Gold Star Mothers Producer bios
Alison Davis Wood
Producer of Gold Star Mothers: Pilgrimage of Remembrance
WILL-TV producer Alison Davis Wood won an Emmy Award in 1999 for her WILL-TV documentary, Walter Burley Griffin: In His Own Right about the talented, but overlooked Illinois architect. The Emmy was presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Chicago/Midwest Chapter for “Outstanding Achievement for Documentary Programs—Cultural Significance.”
Her documentary Against the Wind, the story of wheelchair athlete Jean Driscoll’s attempt to become the first athlete to win seven consecutive Boston Marathons, was named best Television Documentary in 1997 by American Women in Radio and Television. She was one of 20 producers selected to attend the 2001 WGBH Boston Producers Workshop, where she participated in extensive hands-on training with some of public television’s most experienced producers.
Wood joined the staff at WILL-TV in 1991 after graduating in broadcast journalism from the University of Illinois. A native of Springfield, Ill., she is the longtime producer and host of WILL-TV’s Prairie Fire, a cultural magazine series about the people and places of central Illinois. The program has been on hiatus, but will return this spring with Wood returning to her role as host.
John W. Graham
Co-Producer of Gold Star Mothers: Pilgrimage of Remembrance
John W. Graham is the author of a forthcoming book about the Gold Star Mothers pilgrimages, “As No One but a Mother Could Do.” He was first introduced to the topic of Gold Star Mothers pilgrimages by chance in his work at the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library. He saw a list of mothers and widows who were entitled to make the pilgrimages. He’d never heard of this episode of American history, so began investigating it. He approached WILL-TV producer Alison Davis Wood about making the documentary.
Using government publications, archival sources, and contemporary newspaper articles, he immersed myself in this topic, resulting in the writing of his book.
A graduate of the University of Illinois with a master’s degree in library and information science, Graham is manager of the Cincinnati library’s public documents and patents department, which holds the library’s federal depository documents, maps, and patent and trademark depository collection.
He is also author of “U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission: A Research and Information Guide” (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993); “Mission Statements: A Guide to the Corporate and Non-Profit Sectors,” co-authored with Wendy C. Havlick (New York: Garland, 1994); and “Corporate Environmental Policies,” also co-authored with Havlick (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999).
