Collective Moxie founder & CEO Julie Ann Crommett, a seasoned DEI advisor and former Disney and Google executive, shares insights gleaned from her podcasts with industry leaders like Pixar’s Danielle Feinberg and Disney’s Carlos Lopez Estrada, who discuss their own experiences and how they’ve worked to embrace inclusivity and effect change in their artistic efforts.
For the last 15 years, Julie Ann Crommett has made it her life’s mission to bring more inclusivity, community and social change to the entertainment industry.She began her career at NBCUniversal, managing behind-the-camera diversity programs including Writers on the Verge and the Directing Fellowship.
She then landed at Google, becoming first their Diversity Program Manager and, shortly thereafter, Entertainment Industry Educator in Chief, leading the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in Latin America. By 2017, she was Vice President of Multicultural Audience Engagement at The Walt Disney Studios, contributing to projects like , , , , as well as and .In partnership with Disney CEO Bob Iger, she launched and co-chaired the company's first-ever Creative Inclusion Council dedicated to increasing inclusion and accountability in Disney's creative endeavors.But, as an “entrepreneur by spirit and personality,” Crommett says she always hoped to start her own production company to increase visibility and inclusivity in storytelling. “I wrote that goal in my original LinkedIn bio when I was 22,” shares Crommett.
“By 2021, Iger was leaving, I’d moved back to Georgia during the pandemic to be with my family and help my mom and I wanted to stay.I had built what I came to build at Disney and thought, ‘This is the time to make true the dream I had put out there and remind myself of my own ambitions.’” Crommett founded Collective Moxie in April 2021, an Atlanta-based consulting group that helps companies and non-profit organizations large and small create accountable DEI strategy, narrative change work and build consistent audience and community engagement.Out of Collective Moxie, the podcast was born in September 2024.
The podcast–now available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Pandora, iHeart Radio, and others–features in-depth conversations with voices across a diverse array of industries, including entertainment, tech, academia, business, as they explore the actionable steps and strategies behind making meaningful change.“We believe every person at some point in their life should see themselves and their experiences and the people in their lives on screen in some way, because not only is that affirming to yourself, but it also starts to change the perceptions of how we see each other,” says Crommett, a proud Puerto Rican and Cuban American.“ is our first foray into personally producing content as part of that mission.” debuted with its first episode with “You Got Revolution!” featuring award-winning host, producer, writer, and public speaker Baratunde Thurston.
It’s following episodes included guests like Elizabeth & Minnie Publishing co-founder Jeanell English (“You Got Catalyst!”), Program Director for the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Katherine Peiper (“You Got Data!”), founder and creator of The Black List Franklin Leonard (“You Got Story Magic!”), director of photography for lighting at Pixar Animation Studios Danielle Feinberg (“You Got Tech Magic!”) and former Head of Inclusive Content at Lionsgate and Kas Kas Productions founder Kamala Avila-Salmon (“You Got Trailblazing!”).“In my career, I met such interesting people who have done impactful work and made positive change in their company, industry and community, but whose stories haven’t really been shared yet,” notes Crommett.“All of the people in the first season are people I have known for many years, and I learned something new about each and every one having them on this show.
What that says to me is it’s all about the questions we are asking each other, and we’re often not asking the right questions to really get to know somebody’s story.” For example, during her time at Google, Crommett met Feinberg, VFX supervisor on and a lighting artist in various capacities on Pixar films going back to , who was advocating for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and equal representation in STEM fields. “While we were talking on the show, I had no perception of her origin story,” says Crommett of Feinberg.“I knew about her passion, but on the show, she started outlining how she was one of the only women in her computer science courses and how that gave her this ‘Ah-ha!’ moment.” Crommett goes on to share how Feinberg spoke of that moment coming at a math and science camp she was speaking at.Talking to two young people about how much math and science were part of the work she did in animation, Feinberg told Crommett, “It was the most magical thing.
As I'm talking about all the math and science behind our films...I could see the excitement in their eyes as I was explaining how this math and science came together to create some of their favorite movies.That was my first foray into understanding that I had a little bit of power to change the situation I had sat through in college.” Crommett adds, “In an interview I did with financial expert Vanessa Roanhorse, who does native and indigenous equity work with her company Roanhorse Consulting, she said a quote that I really want to put on a t-shirt: ‘We need to get to the place where we celebrate victories happening next door.’ And what she meant by that is we often are in a place where we get so laser focused on what we’re trying to do in changemaking, that we forget there are generations of people who are going to come after us to finish the work we started.
You may not live to see the results of your work.But you need to think about that continuum.It’s about working together.
That resonated in my bones.” And what better way to loop the next generation of changemakers into the conversation of diversity and inclusion than providing a podcast that catalogues the experiences of those who came before the listeners. “It is both the scariest and most amazing thing I’ve ever done,” says Crommett.“I’m not a parent, but I’m the parent of a company and there are similarities.You learn so much about yourself along the way.
There always comes a point where you ask yourself, ‘What was I thinking?’ But then you see or experience the impact of what you’ve created and it’s all worth it.And all those feelings can happen within one day.” According to Crommett, a leader in the animation industry that’s effectively putting Roanhorse’s words into action is ’s director Carlos Lopez Estrada, who Crommett interviews on her podcast episode, “You Got Wonder!”.“Carlos said one of the things he reflected on when he came to Disney was, he looked around and thought there was such little representation in the animation industry,” notes Crommett.
“He goes, ‘Now I’m in a position of leadership and I could do something about this.But how do I do it responsibly?’ So, he figured, there’s got to be people who have been thinking about this and who could give me guidance and advice so I can do this in a way that has a positive benefit instead of unwittingly causing harm.” And because of Lopez Estrada’s efforts, from costume design to fight sequences, little details in not only represent Asian culture but show specifically what can happen when people ask important questions and seek informed answers rather than just making needed decisions solely for expediency or ease. “That’s what this podcast ends up being about,” shares Crommett.
“It’s about what ‘leadership’ actually means, what it looks like to be an inclusive leader, a thoughtful leader, and someone who helps drive something forward.What Carlos was demonstrating on was humility.He didn’t need to have all the answers.
He needed to ask questions, especially in such a collaborative field like animation.” For animation and VFX workers and fans of the industry, Crommett recommends also listening to the podcast’s first episode with Baratunde Thurston, who has launched his own podcast on AI called Life with Machines. “He and I go into quite an in-depth conversation on changemaking in an age of change,” says Crommett.“And we talk about the humanness that is necessary in that change.The other episode I would highly recommend is my interview with Lionsgate’s Kamala Avila-Salmon.
She talks about the tool that she built called Story Spark, which is essentially a Buzzfeed quiz for content creators of any kind, storytellers of any kind, to help them think about inclusivity in their content.It's so accessible and so practical.” Though a release date has not been confirmed yet, is confirmed for a Season 2 which will release early this year (2025).In the upcoming season, Crommett says her guests and interviews will dive into the topics of disability and accessibility. “I highly, highly recommend taking a listen,” says Crommett of the upcoming season.
“It's an area and a thought process that often people just don't think about in the process of changemaking.I think it’s going to be a critical one for us moving forward.” She adds, “For folks who are reading this, I would love to get more people from the animation and gaming and visual effects spaces on the show, but from maybe a few other angles.I have sat on the board of Women in Animation for eight years and feel really strongly about the global nature of that organization in our industry.
I really want to expand this conversation around changemaking and leadership into other places and spaces that are not just the US, because we definitely need to be learning from each other globally.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
Former Disney and Google Exec Julie Ann Crommett Launches ‘You Got Moxie!’ Podcast
The Ed Asner Family Center Hosts ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ Staged Table Read
Applications For WIA’s 2025 ‘Stories x Women’ Now Open
Triggerfish, UNESCO Team for ‘The Creator Labs’ Initiative
LAIKA Partners with Portland State University on Workforce Development
