Siemens, a global leader in green technologies and sustainable infrastructure, has agreed to fund a one-hour broadcast, education, and community outreach project, Growing Greener Schools, to be produced by the Media & Policy Center Foundation and distributed to PBS stations nationwide for broadcast in Earth Day week, 2010. See the full press release here.

Filming has begun for Designing Healthy Cities. Harry Wiland and Dale Bell are traveling across the country documenting stories of people who are making efforts to improve the public's health by focusing on the built environment.

The innovative Going to Green Sustainability Curriculum and Video series was launched on April 22nd, 2009 in honor of Earth Day 2009. This package is available through the online PBS Shop website.

The pilot episode for the America's Family Farmers series is nearing completion. This episode focuses on Chris Cadwell's famous heirloom tomatoes and features recipes from celebrity chef and James Beard award winner Suzanne Goin.

A television producer and executive with many awards to his credit, Dale Bell's wide-ranging career has seen him write, produce, direct and sell many hours of documentary film. His recent works include The Secrets of War, Shangri-La: Ancient Mystery and California and the Dream Seekers for A&E, Pirate Tales for TBS, Battleship! for Discovery, A Driving Need for PBS, and Chariots of the Gods?: The Mystery Continues for ABC.

His productions in both film and television have earned him an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Peabody Award, two Christopher Awards and two Cine Golden Eagle Awards. Bell has also just written and edited a 30th anniversary book which tells the many personal stories behind the Academy Award-winning movie Woodstock, of which he was a producer. He was also Martin Scorsese's assistant director on Mean Streets, producer of The Italian Americans, and Associate Producer of The Groove Tube. And, during Bell's four-year tenure as executive producer of the PBS book-based family movie series, WonderWorks won the Children's Act Award annually, as well as other domestic and international awards of excellence.

Bell has supervised production of National Geographic specials while producing two of them; he served as vice president of worldwide production at Pittsburgh's PBS affiliate WQED, working on documentaries, dramatic films, and performance specials that included music, dance, jazz and drama.

His extensive fund-raising savvy brought such Emmy Award-winning series as Kennedy Center Tonight and Previn and the Pittsburgh to fruition and to date, he has raised $57 million for the production of quality cultural programs. He has extensive experience in international co-production, distribution, project administration and management, station relations, publicity, and promotion. He serves on the Board of Advisors of Blackside Productions and The Shakespeare Guild.

Bell is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America.