CeCe Pinheiro

CeCe Pinheiro is a community media producer connected to Queer TV Santa Cruz, a local LGBTQ+ public access program that used the Santa Cruz community channel to create local representation for queer community life at a time when that representation was largely absent from both commercial and mainstream public media. In 1998 she received the ACM's Jewell Ryan-White Award for Cultural Diversity, recognition that placed her work within the field's commitment to expanding whose voices and experiences were visible on community channels.

Queer TV Santa Cruz reflected what public access was designed to make possible: a community using a local channel to speak directly to and about itself, without a gatekeeper deciding whether the story was worth telling or the audience large enough to matter.

CeCe's work belongs in the producer tradition that the field has always depended on, people with something specific to say, a channel to say it on, and the commitment to keep showing up.