Maggie Burnette Stogner is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over 30 years of creative and leadership experience. She is founder of the “Upstream, Downriver Media Project,” a media ecosystem of powerful stories about water justice across platforms, from public television to YouTube and TikTok. 

She formerly served as Executive Director of American University's Center for Environmental Filmmaking and a professor of Film & Media Arts. She was a senior producer for National Geographic TV & Film, where she produced, directed, and wrote numerous documentaries for the award-winning series EXPLORER. In 2006, she launched Blue Bear Films, a multi-media production company. 

She has created award-winning documentary films and immersive media for National Geographic, the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, LucasFilms, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and for public television broadcast. Recent film credits include the award-winning independent documentaries: “Upstream, Downriver - Uniting for Water Justice” (2025), “Unbreathable - the Fight for Healthy Air” (2020), and “In the Executioner’s Shadow” (2018). 

Maggie is an executive member of Women in Film & Video, voting member of the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, and a judge/reviewer for the Emmys, Jackson Wild, Wildscreen, the International League of Conservation Photographers, and other film and photography awards.