About Andrea Bear.

Andrea Bear, owner and president of Bear in Mind Strategies, LLC founded the company in 2007. Her experience in video production and communications, however, spans nearly four decades.

She’s at home in the field, in the studio, in the editing room, and in the production booth. Andrea was a founding producer at CNN in Atlanta and an executive producer at WLS-TV in Chicago, and led a team – including Oprah Winfrey – covering the 1985 famine crisis in Ethiopia. She was recognized with a Women at Work Broadcast Award in 1982, and more recently, as a 2020 Woman of Distinction by the YWCA South Hampton Roads and as a 2017 Women in Business honoree by Inside Business.

She has hands-on experience in all aspects of the video production process and knows how to put everything together. She’s applied this experience building teams and implementing strategies throughout her career.

She understands the client’s perspective and knows how to help YOU tell YOUR STORY and sell YOUR BRAND in a compelling, authentic, and entertaining way.

More about Andrea’s background:

  • 30+ years of leadership and management experience in television, fundraising and marketing, operations and support in private and public sector organizations, across a wide variety of industries.
  • Led development and marketing operations at the Chrysler Museum of Art and The Mariners’ Museum, including capital campaigns totaling over $70M.
  • Business development and marketing support at a engineering and technical services company.
  • General manager of an electronic retailing/direct marketing firm.
  • More than a decade of experience leading administrative operations at a redevelopment and housing authority.
  • Began her career in television news, including executive producer at WLS-TV in Chicago and a founding producer at CNN in Atlanta.
  • Developed and led Chicago-area fundraising and news team coverage for famine relief in Ethiopia.
  • Contributing author to books on change management, leadership, and reinventing government.
  • MBA (College of William and Mary) and BA (University of Virginia).
  • Certified in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
  • Community involvement includes:
    • Board Member and Chair, Norfolk Tourism Foundation
    • Previous boards served:
      • CIVIC Leadership Institute
      • YWCA South Hampton Roads
      • Downtown Norfolk Council
      • Norfolk SPCA
      • Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic
      • Norfolk Crime Line