#ypspotlight

Tell us about what you do: I spend my days trying to think of new and exciting ways to engage our donors, specifically through our on-air initiatives and special events. For the on-air portion, my biggest responsibility is to ensure that we’re speaking to our viewers in a way that explains the mission of public media, while emphasizing why they are vital to its continued success. Special events is a completely different beast. Now that we’ve added The Bridge, we’re creating and implementing events for every age group; from our youngest viewers, to millennial listeners and to our most dedicated life-long supporters.

Tell us about the Bridge and how awesome it is: The Bridge is a Triple-A public radio station, and our latest initiative to make Kansas City a better place to live. We focus on the singer/songwriter genre of music, with a huge emphasis on local artists. We’re still learning how to balance the new work that comes with it, but it’s a fun process to be involved in. I think the reason that listeners are so passionate about The Bridge comes from our focus on the musical artists. We work to try and create a station for local and national content that helps listeners discover new music, right beside some of the more mainstream artists that they already know. It's the first place I heard Janelle Monáe and Lykke Li; 2 artists that I listen to regularly now. Almost all of our listeners have stories like this, discovering artists they would have missed otherwise.

According to your #YPpubpro sign you're a Sesame Street watcher. Who's your favorite character and why? My passion and love for public television comes from all the PBS shows I grew up on and the mission behind them. I’m a superhero geek, so it’s got to be Super Grover.

What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job? I love seeing how public media has changed lives. We just held an event with Charles Gusewelle this past weekend. He’s a writer and columnist, contributing to the Kansas City Star for many decades. We took over 150 donors to his private cabin in rural Missouri, allowing viewers to get a look at this place he’s written about for so long. The number of people that shared how his writings had personally impacted their lives was incredibly humbling.

What’s your favorite hobby/pastime? I’m a HUGE comic book nerd. If the main character has a cape, I’ve probably read their story.

I'm seeing a theme here, where does your love for superheros stem from? I was incredibly lucky when I was growing up. My mom would take me and my sister to a local used bookstore and let us spend $10 on anything we wanted. They had an AWESOME used comic book section, and I would get lost in a world filled with Spider-Man and Wonder Woman. I didn't know it at the time, but I was building my reading skills by becoming fascinated with something I loved to learn about. It's part of the reason I love PBS Kids, I think they use the same concept of educational entertainment brilliantly.

What topics are you interested in talking about with other YPs in public media? What’s the best event you’ve ever attended and why? We’re all so busy trying to create the next “big” event, when we could be learning from each other.

Tell us about what you do:

On any given day, I am usually: pulling KQED’s ratings and leveraging qualitative information to strengthen our underwriting efforts and educate others on the merits of public media, crafting sponsorship and marketing proposals, providing a metrics analysis for one of KQED’s departments or our Board of Directors, all while needing more caffeine and blasting Rick Ross in my earphones.

In addition to utilizing Rick Ross playlists in the workplace, what skills do you believe are important to succeed as a young professional today?

I think it’s so important to develop your personal emotional intelligence, which Mary Dunaway from KPLU touched on during this year’s YPpubmedia workshop at PMDMC. It speaks to the importance of having an authentic sense of self so that you can build meaningful relationships, know what you’re passionate about and be honest about your areas of growth.

What was your favorite part of the 2014 PMDMC in Denver? (besides our Shapes and Sizes of Leadership session of course)

Having the opportunity to meet other young public media professionals from across the country! I loved that we could all connect over both the joys and pains of being a young professional in public media, despite coming from different communities.

What's your favorite belonging?

The jade bangle that I have around my left wrist, which I got from my family’s hometown: Guangzhou, China. In 2012, I quit my job as an account executive at an ad agency and solo traveled around the Asian continent for three and a half months. I love that the bracelet both represents my traditional culture and an incredible adventure I had the privilege to experience.

What is your favorite book?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, because its themes of finding one’s destiny and taking leaps of faith is one that continues to resonate with me over time. It’s a comforting story to revisit, especially during life’s most important transitions.

What topics are you interested in talking about with other YPs in public media?

Last month we kicked off #YoProSpotlight with an interview with Natasha J. Benjamin. We’re continuing recognizing successful young professionals this month is Jonathan Jackson. Jonathan is a writer,  branding specialist, and author.  By day, he works at LinkedIn, helping clients target their audiences with the right messaging at the right time, with the best content.  In Jonathan’s LinkedIn profi…

So I hear you're a super-fan of Terry Gross (possibly wanting to become her?) , tell us more about your general love affair with public radio.

I've lived in Chicago, Denver, and Philadelphia-- all homes to great public radio stations. I have memories of listening to NPR in the back seat of my mom's car. I find that funny now because I would always joke that I was a backseat hostage to NPR. In grad school one of my housemates was even more obsessed with NPR than I was. He had a little radio that he would clip to his pants with a carabiner and he would walk around the house in the morning brushing his teeth and making breakfast while listening to NPR. 

You've expressed a lot of love and enthusiasm for your station, WUWF. What makes it such a wonderful place to work? 

I have the best colleagues in the entire world, I feel lucky to work with such a supportive team. We are also one of the top 30 public radio stations in the country in terms of market share, how can you not be proud of that? Especially when we're the "little engine that could" station. We've been in the community for 30 years and I'm proud of the diverse following that we have. I really feel like we are achieving our mission. Also I can bring my dog to work, I mean…

What do you and your dog do at WUWF?

We webify our all of our radio content. Our reporters write drafts of stories and then I edit them and put them on the web. We also create original digital content and a little bit of audio content and handle all of our social media.

What advice do you have for young professionals coming into the system?

I know it sounds cliche, but get involved with things you are passionate about AND it's not what you know, it's who you know. Meet people. People want to help you. Our independent paper does an annual list of the 100 most powerful people in Pensacola and when I graduated with my MA in 2010 and was working at a coffee shop I decided to meet with as many of the people on the list as I could. I ended up meeting with 50 of them. They were all welcoming and willing to help. The more people you meet and the more industries you're exposed to the more likely you are to find a career doing something you really love.

What's your favorite hobby or pastime? I'm an incorrigible activist. I'm the chair of our local slow food chapter (Slow Food Gulf Coast), my wife runs the local humane society so I am involved with that organization. I'm helping get a local LGBT philanthropy group off the ground and I work with our young professionals organization and run a professional development book club. I also dabble in local politics but less now that I'm in journalism. I also enjoy backpacking/camping, garden and keep chickens. [Fun fact: although I work for the state of Florida via our university held license I'm also currently a plaintiff suing the state to recognize my same-sex marriage.]

Tell us about what you do at TPT.

I do a mix of traditional reporting, documentary production, and a lot of cartoon and illustration work, which was my initial foot in the door at TPT. I get to work on a lot of the fun stories – everything from meeting the new gorillas at the local zoo to learning about the cool science that’s going on at research facilities at the University of Minnesota - and during the legislative session I do more political reporting.

Cartoon and illustration work, eh? That's a unique role in public media, please tell us more!

I’ve been drawing my whole life and it’s what I went to school for at the University of Minnesota. One of my original ambitions was to create children’s books, but I found my way into television instead. I like to describe the first job I ever had here as the “Andy Rooney slot” on Almanac (TPT’s weekly public affairs show), but with cartoons, because I take a lighter, often comedic story, and illustrate it. I’ve been doing that for 7 years now.

What has been your favorite story to report on?

I love science and interpreting science. There’s a segment I do called ‘Almanac Labs’ where I get to find a new innovation or technology that’s being developed right in Minnesota. I did one at the University of Minnesota’s Open Heart Lab where they re-animate actual human hearts outside of the body and use them to study and develop new medical devices. That sort of work is fascinating to me. But ultimately, my first love remains the storytelling work I do with my animations and artwork.

We stalked you on Linkedin and noticed that you said you love your job “to an almost obnoxious level.” Tell us more about that.

I feel very fortunate to have stumbled into a job I truly do love. I’ve always had a love for video - I’ve been making spy movies in my parents’ back yard since I was in elementary school - and the fact that I can combine my love of drawing and my love of video feels almost too lucky to believe.

What’s the coolest thing happening at your station right now?

We’re getting ready to remodel our entire building. We’re located in Lowertown St. Paul, which is a real emerging art and culture mecca. There’s been kind of a Lowertown renovation movement happening and TPT is hoping to be a part of it. We’re raising money through a capital campaign to completely re-do our space to make it more open, more of a gathering space, and update our studios within the next 2-5 years to become a more active participant with everything that’s going on in our neighborhood.

What do you know now that you wish you knew 10 years ago?

You don’t have to have everything figured out before you get engaged with the world. I was someone who spent a lot of time telling myself I wasn’t ready, or that my skills weren’t good enough, to go out and try to ‘make it’ in the real world. Maybe that’s something artists do more than most folks. But I’ve since learned that getting better and improving on what you do is something that happens while you work and while you’re engaged with the community, so just get started.

You've been in your current position at Science Friday for a short time (a big change from your last role in many ways), tell us how things have changed and how life is in the big city.

Going from being a reporter in a small Texas town to working in an administrative role in New York is definitely a change, but I’ve been surprised by the amount of crossover. First, Waco and New York are each—in and of themselves—an adventure. And I’ve been able to translate my time as a reporter into helping fact-check and write for the SciFri website.

What was your first personal connection to public media?

My connection to public media really came out of my love of radio. My parents definitely had NPR on in the car, but as a kid I was not a fan. It was once I got involved with my college radio station that I got turned onto public media and public radio, in particular.

What does a dream job mean to you?

Just being around public media is pretty great, but especially working as a producer for a radio program would be a dream job. I love the research that goes into producing content, whether it’s learning about some crazy mile-deep science lab or talking to someone at a community event.

What's your favorite belonging, and why?

That’s a hard question because I’m actually not very attached to belongings (it was a whole family philosophy.) But, I guess I would have to say my car—Bluebell—cause we drove all over Texas together and she was a great little car. (She now lives in Boston with my sister.)

Outside of your job, how do you grow professionally?

I have a few mentors from past jobs that I continue to stay in touch with and feel lucky to be able to pick their brains. I think mentorship is critical and can sometimes be hard to find. I also try to get out to radio events around the city and see what other people are working on.

What topics are you interested in talking about with other YPs?

I’m really interested in talking about the pipeline for new content development and in particular, format-breaking content. I love traditionally-structured content but I wonder if the boundaries of radio can also be pushed to accommodate innovative podcasts, for example.