Kathy Merritt is Senior Vice President for Radio, Journalism, and CSG Services at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She is responsible for leading CPB's efforts to distribute more than $300 million annually in Community Service Grants to qualified public radio and television stations and for advancing public media's journalism efforts, locally, regionally, and nationally.
Prior to her current position, Ms. Merritt was Vice President for Content Strategy and Development at Public Radio International. Before that, she was CPB’s Senior Director of Program Investments in Radio, where she was one of the architects of numerous ground-breaking public media projects including the creation of seven Local Journalism Collaborations, which laid a foundation for other public media journalism collaborations; the Public Radio Talent Quest, which launched “Snap Judgment” host Glynn Washington and “Reveal” host Al Letson; and Localore, a project with the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) that explored new ways of storytelling. Prior to her work at CPB, Ms. Merritt was the interim general manager at KBPS in Portland, Ore.; station manager and news director at WAMU in Washington, D.C.; and news director at WFAE in Charlotte, N.C. She has worked in production, editing, hosting and reporting for public and commercial radio and filed stories for many news programs, including NPR's “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” “Marketplace” and “The Osgood File” on CBS.
The recipient of many awards and honors including the Society of Professional Journalists’ National Award for Public Service in Broadcasting, the New York Festivals’ Gold Medal for Best News Magazine and the Washington AIR Award for Best Local Public Affairs Program in Washington, Ms. Merritt is a past president of the Public Radio News Directors, Inc. (now the Public Media Journalists Association).