The Association of Public Television Stations thanked advocates beyond
the D.C. Beltway
APTS gave its David J. Brugger Grassroots Advocacy Award to Dr. Louis Sullivan, board chair of the Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative Inc. and former U.S. secretary of health and human services.
The Brugger Award, named for the former APTS president, recognizes an individual who has shown “exemplary leadership in advocacy on behalf of public television,” APTS said.
APTS’ National Advocacy Awards for 2010 saluted individuals or stations that exemplify effective advocacy for pubTV. Recipients were: Malcolm Brett of Wisconsin Public Television, Molly Phillips of Iowa Public Television, and Rob Shuman of Maryland Public Television. APTS said Brett’s “understated style but dogged determination” were evident last year as he worked with his congressman, Rep. David Obey, to win fiscal stabilization funds for stations. Phillips has lobbied for years, becoming pubTV’s chief advocate with influential Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. And Shuman has cultivated some of the most powerful members of Congress, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
APTS also presented the EDGE Awards announced in February. The awards went to: Blue Ridge Public Television, in Roanoke, Va., for its JobQuest project, which provides viewers with job-hunting and employment information ; WHRO in Norfolk, Va., for its Hampton Roads Virtual Learning Center, which offers a curriculum hosted on the station’s servers; and Vermont Public Television for its multiplatform campaign to promote awareness of mental illness.