Charney takes lead at NPR One, McNamara leaves PBS and other comings and goings

Tamar Charney, interim managing editor of NPR One for the past three months, has assumed that role permanently.

Charney joined NPR early last year to focus on the mobile app’s use of station content. Previously she was head of content at Michigan Radio.

Meanwhile, Emily Barocas has returned to NPR as an associate producer with primary responsibility for curating podcasts on NPR One. Previously she worked part-time managing story flow for the app. She was also a Morning Edition producer.

And Nick DePrey has taken on an expanded role of digital programming analytics manager for NPR Digital Media. He’ll work with Charney to test new content for NPR One.

Also at NPR, journalist Juleyka Lantigua-Williams takes over Jan. 23 as senior supervising producer and editor for Code Switch, the network’s unit covering issues of race and identity

Lantigua-Williams most recently covered criminal justice as a staff writer at The Atlantic. Previously, she was managing editor of the “Next America” series on changing demographics for National Journal, an Atlantic Media publication.

Earlier in her career she was a syndicated columnist for the Progressive Media Project  and a contributing writer for Jet Magazine.

Lantigua-Williams has also served as a mentor for the NPR Next Generation Radio training program.

Communications

Jan McNamara, longtime corporate spokesperson for PBS, is now managing institutional development for Imagination Stage, a children’s theater and arts education program in Bethesda, Md. McNamara joined PBS in 1999 as a senior associate in corporate communications, rising over the years to senior director and senior strategist. Earlier in her career she worked in public affairs and marketing at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Content

Economics journalist Peter Gosselin has joined ProPublica as a contributing reporter covering trends shaping the lives of Americans over 60. Recently Gosselin reported for Bloomberg News and served as a senior analyst at Bloomberg Government, where he mined data to investigate health-care policy. He also served as a senior economic advisor for the Department of Health and Human Services and as the Treasury Secretary’s chief speechwriter.

Actress Nikki Beharie, best known for her roles on the Fox drama Sleepy Hollow and in the film Shame, is the host for Season 9 of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. The five-week National Black Programming Consortium documentary series premieres Jan. 16 on the World Channel.

The New York Times has hired Theo Balcomb, former supervising producer of All Things Considered, to head up a new audio project launching early this year developed by Times political reporter Michael Barbaro.

Brendan Sweeney, managing producer of new content and innovation at WAMU in Washington, D.C., is moving to KUOW in Seattle as managing producer. Sweeney joined WAMU in 2004 as a producer with the Kojo Nnamdi Show.

Rebecca Ketcherside, program manager for Iowa Public Television in Johnston, retired Dec. 23 after 26 years. She began her career at Wisconsin Public Television. At IPTV she worked her way up from administrative assistant to operations assistant and broadcast coordinator before being named programming and operations manager in 2007.

Kathy Atkinson, who has been with the Arkansas Educational Television Network in Conway for 46 years, retires Jan. 12 as director of programming. She joined what was then KETS in 1970 as secretary to the program director and rose to direct programming in 1990. During her tenure she served on the Public Television Programmers Association Board, advisory councils for the Independent Television Service and Masterpiece, and the National Educational Telecommunications Association/CPB Production Fund selection committee. First up in retirement: a week in Hawaii with her family.

Amanda Vinicky, former statehouse bureau chief for NPR Illinois in Springfield, started reporting as a correspondent for Chicago Tonight on WTTW this month. She is  covering state government. Vinicky has contributed to the WTTW public affairs program since March 2015. She first joined the Springfield station in 2005 as a reporting intern.

Management

KPFT General Manager Duane Bradley will retire from the Houston Pacifica radio station this spring. In an email to listeners, Bradley said he completes 15 years as GM this month and intends “to help KPFT grow and evolve as we move toward our 50th anniversary in 2020.” He said the station will seek interim directors for programming and development along with a new GM.

Production

Twin Cities PBS has hired two executives in its local production division, Minnesota Productions and Partnerships. Elizabeth C. Allen, managing director, previously worked in customer relations at Socrata Inc., a cloud-based communication system for city, county, state and federal government organizations. And Pamela McClanahan, director of partnership development, formerly oversaw content strategy at the Minnesota Historical Society. Over the last 13 years, the division has worked with more than 250 nonprofit partners and completed nearly 900 television programs.

Fellowships

The Online News Association has announced the new class for its Women’s Leadership Accelerator. Fellows will take part next month at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles. Among those attending will be Lauren Bracey Scheidt, senior product manager, Listener Journey, NPR; Julia B. Chan, editor, Reveal, the Center for Investigative Reporting; Serri Graslie, senior digital strategist, training team, NPR; Kristen Lepore, elections project manager, Southern California Public Radio; and Rubina Madan Fillion, director of audience engagement, The Intercept.

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