Mildred Espinoza-Salgado hadn’t settled on a career track when she enrolled in BMCC a decade ago. But since her brother was working as a TV cameraman, she thought she might follow his lead and go into the media.
Last year, as a producer for NBC/Telemundo, she won her first Emmy.
Espinoza-Salgado, who graduated from BMCC with honors in 1998, went on to earn a Bachelors degree in communications from NYU in 2001. Since beginning her media career at WPIX Channel 11 in New York, she has held production, writing and reporting positions for MSNBC, Crain Communications and Spanish Broadcasting Systems. As an executive producer for NBC/Telemundo, she oversaw the Special Projects & Investigative Unit, receiving a 2006 Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts & Science for a feature on children’s jewelry and lead poisoning.
These days, Espinoza-Salgado is a partner in her own television production boutique, M2 Productions Inc., and is about to produce the first-ever Spanish-language talk show to originate in New York City. Until now, she explains, “pretty much all Spanish media in this country has emanated from Miami and Los Angeles.” The show is scheduled to air next spring and summer in many cities around the country.
“As a student, I really came to understand BMCC’s slogan – ‘Start here, go anywhere,’” Espinoza-Salgado says. “I started as a night student because I needed to work full time. The support I received – from my teachers and from the C-Top program, which awarded me a scholarship and enabled me to continue my studies at NYU – was invaluable.”
Espinoza-Salgado hopes to “give back” to BMCC by offering her services as an alumni mentor and inviting BMCC students to apply for internships in her new TV project. “Everything I’ve achieved professionally started here,” she says. “It’s great to come full circle.”
