CPB Inspector General Mary Mitchelson will retire April 26.
Mitchelson joined the CPB IG office in 2013. Previously she worked at the Department of Education’s IG office, starting in 2000 as assistant IG and rising to counsel in 2002 and deputy IG in 2008.
Earlier in her career she was an assistant dean at the Georgetown University Law Center. Mitchelson also clerked for Judge Harold H. Greene, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
WGBH in Boston has expanded duties for two senior staffers and realigned two divisions.
Suzanne Zellner, corporate sponsorship VP, is now also responsible for local development and the membership department. Zellner, who joined the station in 2003, also oversees the Sponsorship Group for Public TV, which handles underwriting for national programs across TV, radio, podcasts and events.
The Media Access Group, which creates content captions and descriptions for viewers and listeners with disabilities, is now part of the technology and production group. Alison Godburn, senior director of MAG, becomes managing director for that group as well as Public Media Management technical sales. PMM is the centralized media management and content distribution service from WGBH and Sony Electronics. An announcement said that Godburn will connect with public media leaders “to better understand stations’ technology and accessibility needs.”
Content
In other WGBH news, radio and local news GM Phil Redo has announced he will retire in July 2020. Redo joined the station as a consultant in 2009 and helped launch WGBH-FM’s news format. He rose to managing editor in 2011 and his current position in 2014. Earlier in his career, Redo was VP and GM of five-station radio group Greater Media Boston and VP of operations and corporate strategy at WNYC in New York City.
NPR has hired reporter Hannah Allam as a national security correspondent focusing on counterterrorism and domestic security. Most recently Allam was a national correspondent for BuzzFeed News covering religion, race and culture. Earlier in her career she reported from 30 countries for Knight Ridder and McClatchy. Allam begins work April 1.
Maryland Public Television has promoted Frank Batavick to EP of natural history content. He’s responsible for commissioning and overseeing productions with environmental, natural history and history themes. He joined the station in Owings Mills in 1990, most recently working as executive producer of Steven Raichlen’s Project Smoke, Steven Raichlen’s Project Fire and My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas, three national cooking series. Batavick is a former member of the board of governors for the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Journalist and producer Daffodil Altan has joined Frontline as a California-based investigative producer and correspondent. Altan produced Rape on the Night Shift and Trafficked in America for the public TV investigative series. Previously Altan was a producer at Reveal and has reported for MSNBC, Telemundo and PBS NewsHour.
Lina Misitzis has joined This American Life as a producer. Most recently she worked at Audible, where she reported and produced The Butterfly Effect and The Last Days of August. Earlier in her career Misitzis also produced for NPR.
Andrea Henderson has joined St. Louis Public Radio to cover race, culture and identity as part of the Sharing America reporting initiative. Previously Henderson worked as a news assistant on Weekend Edition and NPR’s Code Switch.
Carmel Holt has left WFUV in New York City, where she was assistant music director, to launch Sheroes, an interview podcast about women in music. Earlier in Holt’s career she was music director at WDST in Woodstock, N.Y. Stepping into Holt’s role will be Alisa Ali, who joined WFUV in 2004 as host and producer.
Bonnie Grice is leaving Peconic Public Broadcasting on Long Island March 29, she told the local Southampton Press. Grice has worked as a host and producer at the station for 21 years; she signed on in 1998 when it was WPBX at the Southampton campus of Long Island University. She worked for NPR earlier in her career. Grice said she’ll be focusing on Boots on the Ground, a theater company she founded in 2016 that stages historical stories.
Journalist Bob Zaltsberg joins WFIU-FM and WTIU-TV in Bloomington, Ind., April 1 to lead the community journalism project “City Limits: Bloomington.” The goal of the initiative is to “build an archive of stories about the city of Bloomington and become the place where people can go to get answers about the city,” according to an announcement. Zaltsberg recently retired from the local Herald-Times, where he served as editor for 33 years.
Rich Lenz is the new anchor for the Oklahoma News Report from the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority. Since 2007, Lenz has been the co-anchor for the 6 in the Morning program on KOTV in Tulsa, a CW affiliate. Lenz also worked as a sports director, anchor and reporter for commercial stations in Florida and Louisiana.
Digital
CPB has hired Beth Jacobs as VP, digital strategies to “to accelerate cultural transformation, innovation and content creation throughout the public media system,” according to an announcement. Most recently Jacobs was senior director for personalization and distribution strategy and operations at Choice Hotels. Her previous experience includes serving as VP of product management and strategy at 3Pillar Global and the executive lead managing 3Pillar Labs, an innovation lab for emerging technologies. She also worked as GM for mobile at the Washington Post.
Finance
WQED in Pittsburgh has promoted Mike Waruszewski to CFO to oversee the organization’s financial management as well as facilities, information technology and human resources. Waruszewski most recently served as finance director at the station, where he’s worked for 15 years.
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