

More than 700 Aggies will graduate at the Greensboro Coliseum at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8. The ceremony is free and open to the public.

Langford is the chief executive officer of The Langford Company, which, among other things, provides diversity and inclusion strategies to a number of major clients.  Before becoming CEO, Langford was the vice president of inclusion and business diversity at NBCUniversal. During the two years she spent in that position, she was responsible for creating, setting and advancing the inclusion and business diversity strategy across the company.

Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Langford was a vice president of strategic sourcing for Time Warner, where she specialized in identifying top-tier, diverse executives for senior positions across all divisions of the company.

Langford has also served as the senior content creative executive for UrbanEntertainment.com; vice president and general manager of Essence Entertainment; vice president of television for Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment; and vice president of Warner Bros. Television.  Her career in the entertainment industry began as director of development with Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1986.

Last year, President Barack Obama named Langford to the USO Board of Governors. She is also a member of the advisory boards for the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and the Association of African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA).  In addition to those boards, Langford is one of the founding members and a leader of Colour TV and Colour Film, organizations for top diverse creative executives in television, film and digital.