NPR announced the results of recent board elections, with Jeff Sine’s term as board chair expiring at the start of a Nov. 16 board meeting.
Scott Finn, CEO of Vermont Public, and Stephen George, CEO of Louisville Public Media, were elected to their first three-year terms on the board and will start in November. Finn and George take the seats of outgoing board members Nico Leone, CEO of KERA in Dallas, and John Decker, senior director of content development for KPBS in San Diego.
In addition, Myrna Johnson, executive director of Iowa Public Radio, and Erika Pulley-Hayes, GM of WAMU in Washington, D.C., were reelected to three-year terms.
Matthew Barzun, former U.S. ambassador to the U.K. and Sweden and owner and publisher of Louisville Magazine; and LeRoy Kim, managing director of investment bank Allen & Co., were elected to their first three-year terms as public directors. They will take seats previously held by Sine and Fred Dust, founder of Dust & Co.
Judith Segura, lead thermal architect for Apple, was reelected to her second three-year term.
Scott Donaton, former SVP and head of marketing for Hulu, will complete a vacant unexpired term that expires in November 2025. He replaces Telisa Yancy, president of the American Family Insurance Group.
On a separate ballot, Public Radio Satellite System representatives ratified the board’s election of Mollie Kabler to a second three-year term as a nonboard Distribution/Interconnection committee member. Kabler is executive director of CoastAlaska, a nonprofit that serves public media stations in the state.
Whitney Maddox was named VP of diversity, equity and inclusion for NPR.
Maddox joined NPR in 2021 as manager of DEI. During her tenure, Maddox has led twice-monthly company-wide antiracism workshops, as well as other leadership and diversity trainings.
“I am excited to be a part of shaping the company’s strategy for DE&I,” said Maddox in a news release. “When I started at NPR, I had the distinct opportunity to lead a two-year focus on improving the work experience of women of color. What happened as a result of that work is one of the reasons this promotion feels like a win for all women of color at NPR. I would not be the leader I am today if it were not for those women embracing me, teaching me and trusting me.”
Ernesto Aguilar was promoted to executive director of radio programming and content DEI for KQED in San Francisco.
“In addition to the exciting broadcasts we do, I’ll also now oversee diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the Content division,” Aguilar said on Twitter. “I’ll work closely with our Chief DEI Officer and teams to ensure our internal culture and our programming authentically serves the diverse Bay Area community we cherish. I’ll also be implementing annual Content DEI plans.”
Aguilar joined KQED in 2021 as director of radio programming. He previously worked as executive director for the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
Stephen Koranda stepped up from an interim role to become managing editor of the Kansas News Service, a statewide collaboration directed by KCUR in Kansas City, Mo.
Koranda succeeds Scott Canon, who left the position to become editor-in-chief of the Kansas City Beacon. Koranda previously worked as news editor for KNS. Before that, he was statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio and worked as a journalist for Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Iowa Public Radio.
“I’m really proud of the journalism we produce and the work culture we have at the KNS. A lot of the credit for our quality goes to our team of reporters,” Koranda said in a news release. “I hope I can help the KNS continue to advance as we add new reporters in the coming months.”
Legal
Susan L. Kantrowitz is retiring from her positions as VP and general counsel for GBH in Boston. Susan Rosen, deputy general counsel, will be interim general counsel effective Oct. 1. Kantrowitz joined the station’s legal department in 1981 and became director of legal affairs in 1984. She was named GBH’s first general counsel in 1986. Kantrowitz also founded the GBH Media Archives and Library, which received $16 million from the Mellon Foundation for a collaboration with the Library of Congress and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Before GBH, Kantrowitz was an account executive for public relations firm Bozell & Jacobs and was an associate producer at KOCE in Los Angeles.
Content
Ashley Brown was named acting EP of booking and specials for NPR. Brown will have the role for six months as the 2024 election cycle picks up, according to a memo from Eric Marrapodi, VP of news programming. Brown most recently worked as senior editor of All Things Considered and Consider This. She has also been an editor for Morning Edition and Up First.
Gabriel Kramer was promoted to host of NewsDepth, a public affairs program produced by Ideastream Public Media in Cleveland. In addition to its weekly television broadcast, NewsDepth is an interactive digital series that breaks down news into teachable lessons for fourth- to sixth-grade students. Kramer joined Ideastream in 2015 and most recently worked as multimedia producer and host of Know Ohio, a PBS LearningMedia shorts series. Kramers succeeds Rick Jackson as host of NewsDepth, who retired. “NewsDepth isn’t NewsDepth without Rick Jackson,” said Kramer in a news release. “I’ll never stop honoring that. I’ll do my best to continue his great work.”
Mike Mulcahy, senior editor for MPR News and host of Politics Friday at Minnesota Public Radio, is retiring. After working as an engineer at a commercial radio station, Mulcahy first joined MPR in 1985 as a reporter. In the mid-1990s, he left MPR to work for TPT in St. Paul but returned to MPR in 1988 as an editor. He started hosting Politics Friday in 2012. Mulcahy said in an MPR article commemorating his career that he has no major plans for retirement other than tidying his home, pursuing hobbies such as riding and repairing bicycles, and spending time with his wife and their three adult daughters. He expects to continue following news and politics — “I don’t think I can stop at this point,” he said — and may return to MPR News for election-night analysis.
Jordan Buxton was hired as a content resource coordinator for PBS Reno in Nevada. Buxton previously worked as an instructor of motion design for the University of Nevada in Reno and was also a university staff photographer who assisted with production and postproduction of documentaries.
Send news of “comings and goings” to [email protected]
Correction: An earlier version of this column incorrectly said that Susan L. Kantrowitz was an associate producer at PBS SoCal in Los Angeles. She was an associate producer at KOCE in Los Angeles, which later became part of PBS SoCal.