A native of Aliceville, Alabama, Lisa Churchville attended HBS while on educational leave from IBM. Upon graduation, she changed paths and pursued her interest in broadcasting, working as an account executive for ABC before joining NBC in 1986. Having held various management positions at NBC affiliates in Chicago and Philadelphia, Churchville is now president and general manager of NBC’s WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island. She has received numerous awards for her community work.

Last year our station ran a special about the Blizzard of ’78 on the 25th anniversary of the “Storm of the Century.” Okay, that might be a bit of local television hyperbole, but it was amazing to see the grainy video, spartan sets, rudimentary weather graphics, weathermen with long hair and sideburns (I am sure we did not look that dorky at the B-School), and the absolute blanket of white. I remember where I was then — stranded at the B-School with food running low.

The days crawl and the years fly! Here we are 25 years later with a lot of road behind us and more road ahead of us than any other generation has ever had.

This year the corporate e-mails, obviously targeted for me and my dependents, are warning me about empty-nesting, catch-up contributions to my 401K, and the challenges and stresses of middle age. Right on target for my current stage of life. Hillary Clinton once said that the most painful thing said about her during her husband’s first campaign was also the truest. A reporter had described her as a middle-aged woman.

Middle age is a much different proposition these days. And far more mathematically accurate — there are probably as many years left as lived.

Looking back, thanks to social change, the baby boomer impact, expanded options for women, a career in a high-tech industry and, of course, the doors opened by an MBA from a prestigious northeastern business school, it has been a great ride.

When I compare myself to my mother, we both fulfilled very different demographic norms. She had four children in the first five years of marriage; I waited five years to have my statistical norm of two children. Her in-laws were appalled when she went back to work when her youngest started school; no one blinked when I went back to work after an eight-week leave. Her career options were nurse, teacher, librarian (her choice); mine were much broader. In some ways, her life is a reverse of mine. She had her children early; in fact, her kids were out of the house by the time she was 40. And she had her career later. After thirty years in various Washington libraries, she retired this February as head librarian of the National Archives. Now she is a very young seventy, busier than ever with a full calendar and long to-do list.

Looking back on 25 years in broadcasting, most of my assumptions about the consumers’ relationships with their TVs have been premature. Who would believe that convergence, the mantra of the mid-nineties, is still five years away? On the other hand, some technologies have come and gone: Witness the VHS tape, which killed the Beta format, only to succumb to the DVD. And I would never have guessed that managing in a regulated environment and process engineering would be so relevant to my daily life!

There’s a lot left to do in the transition from “delusionally digital” to the real thing. And just maybe, some platform integration? “Ecumenical ubiquity” is the new buzzword at NBC, for those of us who play jargon bingo!

Looking forward to the next 25 years, my eyes were opened to possibilities with a course I took recently. The B-school joined the Rhode Island Foundation to present Strategies for Not-for-Profits. The course was open to executive directors and the chair of their volunteer boards. I attended with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. Over two days we went through six cases, which included an opera company, a hospital, a college, a historic preservation society, and an outdoor group. All had very different circumstances, yet remarkably similar challenges. There are so many exciting options for public-private partnerships as well as important work to be done in the not-for-profit sector.

Watching Stephen Greyser and Warren McFarlan facilitating the discussion, it felt like a lot less than 25 years ago that I was preparing three cases a night!

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