Point Park University’s Gina Catanzarite is more than just a faculty member in the journalism department.  She has the real world experience in the industry and has overcome personal obstacles to become a respected and successful member of the local broadcasting community.Gina Catanzarite began her career in broadcasting in 1987 during her senior year at the University of Pittsburgh, where she received her bachelor’s degree in non-fiction writing, film theory, and a certificate in American Sign Language for the deaf.Catanzarite had a brief stint at WTAE, where she worked for a year in the Creative Services department working on special projects. Catanzarite then left Channel 4 and became a production assistant for movies and commercials. She did this for nearly two years and realized it was not what she wanted to do.  She then went to KDKA. Catanzarite was there for three years as a field producer on the nationally syndicated production “Evening/PM Magazine.”  The show closed in 1990, and Catanzarite felt she needed to take a big step.Los Angeles was the perfect opportunity.  Catanzarite received a job offer as an assistant to a producer.  However, she had to inform them she could not move to LA and start work for four weeks, until after her brother’s wedding. Right before she left for Los Angeles, Catanzarite went to the doctor for a routine checkup.  It was then that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  Though caught at a very early stage, Catanzarite still needed surgery and knew there was no way she could go to Los Angeles.     A job opened at WQED four weeks after her surgery, and Catanzarite made her next step in the broadcasting world.  She worked as a staff producer at the channel producing a monthly statewide series “Talk to the Governor,” and the weekly live local talk shows “Health Talk,” “Agewise,” and “Pittsburgh Woman.” Catanzarite also took on the role of a special products producer.Catanzarite then started working on a national series for launch of the Home and Garden Television network: “Lucille’s Car Care Clinic,” a 52-episode series, and “Jane Nugent’s Garden Party,” a 24-episode series.“Out of everything,” Catanzarite said, “this was the best part in my career.”Catanzarite then started working on her most notable works.  She is a six-time Emmy award-winner with 16 nominations.  She received regional Emmy awards for a television series, “Teens ON Q,” a half-hour magazine format program focusing on teen social issues.Catanzarite left WQED at the end of 1996 to start her own production company, Arania Productions. There, she co-produced a series of informational spots called  “Live Well/ Live Long with Eleanor Schano,” which aired on WTAE.  “Eleanor Schano, is one of the pioneers of broadcasting. She was the first woman to speak on Pittsburgh television when it started in 1950 and she went on to become the first female news reporter, first female anchor, and about a million other firsts,” Catanzarite said.The two have also worked on a book together, “Riding The AirWaves.”“I have had the pleasure of working with [Gina] for many decades,” Schano said. “She inspires, motivates, and teaches … She has qualities that are unsurpassed.”In 2005, Catanzarite started working as an adjunct faculty member at Point Park University and in 2011, she also started teaching at Robert Morris University. She still does freelance work for WQED where she met Tonia Caruso, an on-camera talent at WQED.“Gina is dedicated, passionate and unrelenting when it comes to producing the best stories possible,” Caruso said. “Point Park students are so fortunate to be able to benefit from her experience and expertise. If I were a student there, I’d line up to take her classes.”Catanzarite has combined her careers as a faculty member and producer.  She incorporated her students into a documentary she produced, called “Experience: The Race to Save Pennsylvania’s Bats.”  The students received experience in community service, while Catanzarite is bringing awareness to an epidemic that is impacting the bat population in the United States.  The documentary aired in January on WQED.