Paul Higgins was promoted to chief administrative officer for American Public Television, the Boston-based syndicator of public TV content.
Higgins joined APT in 2019 as VP of finance and administration. With the promotion, he retains his VP of finance role.
Before APT, Higgins was CFO for Project Bread, a food assistance nonprofit in Boston, and VP of finance for Politico. Earlier in his career, he worked in finance and administration roles at GBH in Boston from 1996 to 2015.
KERA in Dallas hired a managing editor and Morning Edition host.
Paul DeBenedetto, who previously worked as an EP of daily news and statewide newscasts at Houston Public Media, is KERA’s new managing editor for daily news. Before joining Houston Public Media in 2020, DeBenedetto was a web producer for the Houston Chronicle.
Jamie Jackson is hosting KERA’s local broadcasts of Morning Edition. He arrived from WJCT Public Media in Jacksonville, Fla., where he was a host and reporter. He previously worked for an NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh.
Management
PBS Reno in Nevada hired Consuelo Tyree as an executive assistant and board liaison. She previously worked as a client specialist for Galena Veterinary Hospital in Reno and as an administrative assistant and product specialist for International Game Technology, a gambling company. “I feel like I hit the jackpot with this role and am looking forward to the adventures, connections this journey is going to bring and has already brought in,” Tyree said in a news release.
Technology
David Antoine, CTO for jazz station WBGO in Newark, N.J., was elected to the board for the Society of Broadcast Engineers. His term begins Sept. 29. Antoine rejoined WBGO last year after working for LAWO, a German manufacturer, as a radio broadcast engineer. “This most recent acknowledgement of David’s expertise and influence fits like a glove,” said WBGO CEO Steven Williams, in a news release.
Content
Stacey Vanek Smith became a global economics correspondent for NPR’s Business Desk. Smith starts the one-year assignment this month. She previously worked as host of The Indicator, a podcast produced by NPR’s Planet Money. Smith joined NPR in 2014 and was also a reporter and fill-in host for Marketplace. “If ever there was a time to add to the network’s coverage of the tectonic shifts in the U.S. and global economy, it is now,” Chief Business Editor Pallavi Gogoi wrote in a staff memo. “I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Stacey to our team.”
Elizabeth Nonemaker was hired as EP of podcasting for WQXR, a classical music station owned by New York Public Radio. Nonemaker, a composer, previously worked as a classical music critic for the Baltimore Sun and was also a writer for The Frame, produced by Southern California Public Radio.
Jerad Walker, music director and a producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting, left the station Aug. 31. “I’ve got a lot of packing to do and a cross-country move in my future (I’ll share the destination and new gig in a few weeks), but for now I’m going to try and squeeze as many hours as I can out of these gorgeous Pacific Northwest summer days,” he said on Twitter. Walker joined OPB in 2014 after working as a production coordinator for WAMU in Washington, D.C.
Sasha Aslanian is leaving her roles as a correspondent and producer for American Public Media Group to join ABC News as supervising producer of podcasts. She first joined APMG in 1992 as a news producer for Minnesota Public Radio and later produced for APM Reports. “You stay for 30 years when you find the work meaningful and you love your colleagues. I couldn’t have been luckier,” Aslanian said on Twitter. On her new job, she said “It’s everything I want to do…plus a new chapter in NYC.”
Alice Wilder became a producer for This is Uncomfortable, a podcast produced by Marketplace. Wilder previously worked as producer and reporter for Pineapple Street Media. She was also a producer for Axios, Transmitter Media and associate producer for New York Public Radio podcasts Nancy and Trump Inc.
Yansa Fatima will introduce films for AfroPoP Shorts, a monthly video series produced by Black Public Media that launches January 2023. The shorts series will be released on BPM’s website and YouTube. AfroPoP will broadcast the shorts next April. “Releasing AfroPoP Shorts in the digital space frees us to travel broadly between subjects (climate, mental health, family legacy, etc.) and styles (doc, narrative, animation, experimental, etc.),” said Denise Green, BPM’s director of programs, in a news release.
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