KSPS Public TV to Host President and CEO of PBS, Paula Kerger

Press Release (ePRNews.com) - SPOKANE, Wash. - Mar 31, 2017 - The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television station headquartered in Spokane, Washington, today announced an upcoming event entitled, “A Casual Conversation with Paula Kerger, President and CEO of PBS: The Future of Public Media.” The event will be held at the Lincoln Center at 1316 N Lincoln St, Spokane at 5:30 PM on Friday, April 21. Tickets are $50 each, and tables for eight may be reserved by calling KSPS at 800-735-2377 or by visiting the KSPS website.

Interested citizens and supporters of public broadcasting are invited to an evening of conversation and lively Q&A. Guests will enjoy wine, beer, and small plates.

Topics will include:

• Insider insights into the role of public media today

• Trends and innovations

• Women in leadership

• What does KSPS mean to you?

Ms. Kerger has been seen recently in The New York Times, The Guardian, and other national publications and programs. Her statements regarding proposed cuts to federal funding for public broadcasting have been covered nationwide. “PBS and our nearly 350 member stations, along with our viewers,” said Kerger, “continue to remind Congress of our strong support among Republican and Democratic voters, in rural and urban areas across every region of the country. We have always had support from both parties in Congress, and will again make clear what the public receives in return for federal funding for public broadcasting. The cost of public broadcasting is small, only $1.35 per citizen per year, and the benefits are tangible: increasing school readiness for kids 2-8, support for teachers and homeschoolers, lifelong learning, public safety communications and civil discourse.”

The event is a fundraiser benefiting KSPS with a special invitation to support the 50th Anniversary Endowment Campaign.

The emcee for the evening is Gary Stokes, KSPS President & General Manager.

Tickets can be purchased at http://www.KSPS.org.

About Paula Kerger

Paula A. Kerger is president and chief executive officer of PBS, the nation’s largest non-commercial media organization with nearly 350 member stations throughout the country. Ms. Kerger joined PBS in March 2006, and is the longest serving president and CEO in PBS history. Since her arrival, Ms. Kerger has made particularly strong commitments to the arts, news and public affairs, high-quality educational content for children and the classroom, diversity, and the use of new digital platforms to bring public media into the lives of all Americans.

Under Ms. Kerger’s leadership, PBS has been growing its audiences across genres and platforms. In the course of a year, eighty-two percent of all television households in America watch PBS, and nearly seventy percent of all children watch PBS. And online, in 2016, Americans viewed 4.4 billion videos across all PBS digital platforms.

Among her accomplishments are the pop-culture phenomenon Downton Abbey on MASTERPIECE, Ken Burns’s The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, the original American drama series Mercy Street, the documentary, Hamilton’s America, about the Broadway smash hit musical, acclaimed children’s programs such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Curious George, and award-winning apps and online sites. PBS has also developed PBS LearningMedia, which provides educators with digital resources for the classroom. In addition, Ms. Kerger led the historic launch of the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel in January 2017, ensuring that PBS’ educational programming can reach children anytime and anywhere through local stations.

During Ms. Kerger’s tenure, PBS has also launched critically praised online video sites for general audiences (pbs.org) and children (pbskids.org) and created new digital partnerships with companies like iTunes, YouTube, AppleTV, Microsoft’s Xbox, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Comcast’s On Demand service to ensure that PBS programming is accessible across multiple platforms and, increasingly, to a global audience. PBS has also created PBS Digital Studios, which produces high-quality original content exclusively for digital platforms.

In addition to leading PBS, Ms. Kerger is president of the PBS Foundation, an independent organization that raises private sector funding for PBS, and has become a significant source of revenue for new projects at PBS. Ms. Kerger is regularly included in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment Power 100,” an annual survey of the nation’s top women executives in media. In 2005, she was named to the Women’s Forum, an organization of 300 leading women in New York’s arts and business scenes.

In 2008, Ms. Kerger received the Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Development, New York. And in 2012, she was honored by Promax/BDA, B&C and Multichannel News with their 2012 Brand Builder Award.

Prior to joining PBS, Ms. Kerger served for more than a decade at Educational Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), the parent company of Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21 New York, where her ultimate position was executive vice president and chief operating officer. Her tenure boasts many achievements, including WNET’s completion in 1997 of the largest successful endowment campaign ever undertaken by a public television station.

Ms. Kerger received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Baltimore, where she serves on the Merrick School of Business Dean’s Advisory Council. She has received honorary doctorates from Washington University in St. Louis and Grand Valley State University. She is a director of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Chair of the board of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Ms. Kerger and her husband Joseph Kerger live in Round Hill, VA.