Sam Marchiano

Susan Anne "Sam" Marchiano is an American television sportscaster, documentarian and activist who has been broadcasting since the mid-1990s. She is currently the Outreach Director for Athlete Ally, a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non profit organization focused on ending homophobia and transphobia in sports by educating and motivating the athletic community to take a stand. She became a founding member of the Athlete Ally Board of Directors because allyship played a crucial role in her ability to address gender issues as female sports reporter.

Like Athlete Ally Founder Hudson Taylor, her own personal experience reflects into her LGBT advocacy. “Once people start to talk about the issue, and get comfortable, the acceptance grows from there,” Marchiano told the Washington Blade . “You don’t go backward.”

Journalism

A correspondent-reporter for FOX Sports and the MSG Network, Marchiano started her career as a sportswriter for the New York Daily News. Marchiano joined the News directly from Columbia University after her graduation in 1989 and covered the Islanders for two seasons. In 1991, she pursued a career in television and became an associate producer for “Inside Edition” at WYNY (Channel 5). Marchiano became a New York bureau producer for ESPN in 1993 and became an on-the-air reporter for MSG two years later. By 1997, she was a correspondent for FOX Sports New York and FOX Sports Net. She later became a reporter for mlb.com.

In 2002 she joined MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball, where she worked as a producer, reporter, and writer. She earned Emmy nominations for the MLB Original Documentary Vintage Baseball as well as the series Baseball's Best Moments. During production of Vintage Baseball, she became interested in baseball's origins and began work on Baseball Discovered, an hour-long documentary that aired on the MLB Network.

During the filming of Baseball Discovered in England, Marchiano and her crew discovered the William Bray diary, which historians consider one of the earliest known references to the game. Baseball Discovered received the Award for Baseball Excellence at the 3rd annual Baseball Film Festival at the Hall of Fame. The award recognizes the film that best captures “research, factual accuracy, historical context, and appreciation of the game.”

Personal

Marchiano's father Sal worked for WPIX in New York City. A graduate of Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University, she married Ihsan Dogramaci in December 2003. Marchiano lives in New York City and is now a mother of a daughter, Frankie, and a son, Cal.

References

• 29 January 2001 Columbia University alumni article on Marchiano's (then with FOX Sports Net on the IVy League in the National Football League. - accessed 25 October 2009.
• Facebook profile
• 17 January 2005 mediabistro.com article on press coverage of sports featuring Marchiano. - accessed 25 October 2009.
• MLB.com story on the discovery of baseball featuring Marchiano. - accessed 25 October 2009.
• 28 December 2003 New York Times article on Marchiano's wedding. - accessed 25 October 2009.