“I come from a family of great cooks,” says LaShawnda “Elle” Simone Scott. “我喜欢开玩笑, 即使这是事实, 我不是我们家最好的厨师, I'm just the only one who does it professionally.”

But Elle is doing much more than just cooking professionally. As an Executive Editor and on-air chef for PBS’s 美国的试验厨房, Elle has built a successful career bringing the culinary arts to viewers at home and is using her 满帆 degree to help her and other chefs in marginalized spaces grow into successful entrepreneurs with 她的组织SheChef.

毕业于 满帆’s 娱乐业务 master’s program, Elle’s career in culinary media boasts credits on some of the most popular cooking shows on television for networks including ABC and the Food Network. “The education I got [at 满帆] has given me so much, 有这么多可持续发展的工具,Elle说。. “I think that one of the things that 满帆 provided for me in terms of the gap between education and real-life application was how I worked when I was on set.”

Starting her degree while actively working in the culinary media industry, Elle recalls how the influence of her classes allowed her to transition into roles beyond just cooking and food styling.

“We were actually in the middle of four months of shooting [the eighth season of] 下一位美食之星. So by the time I was in the first three months of school, I had already learned so much. I immediately went from only caring about the food part that I was responsible for, to being far more interested in how the directors moved, 他们是如何与摄像人员沟通的, 他们的晨会,她说。. “I think it got me more interested in the totality of production, all the moving, working parts.”

With a blossoming skillset in production and years of experience in the culinary industry under her belt, Elle was able to find a prosperous balance between the two worlds, eventually landing a role as an on-camera personality and Executive Editor with 美国的试验厨房, the longest-running and most successful cooking show on public television.

“I went from just being a food stylist to being a culinary producer. That's a huge bump because when they see you know a little bit more, they think of you when other opportunities come up. 所以我得到了这些机会, and if it wasn't for 满帆 making me feel empowered to really get into all the parts of it, I don't know that I would've done that on my own,毕业生说。.

Elle’s experience in uplifting her own career has also inspired her to uplift others. 毕业后不久, Elle创立了SheChef, a professional networking organization for women chefs of color and their allies. 通过SheChef, Elle has been able to equip others with the skills that allowed her to set herself apart from her white counterparts in the world of culinary media. “When you're a solo entrepreneur or an entrepreneur of color, you don't have a ton of resources. So you need to be able to know how to do a lot of it on your own,她说。. “So [I really enjoy] being able to equip them with the tools that I got from 满帆.”