The newly-elected trustees are: Ruby Calvert, Lay Delegate, Wyoming PBS, Riverton,
Wyoming;Kathy Rae, Lay Delegate, KPBS, San Diego, California; and Andrew
Russell, President & CEO, PBS SoCaL, Los Angeles, California.
Ronnie Agnew, Executive Director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, has been elected
Chairman; Roy Clem, Executive Director of Alabama Public Television, has been elected
as the Professional Vice Chair; and Carol Kellermann, Lay Trustee, Thirteen/WNET in
New York, has been elected as Lay Vice Chair.
The following trustees were re-elected to the APTS board: Deb Acklin, President and
Chief Executive Officer, WQED Multimedia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Mendy Elliott,
Chair, KNPB Public Broadcasting, Reno, Nevada; Kliff Kuehl, President and
Chief Executive Officer, KCPT, Kansas City, Missouri; Bert Schmidt, President and
Chief Executive Officer, WHRO, Norfolk, Virginia; and Gail Sterman, Lay Trustee, WJCT,
Jacksonville, Florida.
Following is background on the newly-elected board officers:
Ronnie Agnew joined Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) in August 2011 as the
agency'sexecutive director after a career in the newspaper industry spanning nearly
three decades. At MPB, a state licensee, Agnew has oversight of radio and television
programming and the agency's legislative, education and digital initiatives.
Agnew has brought a sense of mission to MPB that has led to strong legislative
support and an aggressive schedule of new initiatives, including more than 20 hours
of local radio programming each week, several new television productions and an
expanded news department. MPB's education department has broadened its reach
as well, implementing Ready To Learn, American Graduate and Between the Lions
curricula into school districts throughout Mississippi. Before joining MPB, Agnew served
as executive editor of The Clarion-Ledger, the state's largest newspaper. Under his
leadership, The Clarion-Ledger won dozens of awards for investigative reporting and
was among the Gannett Co. Inc.'s most decorated newspapers nationally for coverage
of civil rights issues.
Roy Clem was selected to be the Executive Director for the statewide Alabama Public
Television (APT) network in 2012. During his tenure, the APT team has received numerous
prestigious Regional and National Awards for their commitment to education, public safety,
civic leadership and public service, including two Alabama Legislature Joint Resolutions
honoring APT's service to the state, the National Broadcasters Association Educational
Foundation's 2016 Service to Children Award for Television, and the 2016 Edward R.
Murrow Award for Best News Documentary in a major market, for the APT production
"Jeremiah," which chronicles Jeremiah Denton's service in the Vietnam War, experience
as a POW and journey to becoming one of Alabama's U.S. Senators. Roy Clem started
his broadcast news career in 1973 at Denver's KDEN radio station working as a street
reporter. In 1974, Clem joined the Denver Police Department (DPD) where he served
as a patrol officer, academy supervisor and detective sergeant. In 1986, Clem returned
to television broadcast journalism. In his36-year career as a broadcasting executive,
Clemhas served as a journalist, anchor, news director and general manager.
Carol Kellermann is President of the Citizens Budget Commission. She has over 25
years of experience in leadership positions in nonprofit, philanthropic and government
settings.
Kellermann has served as Interim Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists and
Writers and PENCIL, Inc., and as a consultant to City University of New York (CUNY),
where she initiated a pilot program to improve graduation rates and job outcomes at
CUNY's six community colleges. As Executive Director and CEO of theSeptember 11Fund,
Kellermann oversaw the $500+ million charitable fund, which provided grants and assistance
for the shortand long term needs of victims of theSeptember 11th attacks. Prior to that,
she was Executive Director of Learning Leaders, the oldest and largest volunteer program
in the New York City public schools. Kellermann has been Chief of Staff to then
Congressman Charles E. Schumer and held various executive positions in New York City
government, including Deputy Commissioner of the NYC Department of Finance.
Following is background on the newly-elected board members:
Ruby Calvert retired from Wyoming PBS in August, 2015, where she served as the
General Manager of the station and the President of the Wyoming PBS Foundation
(2006-2016). Prior to becoming General Manager, she was the Director of Programming
for 24 years, and also supervised the departments of production, promotion, and education
services, leading the production team to produce the station's signature series Main Street,
Wyoming in 1990.
This series continues today - and has archived 225 programs on the history and culture of
Wyoming. Calvert also served as the Executive Producer for several documentaries which
were distributed nationally, and produced more than 100 local public affairs programs and
election debates. She also supervised the education initiatives Teacherline and
Ready To Learn, serving on their national advisory boards.
While working as the General Manager, Calvert handled all governmental affairs efforts for
the station and was successful in working with Wyoming governors and the State legislature
to acquire three additional staff positions (2007), a $1.5 million endowment grant for station
production (2008), $1 million grant to upgrade the station production truck to high definition
(2009-10), and a grant to produce online Native American education modules for Wyoming
schools (2014). She received the National Advocacy Award from APTS in 2013 for her work
with the Wyoming Congressional delegation.
Calvert served two terms on the national PBS Board (2008-2014), where she was also on
these committees: Station Services, Interconnection, National Policy Advisory and Station
Diversity. She was appointed by Governor Geringer to serve on the Wyoming State Board
of Education (2000-2006), and chaired the Board for two years.
Kathy Rae currently lives in San Diego, California since retiring four years ago after 28
years in public broadcasting. Shortly after moving west, she volunteered her services to
KPBS and has served as a KPBS representative on APTS's Leadership Council for the last
three years and is a member of the station's Producers Club. Rae is involved with several
community organizations, including Hand to Hand, a fund of the Coastal Community
Foundation.
Hand to Hand is a philanthropic group of women that seek to make an impact on the lives
of women and girls in San Diego County by directing resources to programs that empower
change and self-sufficiency. She currently serves as the Chair of Hand to Hand's grants making
committee.
Rae is the former Director of Government Affairs for Thirteen/WNET New York. In that capacity,
she served as the liaison with elected officials at the city, state and federal government levels
on a range of issues of concern to public broadcasting, including funding support, educational
and cultural initiatives, and telecommunications issues. She drafted the proposal submitted to
the State of New Jersey at the State's request that enabled New Jersey's public television
services to continue under the aegis of WNET and its new subsidiary, NJTV. The contract for
services negotiated at that time was recently renewed for another five-year term. Rae is the
recipient of the APTS's Grassroots Advocacy Award in 2000 and its National Advocacy Award in
2012.
Prior to assuming responsibility for WNET's Government Affairs in 1997, Rae served as WNET's
Director of Educational Technology. In that capacity she helped develop a number of new
initiatives including WNET's Kravis Educational Multimedia Center that was launched in 1992.
From 1984 to 1991, she served as WNET's Director of New Jersey Operations and was
instrumental in the development of several major prime time programs including William J.
Brennan, Justice for All, a recipient of the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award.
Andrew "Andy" Russell is President and CEO of PBS SoCaL, which serves 18 million
people in Southern California. Russell, a nationally recognized leader in public media, has led
the transformation of KOCE into PBS SoCaL to serve its new role as the home for PBS for
Los Angeles and the Southern California region.
At the helm of PBS SoCaL, Russell has driven rapid growth at the station, doubling its revenues,
tripling the station's membership, and opening new offices in Downtown LA and Century City.
He increased PBS SoCaL's content partnerships and distribution, expanded its education and
community services, and forged new partnerships with major Southern California education, arts
and cultural institutions. In his role, Russell has led PBS SoCaL to make particularly strong
commitments to the education of children, arts and culture, diversity, and to the use of new
digital platforms to deliver PBS SoCaL's programs to Southern California.
Before joining PBS SoCal in 2013, Russell held executive leadership positions at PBS and the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and led many of public media's hallmark initiatives for
nearly 25 years.
Russell is credited with leading the creation of PBS' renowned Ready To Learn service for
pre-school children, helping to re-shape PBS' primetime strategy and significantly growing
PBS revenues as the leader of PBS Ventures.
Russell is also recognized for driving innovation in media. He led the creation of PBS
Distribution for digital and home video platforms, launched PBS' mobile business, and
helped to build partnerships with tech and digital giants like Google, YouTube, Amazon,
Netflix and Apple. He served in roles at Accenture and PwC, developing strategy for
major companies in the media, communications, and high-tech industries.
About APTS:
America's Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring
a strong and financially sound public television system that provides essential public services
in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people.
For more information, visitwww.apts.org.
About KPBS:
KPBS is a public service of San Diego State University, serving over one million audience
members weekly across TV (15.1, 15.2, 15.3, and 15.4), radio (89.5 FM and
97.7 FM Calexico), and the web with content that is educational as well as entertaining—
and free of commercial interruption.