Maggie Bowman

Background

About Maggie Bowman

Maggie Bowman is a senior-level strategist, organizer and coalition-builder who combines big-picture thinking with storytelling, grassroots education, and program management. She started her career in the labor movement in the late 90s, organizing taxi drivers in New York City and nurses in Iowa. She went on to conduct strategic research and communications campaigns on behalf of unions such as 1199SEIU, the powerful health care workers union. She spent two decades telling stories in a variety of documentary formats, all through a social change lens. Her work has addressed topics including democratic elections, low-wage work, and criminal justice and has been recognized by the duPonts, the Emmys, the IDA Awards, and the Society of Professional Journalists. It has been broadcast domestically and internationally as well shown locally as part of community engagement and impact campaigns. In the last five years, drawing on her organizing roots, she focused on advocacy, working towards a more equitable and economically sustainable documentary film ecosystem. She played a leadership role in the Documentary Producers Alliance’s publication of groundbreaking crediting guidelines for the industry; led programming for the International Documentary Association's 2020 Getting Real Conference, which brought together filmmakers from 52 countries; engaged independent makers in community, regulatory and political activism; and built coalitions with allies outside of the film world to address the harmful effects of corporate media consolidation. In late 2022 she wrote a field briefing on independent film and media for the NEA and the Sundance Institute to help policymakers understand the landscape.(see link below) Currently, Bowman is focused on direct social change work in movements for economic, racial, and climate justice. She is a proud member of the United Working Families Party, likes to learn/think about the intersection between organized labor and climate movements, and volunteers in mutual aid work supporting recently-arrived migrants in Chicago. In 2024, she joined the staff of Welcome Corps, a new refugee resettlement pathway being piloted by the U.S. Department of State.