Barack and Michelle Obama’s media firm Higher Ground will take home Greg Berlanti’s social impact award at UCLA, another elite honor built around “diverse representation” and social change.

Variety reported that the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA named Higher Ground the winner of the second annual Greg Berlanti Social Impact Award, with the honor set for Oct. 22.

Producer Greg Berlanti will present the prize during the sixth annual Teens & Screens Summit at UCLA’s Luskin Center. Joe Paulsen, Higher Ground’s head of business and strategy and a staffer since the company’s start, will accept it.

The award’s stated purpose is storytelling that tackles social issues, pushes “diverse representation,” reaches teens and young adults, and uses creative platforms to advance empathy and social change. That is the frame UCLA’s center and Berlanti chose.

Berlanti praises Higher Ground’s “meaningful difference”

Berlanti, whose name is on the award, cast the choice as a celebration of narrative power and moral reach.

Berlanti said in a statement:

"Higher Ground’s work reflects the power of storytelling to bring us closer to one another and expand our understanding of the world. I’m honored to present this award to a company that puts those possibilities at the heart of its work and to celebrate its commitment to stories that can make a meaningful difference."

Higher Ground is the media company founded by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Its credits listed in the announcement include the documentaries “American Factory,” “Crip Camp,” and “Rustin,” plus podcasts such as “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson,” “The Wonder of Stevie,” and “Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.”

Paulsen answered with the company’s founding pitch: entertainment paired with “overlooked voices.”

Paulsen said in a statement:

"We founded Higher Ground on the belief that we can entertain audiences while bringing overlooked voices and stories to the forefront. To be recognized by the Center for Scholars & Storytellers and Greg Berlanti, whose work has opened doors for so many, is an honor. We’re grateful to the artists and collaborators who bring these stories to life and proud to share this recognition with them."

Campus summit, Hollywood presenter, Obama brand

The ceremony sits inside a campus event aimed at teens, screens, and the stories sold to them. Berlanti presents. Paulsen accepts. The Obamas’ company collects the title.

Readers who follow the former first lady know the public schedule never really stopped, from a sold-out arena talk on character and dignity to steady brand-building around conscience and culture.

The same orbit includes hard political machinery. Michelle Obama’s voter initiative has recruited TikTok influencers to target Gen Z ahead of the 2026 midterms, an operation aimed at the same young audience this summit says it wants to shape.

None of that is hidden. Higher Ground’s own language puts “overlooked voices,” empathy, and social change at the center of the shop. UCLA’s center and Berlanti are now wrapping that mission in a named award on a university stage.

Barack Obama remains a lasting fixed point in national argument, including later fights in which Trump said he could still target the Clintons and Obama over reputation and record. Separate from those clashes, the media company he launched with Michelle keeps collecting institutional praise for the stories it greenlights.

Even old rivalries get recycled as content and nostalgia, as when Clinton recounted a laugh with Obama over a Nobel Peace Prize jab aimed at Trump. The through-line is familiar: the same circle of power, prestige, and narrative control.

What the honor actually rewards

Strip away the stage lighting and the prize is straightforward. A Hollywood producer’s social-impact banner, backed by a UCLA storytelling center, goes to the Obama family media company for work the organizers say expands understanding and advances social change.

Paulsen will take the trophy. Berlanti will hand it over. The summit will move on. Taxpayers who fund public higher education, and parents watching what their teens are taught to admire, are left with the plain record of who salutes whom.

When the same political brand draft the scripts, staffs the company, and then accepts the “impact” medal from friendly institutions, voters can judge how much of that is courage, and how much is the club praising its own reflection.