Heather L. Reese, executive director of Wisconsin Public Media since 2022, died Oct. 10. She was 50.
She had been undergoing cancer treatments for the last several months, but her death was sudden and unexpected.
A respected leader in public broadcasting, Reese began her public media career in 2010 at WPM, a division of the University of Wisconsin-Madison that, in partnership with the Educational Communications Board, provides statewide access to PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio. In her first job, she oversaw compliance and contract management. She went on to serve as director of strategic initiatives, associate director and interim director before her promotion to ED.
Reese was a longtime, vocal supporter of the Wisconsin Idea — the belief that UW-Madison teaching, research, outreach and public service should provide benefits beyond the classroom. Her leadership at WPM was guided by its principles.
Reese was also a proud “Sconnie,” having grown up in rural central Wisconsin. She loved spending time in the outdoors. The northern lights that danced across the state on the night of her passing were a fitting tribute to her love of Wisconsin’s natural spaces.
Reese was especially proud to serve as the leader of a public service organization dedicated to lifelong learning and serving the state of Wisconsin. She was a graduate of the UW Law School (2002) and UW-Stout (1996). Prior to joining WPM, Reese practiced law in the Madison area.
“We all deeply valued Heather’s steady leadership during a time of profound change within the public media landscape, both in Wisconsin and nationally,” UW-Madison Provost Charles Lee Isbell Jr. said. “Heather performed this work with grace and skill, keeping our statewide audiences as her focus and priority. In all our conversations together, it was always clear how much she cared about her staff and her work.”
“Heather was an outstanding colleague and steadfast advocate for the division of WPM in all its forms,” said Amy Gilman, UW-Madison senior director for the arts and media and director of the Chazen Museum of Art. “She thought strategically about the important place of PBS Wisconsin and WPR in the lives of Wisconsin’s residents, and how to strengthen every facet of the organization to best serve our state. Her approach not only lifted WPM, but also ensured she was a valued peer and colleague.”
“Working as co-leaders with Heather has been one of the greatest joys of my professional life,” ECB Executive Director Marta Bechtol said. “We locked elbows in 2021, sharing a single vision for public media in Wisconsin that unified our teams and enabled significant organizational change. The degrees of trust and esteem we held for each other were unprecedented among all my work relationships. I feel tremendously lucky to have had such a thought partner.”
“I worked with Heather since I began my public media career, and over that time, I witnessed and supported her as she led some of the most transformative efforts our organization has undertaken in the past several decades,” WPM Associate Director Jordan Siegler said. “She was resolute, never wavering from the question that I believe drove her leadership: What must public media do to evolve and serve all of our audiences and their ever-changing needs? Our teams across WPM and ECB will carry on with this essential work, holding thoughts of Heather in our hearts and minds as we do so.”
Reese is survived by her stepdaughters, Megan and Emily; her father, Kenneth Schnorr; her stepmother, Rita Schnorr; stepbrothers, Doug Schnorr and Dan Schnorr; mother- and father-in-law, Judeen and Mike Reese; her dog, Harley; and extended family. Reese was preceded in death by her husband, Eric, and her mother, Judy Roberts.