Brad Turner joined KUNC in Greeley, Colo., as EP. He will lead KUNC’s daily news podcast In the NoCo and contribute to other newsroom projects.
Turner most recently worked as EP of audio innovations for Colorado Public Radio, where he managed podcasts. He joined the station in 2013 as a digital producer and was promoted to digital editor in 2015. He was named senior producer of on-demand audio in January 2019.
Prior to joining CPR, Turner worked for Boulder County and was an editor for the online magazine NewWest.net. He was also a reporter for the Longmont Daily Times-Call in Boulder, Colo.
Aspen Public Radio in Colorado announced a new Morning Edition host.
Megan Tackett will begin hosting Morning Edition Monday. Tackett previously worked as editor-in-chief of the Aspen Daily News, where she also launched the Spanish-language newspaper El Sol del Valle. She has also been a senior courts and crime reporter for the Aspen Daily News and a host for community radio station KDNK in Carbondale, Colo.
After nearly four years as a reporter and Morning Edition host, Eleanor Bennett is leaving the station to participate in a summer-long Spanish intensive program in Vermont.
“Eleanor’s departure is a great loss to the station,” said News Director Kelsey Brunner in a news release. “However, it also comes with a lot of pride that she’s going on to improve her Spanish and enhance her reporting skills after spending a lot of time covering the stories of Venezuelan immigrants in Carbondale with her colleagues. Eleanor has focused a lot of her reporting and storytelling work here in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys within the Spanish-speaking community and this is a wonderful next step in her own journey as a journalist.”
Communications
Tsering Thillman left her position as a public relations and executive communications manager for American Public Media Group. She joined APMG in 2018 as a media relations specialist after working as a publicist for the Media Relations Agency, based in Burnsville, Minn.
Content
Eileen Bolinsky, senior editor for Here & Now produced by WBUR in Boston, is retiring. Bolinsky began her career at WBUR in 1981 as an audio engineer. She also worked as a technical director at Monitor Radio and Living on Earth, distributed by PRX, before moving to the editorial side of Living on Earth. She returned to WBUR in 2013 when Here & Now became a national two-hour midday show. “I feel so privileged to have had an amazing career in which I learned something new nearly every single day, and to work with such smart, creative, and kind people,” Bolinsky said in an email.
Elissa Nadworny will become a correspondent covering reproductive rights for NPR’s National Desk. Nadworny most recently worked as a correspondent on the Education Desk. She joined NPR in 2014 as an Education Desk intern and has also been an editor for education, deputy editor for education, Ukraine correspondent and guest host of All Things Considered, Life Kit and Weekend Edition. Before joining NPR, she covered the White House for Bloomberg News.
Peter Balonon-Rosen left his position as a producer for NPR’s Throughline to become a producer for Today, Explained, produced by Vox. He joined NPR in 2023. He has also been a producer and reporter for Indiana Public Broadcasting, WBUR in Boston and Marketplace.
Sarah Liese was hired as Indigenous affairs reporter for KOSU in Stillwater, Okla. Liese is Diné and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She most recently worked as a public relations specialist for the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Miss. She has also had two fellowships with the Sundance Institute and was a producer-in-residence fellow and digital content producer for WLOX, an ABC and CBS affiliate in Biloxi. “KOSU has been a leader in covering Indigenous affairs for years,” said KOSU Executive Director Rachel Hubbard in a news release. “Sarah will continue that legacy with her work. In Oklahoma, having stories reported by Indigenous journalists for Native communities is imperative.”
Lee Hawkins will host What Happened in Alabama?, a 10-part podcast series for American Public Media’s APM Studios. The series, which launches Wednesday, focuses on Hawkins digging through family history to explore slavery and Jim Crow. Hawkins joined APM in 2022 as a special correspondent, co-EP and series creator after working as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
Nilufer Arsala became a morning show producer and co-host for The Current in St. Paul, Minn. Arsala most recently worked as manager of radio operations for KERA in Dallas and midday host and local music coordinator for sister station KXT.
Andrew Garcia was appointed Morning Edition host for KERA in Dallas. Garcia previously worked for CapRadio in Sacramento, Calif., first as a fill-in host and later as a midday anchor and producer.
Kiley Koscinski said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she is transitioning from her position as a city government reporter at WESA in Pittsburgh to the station’s health and science desk. She joined WESA as a producer for The Confluence and Morning Edition in 2018 and has also been a fill-in host for All Things Considered.
Don Pedi, host of Close To Home on Blue Ridge Public Radio in Asheville, N.C., is moving the program to WNCW, a Triple A music station in Spindale, N.C., starting May 12. Pedi has been a host for BPR since 1985. “Close to Home on WNCW will feature traditional American music and consider its influence on popular music,” Pedi said in a news release. “We will also honor the similarities that our traditions share with those of other countries.” The move follows BPR’s decision to offer BPR News and BPR Classic as separate broadcast services. “We are thankful to Don for his service to the listeners all these years and are excited to see what’s next for him, and Close to Home at WNCW,” said BPR GM Jeffrey Pope in the news release.
Karen DeWitt, Capitol bureau chief for the New York Public News Network, composed of newsrooms across the state, is leaving the position in June. “It’s been a fabulous ride, but it’s time to go,” she wrote on X. DeWitt, who is based at WXXI in Rochester, has been working for the organization since 1990. She has also been a contributor to New York Now, a public affairs program.
Governance
Two people in public media joined the board of directors for the Association of Public Radio Engineers: Badri Munipalla, VP of distribution at NPR, and Ivy Sheppard, GM of WEHC in Emory, Va.
Fellowships
Seven public media employees were selected for the Poynter Institute’s leadership academy for women in media. They are: Daniela Allee, senior news editor for New Hampshire Public Radio; Elizabeth Baier, digital news editor for WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C; Emily Cureton Cook, central Oregon bureau chief for Oregon Public Broadcasting; Rawan Elbaba, digital producer for the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs; Jezaniah Hawthorne, PD for KBOO in Portland, Ore.; Kathleen Masterson, assistant managing editor of climate and environment for WBUR in Boston; and Caitlin Saks, senior producer of Nova at GBH in Boston.
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