The Association of Independents in Radio announced Monday that its new executive director is Keisha Salmon.
Salmon succeeds Ken Ikeda, who resigned last year. Amanda Hickman led the organization on an interim basis.
Salmon comes to AIR from the John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity in New York City, where she was director of communications and strategic initiatives. She previously led communications strategy for American Documentary and its program POV.
“It is an honor to have the opportunity to lead and advocate for the rights of AIR members and bring my experience and passion for representing public media to embrace, educate and uplift historically overlooked and extremely talented content creators and creative voices,” Salmon said in a press release. “Together, in our next era of growth and in line with AIR’s vision to amplify new voices and new narratives for public radio and podcasting, we will build on the successes that have been achieved in recent years, as well as strategize and innovate for the future as we navigate the changes taking place in the audio industry.”
AIR Board Co-President Emily Kwong said in the release that in Salmon’s interviews for the job, “I was especially impressed with her focus on mentorship and supporting those around her. She brings a strong history of developing effective programming, and we want AIR members to feel that support right now.”
More than 1,500 independent radio and podcast producers, editors, engineers and reporters are AIR members.