Meet Lori Erickson

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lori Erickson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lori, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I’m from Columbia, Missouri – a quirky college town in the heart of the Midwest. As the daughter of a first-grade public school teacher and a state wildlife conservationist, at an early age I learned the importance of fueling passion with action and caring about the greater good.

Thinking back, I always had a heart for rallying available resources towards social impact. In grade school, I won an invention competition for creating a shopping cart drawer that helps people with back pain who struggle to bend down. I devised and organized what I called a “race-a-thon” in my neighborhood to raise money for an environmental organization called the Stream Team. I collaboratively wrote a play about fire safety that my theater class toured across elementary schools. In high school, I wrote and won a grant for my school to purchase film and editing equipment so that I could teach myself to document the aeronautics department’s week-long, student-run space simulation. The latter two projects in particular made me realize the importance of creating content that educates and spotlights the fascinating corners of my community.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m most proud of creating and spearheading the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge, an award-winning short film competition that empowers early-career storytellers to step into leadership positions by producing short films centered around the missions of hyper-local nonprofit organizations. The initiative provides emerging filmmakers with education, mentorship, resources, a $5,000 budget and real-world leadership experience. Participants compete to win donations for their partnering nonprofits who then own the films at the end of the experience. After three successful runs, we’ve had more than one hundred storytellers win $570,000 in donations for their nonprofits through the production of 13 films. We’ve had alums get promoted to the executive ranks, land jobs in their fields of interest, and get accepted into Oscar-qualifying film festivals.

From inception to execution, creating this initiative was a labor of love as well as a massive undertaking on top of my full-time role of Vice President of Casting at CBS Entertainment where I’ve overseen the casting process of over 40 television shows and pilots. It has been a dream fulfilled to work on so many projects including the award-winning limited series UNBELIEVABLE on Netflix and the critically acclaimed comedy GHOSTS on CBS.

When launching the CBS Leadership Pipeline, I wore every hat and learned by trial and error. The learning curve inspired me to complete my Master’s Degree in Business Design and Arts Leadership to arm myself with the tools needed to shepherd this idea to fruition. One of those tools is called design thinking, an iterative strategy for solving ambiguous problems, which I used to shape the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge’s format. Our curriculum and filmmaking process center around design thinking too – my hope is that our storytellers will use it to improve systems in our industry as they grow in their careers. It’s exciting to foster emerging talent and solve puzzles in both avenues of my work, and beyond rewarding to see rough ideas evolve into impactful, heart-expanding stories on screen.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
For one-of-a-kind experiences, check out the Museum of Jurassic Technology, The Last Bookstore, and the Time Travel Mart (which funds a fabulous nonprofit called 826LA). To see what makes our town tick, catch a play, join the live audience of a sitcom taping, hit up the Cinespia Hollywood Forever Cemetery film screenings, explore Vidiots, tour a studio lot, and swing into any neighborhood street festival. My favorite tours are the Dearly Departed Tour (which sadly no longer exists but they still post their stories online), the architecture tours through the LA Conservancy, and the Graffiti/Mural Tour of the Arts District through LA Art Tours. The last one is hosted by and supports our local graffiti artists. Of course, go to the beach and visit some amusement parks, too!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband, parents, and sister are my rocks. I’ve been blessed to always work for brilliant people who I admire and from whom I can learn. David Stapf, Tiffany Smith Anoa’i, and Meg Liberman are my champions who first heard my napkin-drawing of an idea for my project, the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge, and encouraged me to prototype it. I still lean into my teachers and mentors for guidance. I also have the best friends on the planet.

Website: pipelinechallenge.paramount.com

Instagram: @cbspipelinechallenge

Linkedin: LoriErixon

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r_EUaPTzfM&t=14s

Other: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/cbs-leadership-pipeline-challenge-winners-1235969355/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz9Ft4bVsYA 

Image Credits
Francis Specker Christine Marie Kelly Sareen Hairabedian Kayvon Esmaili at Vanie Poyey Photography