Professional Achievement Award

Maureen A. FitzPatrick, Sp ’83 u 
Los Angeles, Calif.

Maureen FitzPatrick knows how to gets things done. As the senior executive producer of the nationally syndicated TV show Access Hollywood, Maureen works with her team to tell the biggest stories in the entertainment industry. Her journey started, however, as a broadcast communication major at Marquette.

Maureen was attracted to Marquette by the opportunities for hands-on experience as a student. She recalls, “We managed the radio and TV stations. We negotiated contracts. We talked to talent agents. We could produce our own radio and TV shows.” Maureen believes her experiences in the broadcast communication program, along with the Student Activities Association, definitely prepared her for success in the business world.

And she has indeed achieved success. Over the course of her career, Maureen has blazed trails as a producer, creating, developing, and consulting on programming for network and cable TV, as well as online media. As far as subject matter, Maureen has developed and produced everything from talk shows to live news and entertainment to crime to reality to sitcoms.

For Maureen, the Marquette mission remains at the core of her daily life. She works to lead by example and raise people up, hiring new talent and staff members for Access Hollywood who better reflect the diversity of the show’s audience. She credits her teachers and mentors at Marquette with motivating her to mentor others and give back to her team members.

Fun Facts:

Name someone (past or present) with whom you'd like to have dinner.
I would have loved to have had dinner with Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I was fortunate enough to attend an exhibit that featured all of Judge Ginsberg’s earlier cases as a lawyer. She certainly fought for the values Marquette instilled in us. She won fair wage cases for minority hotel workers in NYC as well as discrimination suits for working women.

Name a Marquette faculty or staff member who had an impact on you, and how.
Judy Shields Beaumier was my advisor in Student Activities, and she taught me everything about the entertainment business. I am forever grateful for the time she spent with me as a student and a friend. The broadcasting department had fantastic teachers. Jim Tiedge was a great teacher who encouraged me to go into television production.

What is one of your favorite Marquette memories?
I think my greatest memory was when I graduated, and my mom and dad were in attendance at the Varsity Theatre. It was the first time they had been to Marquette. Both of my parents worked full-time, and I was their eighth kid who graduated from college. They were beaming and so proud of my accomplishments at Marquette. I will never forget it.

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u Celebrating a Marquette Reunion