ARLINGTON, Va. — Today, PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger announced the results of the recent PBS Board election, in which five individuals were elected to serve three-year terms as Professional Directors on the Board.
Shae Hopkins, Executive Director & CEO of KET (Kentucky Educational Television); Amy Shaw, President and CEO of Nine PBS; Jayme Swain, President and CEO of VPM and the Virginia Foundation for Public Media; and Ed Ulman, President & CEO of Alaska Public Media were elected to additional terms as Professional Directors. They will be joined by Carla McCabe, WVIA Public Media President and CEO, elected for the first time to serve as a Professional Director.
“The Board of Directors is essential to helping PBS achieve our mission to educate, engage and inspire our audiences,” said Kerger. “Our work benefits from the range of experience these leaders bring to the board as we support our stations in meeting the needs of communities across the country.”
The 27-person PBS Board includes both Professional Directors, who are station leaders, and General Directors, who serve as lay members of the Board. PBS member stations elect Professional Directors. The General Directors are elected by the entire Board, as are the PBS President and the Board officers.
Biographical Information
Carla McCabe, WVIA Public Media President and CEO (elected to a first term)
McCabe currently leads WVIA, which is the public broadcasting station that serves communities in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. Since joining WVIA in 2020, her influential leadership has led to the expansion of community outreach, the creation of innovative programming, and a strengthened commitment to public service. Recognizing the significance of public media as a reliable and trusted source for current events, McCabe played a critical role in the launch of the WVIA News, a new initiative aimed at providing balanced and local reporting to the region.
McCabe started her career working with the BBC in her home city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she rose through the ranks and held leadership positions. McCabe also served as Head of Production at Tern Television Productions Ltd. in the UK before moving to the United States to work at Kansas City PBS, where she was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. She has a master’s degree in communications, advertising and public relations from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and a bachelor’s degree from Manchester Metropolitan University in England.
Shae Hopkins, Executive Director & CEO of Kentucky Educational TV (incumbent who served a partial term elected to a first full term)
Hopkins is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of KET, the only statewide media network in Kentucky. Reaching into eight states and across 10 media markets, KET is used by more than two million people each week.
A 38-year veteran of KET, Hopkins has led the network for almost 15 years. She previously served in progressive management positions, led private fundraising for more than a decade, and was the founding president of the Commonwealth Fund for KET. Under her leadership, KET’s private contributions have doubled, state funding has increased 65%, and the agency’s net assets have increased to more than $68 million.
Hopkins has led an expansion of local production, including creating the nightly statewide public affairs series Kentucky Edition, and the development of a wide range of educational content and services for PBS LearningMedia, as well as the high school equivalency preparation system FastForward, and other workforce resources.
KET has also achieved numerous technical and facilities milestones, including completing one of the largest spectrum repacking projects in the nation with 16 transmitters, establishing production studios in the Kentucky Capitol and on Main Street in Louisville, providing 3.0 broadcast service in the Louisville and Northern Kentucky markets, localizing emergency alerting for 15 regions in the state, and converting the technical infrastructure of the Network Center in Lexington for NexGen TV.
Hopkins served on the PBS Board of Directors from 2013-2019 and was elected to fill a vacancy in October 2022. She serves on the Organization of State Broadcast Executives Board (Chair 2018/19), National Educational Telecommunications Association (Chair 2013/14), and the Public Television Major Market Group.
She previously served on the University of Kentucky College of Communications Advisory Board and Kentucky Broadcasters Association Board of Directors and was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as a founding director of the Digital Promise Board. Hopkins has been recognized with various industry awards, including regional Emmys and Telly Awards, and the APTS National Advocacy Award for her work on Capitol Hill.
Amy Shaw, President and CEO, Nine PBS (incumbent elected to second term)
Amy Shaw became the President and CEO of the Nine PBS in February 2020. She is the first woman to lead Nine in its 70-year history. Shaw is recognized as a national leader and innovator in community engagement and public media. She leads a talented team in groundbreaking work that leverages on-air, online and community engagement for measurable impact around important and complex issues in the St. Louis region.
Shaw led numerous national content initiatives that have created durable change in local communities, including Facing the Mortgage Crisis, public media’s response to the national financial crisis and the national/local American Graduate initiative to rally communities to improve outcomes for youth. Shaw oversaw the creation of a Community Engagement Guidebook designed to help public media organizations deepen their commitment as relevant and essential community institutions.
Shaw was an inaugural Eisenhower Zhi-Xing Fellow in 2015, spending a month in China studying Chinese media and how communities address complex issues. She is the incoming chair of the Public Television Major Market Group board, chair of public media’s Affinity Group Coalition, and serves on the Grand Center, Inc. board. She is a member of the St. Louis Forum and is a graduate of the 2012-13 class of Leadership St. Louis. In 2021, Shaw was named by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of 25 Most Influential Business Women in the St. Louis region. Under her leadership, Nine PBS was recognized for the last four consecutive years by the Women’s Foundation of Greater St. Louis as one of the region’s best places to work for women. Shaw is deeply committed to the power of public media and the strengthening of communities.
Jayme Swain, President and CEO of VPM and the Virginia Foundation for Public Media (incumbent elected to a second term)
Jayme Swain is President and CEO of VPM, Virginia’s home for public media, and the Virginia Foundation for Public Media.
At a transformational time for the organization, Swain oversees VPM, a network of PBS and NPR stations across Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley that connects nearly 2 million people to insightful programming in arts and culture, history, science, news and education.
Under Swain’s leadership, VPM has strengthened its position as a trusted source of information for Virginians and a powerhouse distributor of multiplatform, award-winning content for national and international audiences.
Swain has launched a number of impact-driven initiatives, including the expansion of VPM News to a multi-platform newsroom with 30 reporters, editors, multi-media journalists and producers; the acquisition of Style Weekly, known as Richmond’s alternative source for news, arts, culture and opinion; the expansion of original educational programming with a focus on children in underserved communities; and an increase in digital storytelling and distribution across the web, social media and podcasting.
As the leader of the Virginia Foundation for Public Media, she manages the stewardship and advancement of an endowment to support VPM’s mission and vision, ensuring the future of public media in Virginia for generations to come.
Swain is a media executive with over 20 years of experience in broadcast, print and digital media. Prior to joining VPM in January 2019, Swain served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations at PBS, where she was a trusted advisor to the CEO and COO, led strategic planning, managed organization-wide projects and developed solutions on behalf of the entire public broadcasting system.
Swain is active in public media and the community. She serves on the PBS Board of Directors and is chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Swain is also a member of the Organization for State Broadcasting Executives.
Locally, she serves on the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy Advisory Board as well as the Board of Directors for Elevate Early Education (E3), the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond, the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance, the Virginia Association of Broadcasters and ChamberRVA.
Ed Ulman, President & CEO of Alaska Public Media (incumbent elected to a second term)
Ed Ulman is the President & CEO of Alaska Public Media (AKPM), Alaska's largest PBS, NPR, and statewide news organization. Over the last eight years, Ulman led teams that revitalized local television production, expanded statewide enterprise journalism efforts, established AKPM as a CPB-PBS Ready To Learn station, and redefined community engagement, increasing TV, radio, and online audiences. In addition, membership, major giving, and grant funding continue to grow year-over-year. In addition, AKPM has multiple NATAS Regional Emmy, Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, and a National Edward R. Murrow Award for video journalism.
Ulman shifted community engagement activities by focusing on localizing national content and delivering Alaskan stories to national public media audiences. For example, in addition to executive producing Debate for the State, which aired nationally on C-SPAN, AKPM video news packages continue to air on PBS NewsHour. AKPM's reporters regularly contribute stories on various NPR programs and AKPM partnered with NPR to distribute "Midnight Oil," an eight-part podcast covering the 40-year history of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline, that garnered over one million downloads. Indie Alaska, a partnership with PBS Digital, just completed season nine.
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) awarded Ulman the 2024 Excellence in Innovation Award "...for his groundbreaking leadership providing innovative public services throughout the State of Alaska and overcoming the challenge of reaching the State’s most remote communities."
Ulman served as an APTS Trustee for six years and is completing a third year of board service for PBS. Ulman is the immediate past chair of the Affinity Group Coalition and Small Station Association.
Before being selected by AKPM, Ulman served as Development Director, Interim General Manager, and after a national search that concluded in 2014, Executive Director and General Manager for KBTC Public Television in Tacoma, Washington. In 2013, PBS President Paula Kerger acknowledged KBTC's Ready To Learn partnership with the Tacoma Housing Authority in an interview on CNN and again, at the PBS Annual Meeting. With his Seattle counterpart at KCTS 9, Ulman received the America’s Public Television Stations 2015 National Advocacy Award. In addition to his public television responsibilities, Ulman served as Dean of Instruction for the Bates Technical College broadcast, audio, video production, and digital media programs.
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