Jennifer Kieley was promoted to VP of government and public affairs for America’s Public Television Stations.
Kieley takes the position previously held by Kate Riley, who was named CEO last year.
Kieley joined APTS in 2006 as congressional liaison and was promoted to director of government relations. She most recently worked as senior director of government relations since Aug. 2023.
Before joining APTS, Kieley was a legislative consultant for the National Water Resources Association and a lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
“Jen has served APTS for over 18 years with exceptional skill, loyalty and thoughtful leadership. She has helped our organization and member stations navigate difficult times and successfully seize opportunities,” Riley said in a news release. “Her collaborative nature and commitment to building consensus and working effectively with internal and external stakeholders will continue to serve APTS well. Jen’s deep knowledge and appreciation for the work of our stations, the public media system, the legislative process and the political landscape is a great asset to APTS and the public broadcasting community as a whole.”
Oregon Public Broadcasting CEO Rachel Smolkin announced two executive promotions.
Cheryl Ikemiya steps up to SVP and CDO. Ikemiya joined OPB in 2005 as director of leadership giving and most recently worked as VP and CDO.
Lisa Garcia Grace became SVP of programming and audience engagement. She joined OPB in 2016 as associate director of on-air fundraising and was also a television programming strategist, senior director of programming and VP. Before that, she worked for Montana PBS as membership manager and later as development director.
As part of the change, Smolkin said on LinkedIn that OPB posted a new role for an executive editor of digital programming, who will report to Garcia Grace.
NPR announced editorial changes.
Oliver Dearden was appointed deputy managing editor of weekdays. Dearden joined the network in 2012 as a Morning Edition producer. He’s also been a line producer for Weekend Edition and supervising producer for All Things Considered since 2017. Before joining NPR, he was a broadcast journalist for the BBC.
“I look forward to the challenge of helping direct traffic for the network and allowing everyone here to do their best work,” said Dearden in a staff memo. “I will miss the ATC team dearly, but I know they will continue to do amazing things.”
Arielle Retting was named acting senior editor of digital audience. Retting will work alongside Dearden and editors on NPR’s homepage and overall online engagement. Retting joined NPR in 2018 as a copy editor and visual newscast producer and has also been a growth editor. Before NPR, she was a copy editor for Wired and The Guardian and was also a multiplatform editor for the Washington Post.
C Mandler joined Dearden’s team as an editor for trending news assignments and will continue to work on the Trendsetter newsletter. Mandler joined NPR last year as an editor on the engagement team. Mandler has also been a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News, an associate producer for CNN+’s The Interview Club and an associate producer for Good Morning America’.
The Midwest Newsroom, a public radio collaboration co-led by NPR, hired two journalists.
The managing partners are lead station KCUR in Kansas City, Mo.; Nebraska Public Media; Iowa Public Radio; St. Louis Public Radio; and NPR. The newsroom is one of four regional news hubs alongside the Texas, California and Gulf States Newsrooms.
David Farré was hired as audience and innovation editor and will be based at KCUR. Farré most recently worked as manager of the south region audience team for Gannett. He was also regional audience growth producer for the Kansas City Star and director of digital content for the Burlington Free Press.
Nick Loomis joined as an investigative reporter and will be based at Nebraska Public Media. His reporting will focus on Nebraska and Iowa, according to a LinkedIn post by Holly Edgell, managing editor for the Midwest Newsroom. Loomist, most recently a freelance journalist, has also been a video journalist for the BBC.
Communications
Nicole Boudreau was hired as director of communications for GBH in Boston. Boudreau previously worked for Comcast’s communications team, most recently as public relations director, and helped manage the company’s northeast division, which spans from Maine to Virginia.
Policy
NPR hired Anna Brugmann as state senior manager, working on state policy initiatives with member stations. She most recently worked as policy director for Rebuild Local News and was also a reporting intern for Current. “I love Rebuild Local News and the work I got to do there,” she said on LinkedIn, “But I’m very lucky to keep doing what I love: working in state legislatures to make a better future for local newsrooms and the communities they serve.”
Content
Classical music station WFMT in Chicago hired John Clare as a weekday morning music host. Clare most recently worked as host of Anytime Classical, a nationally syndicated program block that also airs on WICR in Indianapolis and WBAA in West Lafayette, Ind. He also helped launch a new weekly radio show, Classical Beat, in September on WICR. “John will bring deep knowledge of classical music and a warm and immersive presentation style to our engaged morning audience,” said Roger Wight, WFMT’s head of programming and operations, in a news release. Clare has also been classical music director for WGUC in Cincinnati and an announcer for SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall.
Nick Andersen, an archives producer for NPR’s Fresh Air, announced on Bluesky that he was laid off. Andersen joined the program in 2023 after working as a podcast producer for Masterpiece at GBH in Boston. He was also an associate producer for On Point at WBUR in Boston.
Audience data
Amy Gilbreth joined the Radio Research Consortium in Olney, Md., as a production assistant. Gilbreth previously worked as an outbound demand specialist for NTT DATA Business Solutions. She’s also been a business development representative for Improvado, a marketing analytics company.
Governance
The Contributor Development Partnership expanded its board of directors. Following the resignation of former CDP Board Chair Jon Abbott, Ron Hetrick, CEO of WITF in Harrisburg, Pa., will step in as chair. Abbott, former CEO of GBH in Boston, will remain on the board as an independent director. CDP also added two new board members: Will Lee, CEO of Adweek and former COO of NPR, and GBH COO Shane Miner.
Fellowships
Two public media leaders were selected for the AI Journalism Labs at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. The largely virtual program will run from Jan. 10 to April 3. The public media leaders who will explore AI ethics and newsroom leadership are Ernesto Aguilar, executive director of radio programming and content DEI initiatives for KQED in San Francisco, and Michael Olson, deputy managing editor of digital for MPR News at Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul.
Send news of “comings and goings” to [email protected]