Lise Zumwalt has been making films for 25 years for National Geographic Television, PBS, WNET, BBC, The History Channel and Discovery. These stories have taken her from the Balkan Sea to rural South Africa and from the Canadian Rockies to Oak Ridge, Texas and the South Side of Chicago. Lise has worked on films about avalanches and heatwaves, economic forecasts and housing crises, prostituted teens and violent teen felons, robotics and astrophysics. But whether the subject is science or history, natural disasters or social problems, Ms. Zumwalt looks for the opportunity to find a reveal of human character and an insight into how public policy affects our lives.

Currently, Ms. Zumwalt is working on That’s Crazy, a documentary feature about how psych patients are challenging the mental health system by reinterpreting mental illness, treatment and recovery.

In the past several years, Ms Zumwalt has produced a number of investigative films including Teen Prostitution: Sex Criminals or Victims, a journey with reporter Lisa Ling on the epidemic of American girls sold in the domestic sex trade produced for Oxygen Media and National Geographic Television and the 2009 winner of the Gracie Award for Outstanding Documentary Lockdown: Violent Teen Felons, which follows 4 young men trying to change their lives in a Colorado boot camp/prison, produced for National Geographic Television Heatwave and Avalanche, 2 films that look at how natural disasters affect public policy through first person stories of survival produced for Granada Entertainment/Discovery Times.

Ms Zumwalt followed an avid interest in politics and social issues producing for various political campaigns including the 1988 presidential campaign. Following the election, Ms Zumwalt divided her time between working on ad campaigns for CBS, NBC and ABC and creating image campaigns for non-profits, particularly UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. Ms. Zumwalt was thrilled to have the opportunity to learn about and support children’s rights – her work for UNICEF and other nonprofits won 14 awards.

From 1990 – 2000 Ms Zumwalt stuck close to home to raise her family and edited over 25 films for Nature, Nova, National Geographic, PBS and Discovery. Highlights include: Hunt For The Supertwister, Nova Diamonds,Nature Beyond Human Living Machines, Beyond Human Body Electric, PBS and Unfolding Universe, Discovery

In the early 2000s Ms Zumwalt returned to producing and writing. Ms Zumwalt has been a writer on many TV docs including The Revolution, a series about the American Revolution produced for The History Channel, and Inside The Secret Service, National Geographic Televisions highest rated show ever. In 2010, Ms. Zumwalt wrote three shows for National Geographic’s most watched series, Border Wars. Recently, she produced 2 films for a new NBC series, Killer Instinct featuring veteran FBI profiler Mark Safarik. In 2012, she will serve for a third year as a judge for the Emmy competition.