Say it with me now:
vee-VAY-sah.
Viveza.
It’s Spanish, and it means “the state of being bright, sharp and lively.” Vivacity. The spark that makes life worth living and keeps things interesting.
And Viveza Media is Jeanne Heffron. Jeanne has been telling stories her entire career, and she strives to bring viveza to everything she creates.
She started out as a reporter and producer at a small TV station in Indiana. Then she decided she never again wanted to stand in a blizzard with a yardstick on live TV while telling everyone else to take cover indoors, especially not for $9.62 an hour. So she made the jump to creating long-form television.
Jeanne spent more than eight years as a television producer at Kurtis Productions in Chicago, and her projects have aired nationally. Credits include the financial crime series American Greed, American Greed: The Fugitives, and The American Tax Cheat for CNBC as well as the international affairs series Wide Angle for PBS.
In 2016 she founded Viveza Media, a boutique production company providing editorial services (research, script and manuscript writing, directing, line and field producing, etc.) to a wide range of clients, including a major university, philanthropic organizations, and a former World Bank economist and public education consultant. Kurtis Productions remains a frequent collaborator.
¡Se habla español!
Jeanne also speaks fluent Spanish and has experience interpreting and translating. Although she is not a native speaker, Spanish is her passion; she has been studying the language for more than 20 years and still invests in weekly lessons.
Jeanne and her husband are raising their children to be bilingual using the “one parent one language” (OPOL) method. Dad speaks English, and Mamá speaks only Spanish.
Raising children in her non-native language sparked Jeanne’s interest in Viveza Media’s next chapter, which is to develop Spanish-language content that helps English-native and Spanish heritage speakers improve their own Spanish while encouraging bilingualism in their children.
Details, bona fides & trivia
Jeanne is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Indiana University where she earned a degree in Spanish and Telecommunications as well as a minor in West European Studies. She has also studied at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Chicago campus. Jeanne was a 2007 International Radio & Television Society Fellow and a 2009 Society of Professional Journalists Reporters Institute graduate.
She loves ice cream, bright colors, creating a spreadsheet for everything, and getting herself to Spain any chance she can.
P.S.
Media (pronounced MED-dya) means “sock” in Spanish. So the second half of Viveza Media is said the English way, MEE-dee-ah. Confusing, yes, but also kind of funny. 🙂