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Tag: public broadcasting

VPM president and CEO elected to PBS board

Jayme Swain, VPM and Virginia Foundation for Public Media president and CEO, was elected to serve a three-year term as a professional director on the Public Broadcasting Service Board, PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger announced Wednesday.

Swain oversees VPM, which is a Richmond-based network of PBS and NPR stations across Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley that reaches nearly 2 million people. Swain has led several initiatives, including the expansion of education 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 leader of the Virginia Foundation for Public Media, she manages the stewardship and advancement of an endowment to support VPM’s mission.

Before she joined VPM in January 2019, Swain was the senior vice president of strategy and operations at Arlington-based PBS, where she advised the CEO and chief operating officer, led strategic planning and managed organization-wide projects. Swain is a graduate of the University of Virginia.

Swain serves on the board of the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance. She is co-chair of the Organization of State Broadcasting Executives.

The 27-person PBS Board includes professional directors, who are station leaders, and general directors, who serve as lay members of the board, as well as Kerger, the PBS president. PBS member stations elect the professional directors.

VPM hires news director

VPM, Central Virginia’s NPR and PBS public broadcasting affiliate, has hired former Charlottesville Tomorrow News Editor Elliott Robinson as news director.

“We are thrilled that Elliott will be leading VPM News,” VPM President and CEO Jayme Swain said in a statement. “With his impressive background in local news, extensive knowledge of the issues that matter to diverse communities across Virginia and experience in digital, Elliott is uniquely positioned to help strengthen VPM News across platforms.”

Robinson is a Hampton native. He started his career at The Progress-Index in Petersburg and went on to hold leadership roles at The Hopewell News, The Daily Progress and Charlottesville Tomorrow, a nonprofit public service journalism website. He helped launch the Charlottesville Inclusive Media project, a partnership aimed at created to bring more inclusive representation to Charlottesville-area media.

Robinson is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, a life member of the NAACP and a board member of the Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Based in Richmond, VPM (short for VPM Media Corp.) reaches nearly 2 million people across Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. It operates the VPM News public radio station at WCVE 88.9 FM and public television stations WCVE -TV and WCVW in Richmond and WHTJ in Charlottesville, airing VPM PBS, VPM Plus, VPM PBS KIDS, lifestyle channel VPM Create and international program channel VPM WORLD.