Kathy Eldon
FOUNDER, CREATIVE VISIONS FOUNDATION
Kathy has worked as a teacher, journalist, author and film and television producer in England, Africa and the United States. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Kathy graduated from Wellesley College, married an Englishman, moved to London, and ten years later, flew to Nairobi, Kenya with her husband and two children, where Kathy worked as an author and journalist in the vibrant new nation. Following the death of her artist and photojournalist son Dan – killed at the age of 22 in 1993, while on assignment for Reuters in Somalia, Kathy moved West Hollywood, where she launched Creative Visions, a non-profit organization to support creative activists like Dan who use arts and media to ignite positive change. Launched in her bedroom, the organization is now based in the Dan Eldon Center for Creative Activism in Malibu and has incubated more than 400 projects and productions and impacted more than 100 million people. Creative Visions has been recognized as a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).
Kathy is also the founder of Creative Visions Productions, dedicated to producing entertaining social impact media. Her first feature, Lost in Africa, produced in 1990, brought alive the horrors of ivory poaching in Africa. Since then, the company has produced award-winning films including Dying to tell the Story, an Emmy-nominated TBS special about frontline correspondents; Soldiers of Peace, a Children’s Crusade, a CNN special focusing on the Children’s Peace Movement in Colombia, and Global Tribe, a three-part PBS series which inspired the development of Creative Visions Foundation’s Rock Your World, a free online human-rights based program youth empowerment program. RYW has touched more than one million students in 72 countries.
Kathy is the executive producer of Extraordinary Moms, an Oprah Winfrey (OWN) special about the power of mothers to transform the world. The film features Julia Roberts, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour and Rosie O’Donnell, among others. Together with Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Kweku Mandela, Kathy produced the award-winning film, The Journey is the Destination, a feature about Dan, directed by Bronwen Hughes (Harriet the Spy, Forces of Nature, Stander), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival with actress Maria Bello playing Kathy. Journey is now available on Netflix.
Kathy is the author of 17 books, including Angel Catcher, Soul Catcher and Love Catcher (Chronicle), a series of popular self-guided journals written with her daughter Amy. Kathy is also the editor of a best-selling collection of her son Dan’s journals, The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon, and has written cookbooks, travel and eating out guides and a series of children’s social history books. Harper One published her memoir, In the Heart of Life, which tells the story of her extraordinary journey
Kathy has been profiled in a number of books, including Arianna Huffington’s On Becoming Fearless; Those Who Dare; Real People, Real Courage; Fearless Women and 200 Women. She has received many awards including the PVBLIC Foundation’s Media for Social Impact Award presented at the United Nations and the George H.W. Bush “Points of Light” award, following the nomination by Nelson Mandela’s grandsons, Kweku Amuah Mandela and Ndaba Mandela, on Nelson Mandela’s birthday in 2013. Kathy has also received the Young Audience Award for her work with children, the Euro-American Woman’s Council Award, and, in 2019, the Malibu Chamber of Commerce selected Kathy for their Women in Philanthropy Award
Kathy, a popular speaker, has been featured on countless television and radio programs globally, including several appearances on Oprah and a segment on Oprah’s “Producer’s Favorites.” Kathy lives in Malibu with her husband, acclaimed designer Michael Bedner, next to her daughter, Amy Eldon Turteltaub and her family, and a few steps away from the Dan Eldon Center for Creative Activism, a vibrant hub for individuals who want to help change the world for the better.
