Sign In
Upcoming Event
Free Newsletter
Media 2025: KERGER, PAULA
PRESIDENT AND CEO, PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE, ARLINGTON COUNTY
Virginia Business //September 2, 2025//
Paula Kerger, President and Chief Executive Officer, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), speaking at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
Paula Kerger, President and Chief Executive Officer, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), speaking at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
Media 2025: KERGER, PAULA
PRESIDENT AND CEO, PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE, ARLINGTON COUNTY
Virginia Business //September 2, 2025//
The longest-serving president and CEO in PBS’ 56-year history, Kerger has served as the public broadcaster’s leader since 2006, and in 2024, PBS’ board extended her contract five more years. She has grown it from traditional TV broadcasting to multiplatform digital media, with 330-plus member stations.
Before joining PBS, Kerger was chief operating officer for WNET parent Educational Broadcasting Corp. Before that, the University of Baltimore alumna was the Metropolitan Opera’s principal gifts director.
Kerger has received the Giants of Broadcasting and Electronic Arts Award as well as the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site’s Advancing American Democracy Award.
She’s a board member of the Dana Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, where she formerly served as chair.
This year, despite Kerger’s efforts to rally support for federal funding of public media, President Donald Trump signed into law in July a bill that clawed back $1.1 billion in previously allocated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private entity that funds PBS, NPR and member stations. As a result, CPB announced Aug. 1 it would cease operations in early 2026.
Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.
