Shari Lamke will sign on Jan. 4 as president and GM of Pioneer PBS in Granite Falls, Minn.
She succeeds Les Heen, who resigned in January to become a government affairs specialist at the Libby Law Firm. Jon Panzer, director of engineering, served as interim GM until departing this fall for an engineering job at WDSE in Duluth.
“I am truly honored … to join the great board and the incredibly talented staff at Pioneer PBS as the president and general manager,” Lamke said in a news release. “I am excited to get started building upon the legacy of Pioneer PBS in sharing the stories of western and southwestern Minnesotans who I am thrilled to serve.”
Lamke worked in supervising producer and production manager roles at TPT in St. Paul, Minn., for more than 38 years, according to the release. She joined TPT in 2000 and worked on the launch of the Minnesota Channel as a senior director.
“We are so grateful for the many volunteer hours put in by the Pioneer PBS board members in the course of the search,” said Board Chair Mark Olson in the news release. “Volunteers have long been the backbone of Pioneer PBS going back to the early days when the station was financed by bake sales to today’s volunteers that stuff envelopes, answer phones during membership drives or serve on our community advisory board or the Pioneer PBS governing board,” he added.