Media: PAULA KERGER

Kerger is the longest serving president and CEO in Public Broadcasting Service’s 50-year history, with 16 years on the job.

PBS is a household name, delivering a huge variety of free programming, from “Masterpiece” to “Arthur.” Its shows are a hallmark of many childhoods. Eighty percent of households in the U.S. watch PBS every year. Those households also now watch around 375 million PBS videos on digital platforms each month.

Kerger led the network’s transition to digital media, which has made PBS programming “more accessible to Americans than at any time in public broadcasting’s history,” according to the network. Kerger champions children’s educational programming through the PBS Kids broadcast brand and streaming channel.

The network continues releasing new shows. In June, it launched a period drama, “Hotel Portofino.” In October, it will debut a preschool comedy, “Rosie’s Rules,” about a bilingual Mexican-American girl in Texas.

Before joining PBS in 2006, Kerger worked for the Educational Broadcasting Corp., the Metropolitan Opera and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF. The University of Baltimore graduate is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.