Ruth Ann Harnisch

Ruth Ann Harnisch is President of The Harnisch Family Foundation, which has given grants to hundreds of not-for-profit organizations since its founding in 1998. She is a proponent of creative philanthropy whose unusual charitable investments have landed her on Oprah and the Today show. Ruth Ann encourages people to discover the thrill of giving money, time, skills, ideas and other assets to the causes they care about, and shares their stories on www.thrillionaires.org. Ruth Ann is a “recovering journalist.” Starting out as a teen deejay in her native Buffalo, NY, she spent three decades in media work, including Emmy-nominated television reporting and anchoring at the CBS-TV affiliate in Nashville, TN, a daily talk-radio program on WLAC-AM, and 17 years as a columnist for the Nashville Banner.