Kevin Schatell: Big City, Big Job, Bigger Heart

The following is a profile written this semester by Lauren Minnick as a class assignment for JOUR 3190, Reporting and Writing Across Platforms. Minnick is a third year journalism student from Marietta, Georgia. She is also pursuing a minor in history and law, jurisprudence, and the state, and a Certificate in Sports Media. Minnick is involved with Grady Newsource, UGA Women in Media Club, and UGA Student Mentorship Program, among other activities. Minnick aspires to work at NBC News as a news anchor on TODAY.

Kevin Schatell (ABJ ’16) has always had a gift for forming meaningful connections. A native of Grayson, Georgia, Schatell has been drawn to roles in his career since he was a little kid, and now uses his innate capacity for connection to transform his position under his own light, gifting to others the joys he possesses within himself.  

“I [always] loved entertaining people, I loved asking questions”- Kevin Schatell   

A persona built around truthfulness, compassion and sincerity, the qualities Schatell carries within his heart shine through in each of his interactions. Embraced by life, Schatell works to lay the strong foundations behind the success in his career and drive deep roots in the connections he forms.  

Schatell graduated from Grady College in 2016, immediately accepting a position at NBC through the company’s Page Program upon graduation.

After the program’s end in 2017, Schatell started his role working at NBC TODAY as associate plaza producer, and after his most recent Summer 2021 promotion, started what is now his current role, TODAY show producer.  

A job where he combines his internal drive together with his compassion, Schatell propels the show to new levels of relatability and human connection. At NBC, Kevin’s transparency mirrors a company built on the same principles. A perfect match, the relationship between the company and the individual shines through Schatell’s work. At NBC, Schatell feels part of a community where he is truly celebrated, and is proud to be an element of an organization “which is colorful, which is diverse, which is accepting.” 

A place where differences are celebrated, Schatell carries his full self into his position each day, with this joyful embodiment of authenticity acting as a foundational element behind his life and career success.  

Schatell’s true joy and unapologetically genuine spirit are often highlighted in the praising voices of those who know him. For someone who touches so many, embodying a role of Schatell’s greatest mentor in life is not a title that can be taken lightly. It only is right then that the two most influential role models in Schatell’s life would also possess the same inherent virtues that he does, and also share the same power to encourage these virtues to grow fiercely in those who share the same spark. 

While a student at UGA, Schatell connected with the director of the UGA Visitor’s Center, Eric Johnson (ABJ ’86), in his time spent as a student ambassador. 

Johnson, who Schatell affectionately calls EJ, preaches to his ambassadors of the power in defining the why behind all actions. It was this shift in mindset that Schatell states was the greatest defining lesson for him in his life, after which everything he has done or accomplished had a new and deeper meaning. 

Johnson forever “changed the approach of everything I do”… Life for me now “is thinking about the why.”- Kevin Schatell.    

An ambassador who understood the short sightedness of selling a school to a bus of prospective students, many of whom would find their futures elsewhere, Schatell chose instead to instill a deeper joy in each guest. Making human connections with each prospective student, Schatell encouraged excitement for the years ahead and gave these tour members a reason to celebrate their futures at whatever home they found themselves in. Through this approach, Schatell gave a greater gift to others than he could have ever given without re-centering his mindset under Johnson’s mantra for a higher calling. 

When asked about Schatell, Johnson says best that “you feel like you’re best friends with Kevin after an hour” because he is that gifted in making connections and making people feel seen for all they are. 

Johnson praises many of the same sentiments that all who know Schatell know to be true: that “he genuinely cares about people, he sees people, he hears them.” Schatell leads a life surrounding the ceaseless questions of “why am I here?” and “what can I give to others?” His understanding of his higher-calling constantly drives him forward.  

Working now on the TODAY plaza, Schatell appreciates that not everyone will be a super-fan, but the crowd he sees each morning are all there on a stop in their greater life path and have been brought to the plaza for a deeper purpose. Under this switch in approach, he connects to the audience as fellow people all sharing a collective moment together, and instills a different kind of joy in those he touches, both within the Plaza’s guests and within TODAY as a whole.  

Welcoming and embracing life, the gifts Schatell carry for acceptance, is a center point for every relationship he forms, including the one with himself. 

In his personal identity, Schatell is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. A dimension of his truth which he once felt pressured to hide, Schatell chose to transform his attitude under Johnson’s calling of why. Now choosing to live each day in his full sincerity, Schatell stands as a model to others of the joy found in the freedom of embracing who you are, and the power found in loving your genuine heart and whole self. 

Though he shared a professional relationship with the dean as a Grady ambassador, Schatell also felt personally close to the dean, as though he was a part of his family. Dean Davis, who extended his home for dinners hosted by him, his wife and his children, lived as an exemplary model of the values of kindness and giving to his students. When reflecting on his time in college, Schatell reflects that this gesture “made my time at Georgia feel like home.” 

As the dean goes on to say best, with Schatell, “if he knows you, he knows you.” 

That is the power of Kevin Schatell — the proud owner of the biggest heart in the big city. A man who started as a profile subject, and a lofty one at that, is now a dear friend and a forever ally in life.

A message from Schatell directed toward 2020 graduates, but important to all graduates.