LUCIA FOLK
President & CEO
Lucia Folk is a seasoned business executive who has held leadership positions in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. She has been committed to social impact since she launched CMT’s public affairs division in 2006, where she oversaw corporate social responsibility (CSR) and government affairs for the cable network for 12 years. She built CMT’s award-winning community engagement strategies and brand awareness on a national and local level. Folk created CMT’s nationally recognized call to volunteerism, CMT One Country, promoting civic participation and serving to inspire CMT’s 92 million viewers to lead change in their communities.
Folk is a strong advocate for education and led CMT’s involvement with the Academies of Nashville in Metro Nashville Public Schools, an innovative approach pairing businesses with public schools. In 2010, she spearheaded CMT’s partnership with McGavock High School, Nashville’s largest metro school, and subsequently earned naming rights for the school’s CMT Academy of Digital Design and Communication as well as recognition from the Mayor of Nashville, the Nashville Chamber of Commerce and President Obama. In 2012, Folk grew this commitment to a national level with the launch of CMT Empowering Education, an initiative challenging CMT viewers to pursue post-secondary education. In 2014, she announced a Commitment to Action (CTA) at the Clinton Global Initiative-America focused on partnering with community colleges to encourage prospective students, specifically nontraditional and adult students, to pursue further education. Through this CTA, Folk worked in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges to execute events at 30 of the most rural community colleges in the US. This work was highlighted at the 2016 convening of the Clinton Global Initiative-America.
In her role directing government affairs for CMT, Folk supported the efforts of Viacom’s federal government relations office through a number of events for the Tennessee Congressional delegation at both the 2008 and 2012 Republican National Conventions. She led CMT’s support of the 125th First Lady’s Luncheon for Michelle Obama and the spouses of Congressional members. CMT’s Academy of Digital Design & Communication at McGavock High School was recognized by President Obama when he visited the school in 2014 and Dr. Jill Biden when she visited the school in 2016. On the state level, Folk worked with First Lady Crissy Haslam’s office in support of the Read to be Ready program and served as an inaugural member of the Tennessee Thrives steering committee.
Folk is deeply committed to serving the Nashville community and currently chairs the board of Music for Seniors, where she’s overseeing a change in leadership. Folk sees herself as a change agent (pun intended), as she chaired the boards of Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville and Hands On Nashville during their respective leadership transitions. As chair of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville’s board, she led the organization during the time they acquired their current property. Folk served as a Mayoral appointee on the 2013 Employee Benefits Study & Formulating Committee, which successfully recommended extending health insurance and other benefits to domestic partners of Metro employees.
Folk began her career with CMT in 2002 in the consumer marketing department, after prior stints at Marketing Werks, Inc., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and has a master’s degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University.