Chesney B. Doyle
Producer/Writer/Executive in Charge of Production

Creator of Great Museums®, Chesney Blankenstein Doyle set out to design a concept destined to bridge the gap between the casual viewer looking for entertainment and the voracious lifelong learner looking to consume information. The award-winning series has been applauded by viewers, stations and the museum world. See What People Are Saying

In the first year of production, she and co-producer/husband Marc Doyle traveled the country scouting and then field producing the 13 original shows that would define the Great Museums® vision and signature style. Today, as Executive in Charge of Production, she manages an expert team of producers, writers, videographers, editors and musical, voice and graphics talents. She oversees all phases of production, from scouting, story development and pre-production to field production, scripting and final post.

In addition to her executive responsibilities, she also contributes as a lead producer/writer for the series. She received a 2000 Emmy nomination for "individual excellence in the television craft of writing" for her script, The Morris Museum of Art: The Art of the South. Other Great Museums® writing credits include The Charleston Museum: America’s First Museum, The National D-Day Museum: Triumph of the Spirit, The National Museum of Women in the Arts: A Woman’s Touch, The Molly Brown House Museum: The Unsinkable; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: Art Gets a Start in America; and The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Collective Vision.

Beyond Great Museums® , Chesney is creator/co-producer of a unique "banner-brand" series of specials for the Denver-based International Channel (In America, which documents America’s immigrant experiences). For HGTV, she created a hybrid one-hour special format (documentary/ lifestyle/how-to) for The Rose Story and The Orchid Mystique. She is the recipient of seven national Telly Awards, including two Silver Tellys, and three Emmy nominations, She is an active member of NATAS, NATPE International, and the International Documentary Association. She has a BA degree in English from the University of Virginia and a law degree from Vanderbilt University.

Wendy Daniel
Producer/Writer/Director of Research

Wendy Daniel, based in Denver, Colorado, has been part of the Great Museums® team since its first year of production in 1998. For Great Museums®, she has been a producer, writer, field producer; post production supervisor, offline editor and/or research director on more than 20 episodes. She was writer of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum: Water Ways episode, which won a national bronze Telly Award.

Other television credits include productions for the Food Network (Candy Unwrapped). Media Waves, a comprehensive 26-part series on the history of mass communications for Knowledge TV (Denver). Also for Knowledge TV, she was a segment Producer for The Virtual Trade Show, an award-winning series of one-hour specials on the latest consumer products in the fields of technology, business and health. Previously, she was Manager of Content and Product Development for Jones International University (Web-based university), where she was the liaison with all academics for online courses.

In addition to her Telly Award-winning work for Great Museums®, she has received a Platinum Aurora Award (Best of Show 1999) and a Gold Cindy Award (1997) for editing. She has BS in Communications from Stephens College and master level work in International Politics from University of Denver. A Colorado native, she lives in Denver with her husband Will and son Liam.

Don Smith
Producer/Writer/Creative Consultant

Don Smith’s Great Museums® credits include his role as creative consultant on Season One of the series, and producer/writer on numerous shows, including The Ellis Island Immigration Museum: Face of America (Bronze Telly); The Folk Art Museum: American Anthem; The National Music Museum: America’s Shrine to Music; The George Eastman House: Picture Perfect; The Hollywood Entertainment Museum: American Dream Factory (Silver Telly) and more.

Don Smith is now in his 6th decade as a broadcaster, but isn’t old enough for social security yet. He has been involved in television since the late 60s, as photographer, writer, producer, on-air talent, and newsroom and local programming manager. A period of independent production separated his stint at a CBS affiliate and CNN, where he is now a member of senior management.

His awards include 19 regional Emmys in 8 individual categories, a national News Emmy, SDX Green Eyeshade award, multiple UPI and AP Awards, the Iris Award, 4 Tellys, 3 Religion in Media Awards, NCJ Brotherhood Award, Cable Ace, NY Film and Television Awards. His work is in the Museum of Broadcasting. He was the writer/editor/producer of Paradise Saved, which earned the Peabody Award. He is also a founding member and ex-president of Atlanta NATAS, and an inductee of NATAS Silver Circle. He lives in Atlanta.

Jonathan Wickham
Producer/Writer

In addition to his Great Museums® credits, Jonathan Wickham (ZoëTV) has written and produced a variety of critically acclaimed science, adventure and natural history programs for both PBS and national cable networks. His award-winning production Lincoln’s Secret Weapon for NOVA, the PBS science series, follows an archaeological team diving on the wreck of the Civil War Ironclad, USS Monitor, and looks at the fascinating history behind one America’s most famous ships. The program launched NOVA’s 2000 season. Currently he is producing another episode for NOVA, Search for a Royal Mummy, which follows the efforts to identify the long-lost mummy of an Egyptian pharaoh using the latest techniques of DNA analysis.

At Turner Original Productions, Jonathan served as senior producer for Flamingowatch, a prime time, 1-hour natural history special tracking flamingoes and other wildlife and broadcast live from Kenya for the World of Audubon series on TBS Superstation. For Outdoor Life Network, Jonathan has written a 1/2-hour adventure special, Grand Canyon Wilderness, about the environmentalist and "grand old man" of the Colorado River, Martin Litton, running whitewater through the Grand Canyon on his 80th birthday. Jonathan also served as executive producer and writer for the JASON Project, the award-winning series of expedition-based interactive programs started by underwater explorer Bob Ballard who discovered the wrecks of the Titanic and Bismark. Prior to that he worked for 12 years at Turner Broadcasting where he produced a wide variety of reality-based programming ranging from episodes for National Geographic Explorer to a science special about NASA’s Voyager II spacecraft with Carl Sagan.

His Great Museums® credits include The Library of Congress: Volumes to Speak; The California State Railroad Museum; Binding Ties; The New York City Fire Museum: Trial by Fire; The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian: Native Voice and The Whale Museum: Science at Sea.