[4] During this time, a freelance article she wrote about student movements came to the attention of an editor at Look, starting her career in journalism.

[11] In 1992, Mitchell approached media entrepreneur Ted Turner about producing a documentary series on the history of women in America.

[15] After departing PBS, Mitchell was appointed the President and CEO of the Paley Center for Media, an American cultural institution in New York.

[3][19] In 2022, Mitchell was one of the producers of the documentary Refuge, which followed a Syrian Kurd, a former Klansman, and a town of refugees in Clarkston, Georgia.

[20] As of 2021, she was chair of the Sundance Institute and the Women's Media Center, and a trustee of the VDAY movement, the Skoll Foundation and the Acumen Fund.

[4] Mitchell was appointed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as one of nine commissioners to develop a plan to build a National Women's History Museum in Washington, D.C.[26] The commission delivered its report to Congress in the fall of 2016.

[27] Mitchell and her husband, Scott Seydel, have six children and 13 grandchildren and reside in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia.