Leader for Social Change of Entertainment
Sandra de Castro Buffington is a global leader in entertainment for social change. As the Founding Director of the Global Media Center for Social Impact (GMI) at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, Sandra unleashes the storytelling power of television, film, music and new media to improve health and wellbeing of people worldwide. Sandra works closely with Hollywood and other creative capitals to inspire and develop storylines that have profound impact on knowledge and behavior, and new media tools that move audiences to action.
Her research measures the impact of storytelling on viewers and maps the pro-social content on top TV shows. For her work, Sandra was named one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” in America by PODER magazine in 2012. Sandra’s vasectomy campaign in Brazil earned seven international advertising awards, including a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Film Festival and Gold Medal at the London International Advertising Awards. Formerly director of Hollywood, Health & Society, Sandra created a global network of centers, including India and Nigeria with the hub in Hollywood, to improve the accuracy of health-related storylines in top TV shows and films. Her groundbreaking work resulted in 565 storylines that aired on 91 shows across 35 networks between 2009 and 2012.