Stephanie Druley was named Head of ESPN Content Operations in June of 2023. In this role, she leads Production Operations, Production Management, Management Operations and ESPN Directing. Together, these teams make up the backbone of ESPN’s event and studio productions.

Druley’s first foray into Operations completes the trifecta of production responsibilities at ESPN. In 2018, she was named Executive Vice President, Event & Studio Productions. In that role, she led coverage of Monday Night Football, the NBA, college football including the College Football Playoff, MLS, college softball, men’s and women’s college basketball including the women’s NCAA tournament. Her studio team was responsible for College Gameday, Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, NFL Live, NFL PrimeTime, the NFL Draft and The Heisman Trophy Presentation. She also led production of ESPN’s college networks (SEC, ACC, and Longhorn), ESPN Deportes and ESPN’s networks outside the U.S.

During the 2020 pandemic, Druley’s team led the pivot to alternative productions including REMI, live from home and the school control room project. It was during this unprecedented time that her production teams set the blueprint for coverage of the NBA’s and the MLS’ successful return to play in the bubble at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World.

In her 30-year career, Druley had the rare opportunity to launch three networks – Longhorn Network (2011), SEC Network (2014) and ACC Network (2019). She was responsible for the look of all on-air content which included studio and remote productions as well as their creative directions, talent rosters and production personnel. She played a critical role in the “most successful new network launch in the history of cable” with SEC Network in 2014.

Druley began her association with ESPN’s NFL coverage as an Associate Producer in 1996. For four seasons, she produced features for Sunday NFL Countdown. In 2000, she was named producer for the show becoming the first woman to produce an NFL pregame show. In 2002, Druley was named Coordinating Producer. She was tapped to lead of all of ESPN’s NFL studio shows in 2005, including ESPN’s Super Bowl coverage. As coordinating producer and then senior coordinating producer of Sunday NFL Countdown, she led the popular two-hour weekly show to three Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Weekly Studio Show category (2001, 2003 and 2007).

In 2006, Druley developed the annual SportsCenter “My Wish” summer series, a collaborative effort with the Make-A-Wish Foundation that chronicles the granting of unique sports-related wishes for children (ages 6-15) with life-threatening medical conditions.

A Houston native, Druley joined ESPN as a production assistant in 1990 after earning her Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She has won 18 Sports Emmy Awards and served on the Sports Emmy Steering Committee from 2016 to 2023. She was named to Cablefax’s “Most Powerful Women” list five times (2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022). In 2021, she was named to the Cablefax 100, honoring the industry’s top 100 power players. In 2018, Druley was named a Multichannel News “Wonder Woman”, which acknowledges a group of extraordinary women in media for their commitment to enhancing the business, challenging the status quo and being an example for young leadership around the world. In 2014 she was named to Sports Business Journal’s list of “Game Changers”. Druley is a Betsy Magness Leadership Institute Fellow, a distinguished year-long educational program designed to elevate women leaders in the cable and telecommunications industry.

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