WASHINGTON – February 23, 2021 – America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) today presented the David J. Brugger Lay Leadership Award to David Steward II, Immediate Past Board Chair of Nine PBS in St. Louis, Missouri.
Since joining the APTS Board in 2019, Steward has played a critical role in building bipartisan support for federal funding for public media. Steward II received this award in recognition of his efforts to increase public media funding by a total of $30 million over the last two years – the first increase after a decade of level funding.
“Dave Steward is an extraordinarily effective lay leader of public broadcasting, both at the national and local levels,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of APTS, “and his voluntary efforts in support of our work perfectly capture the spirit of the Brugger Award. He is a relentless and eloquent champion, whether with the chairman of our Appropriations subcommittee, his network of business leaders, or his neighbors in St. Louis. We are immensely grateful for his generous investment of time, energy and towering reputation on our behalf, and we are honored to present the David J. Brugger Award to David Steward II.”
“Receiving the David J. Brugger Lay Leadership Award is a tremendous honor and something that, for me, evokes a sense of shared pride in the tireless work of so many,” said David Steward II. “I’m extremely proud of the progress made with much needed funding increases. While our work is not done, we do have movement and results to celebrate and fuel us going forward. I thank APTS for this meaningful recognition of leadership, and my home public media affiliate, Nine PBS, and it's CEO Amy Shaw. I'd also like to thank our community of fellow leaders, supporters and partners who motivate me every single day.”
David Steward II is an Academy Award®-winning producer who owns and operates multiple companies with a mission of creating, discovering, and highlighting multicultural and diverse content in the entertainment industry.
In 2018, Steward II founded Polarity, a holding company to oversee the operations of a portfolio of companies. The companies offer an array of content offerings including graphic novels and comics, animated television, streaming and cinematic features, and gaming. Key portfolio companies include Oni Lion Forge Publishing Group (the merged entity of The Lion Forge and the twenty-year comic book publisher Oni Press), the European publishing house Magnetic Press, the original content developer Illustrated Syndicate, the animation studio Lion Forge Animation, and Lion Forge Labs.
In 2019, Polarity launched the Lion Forge Animation Studio, credited for producing the Hair Love short film, distributed by Sony Pictures Animation, and winner for “Best Animated Short” in the 2020 Academy Awards®. Additionally, this new entity has partnerships in the works to highlight animators of color, and an ever-growing stable of properties under the Lion Forge banner.
Steward II graduated Magna Cum Laude from American University in 1998 with a B.S.B.A. in International Marketing. In addition, Steward II served as an executive board member for the local chapter of the Habitat for Humanity. He is a current board member of the St. Louis public media outlet, Nine PBS, and America’s Public Television Stations (APTS).
The APTS board of trustees created the David J. Brugger Lay Leadership Award in honor of its former president and CEO, David Brugger, the longest-serving leader of the organization.
The 2021 David J. Brugger Lay Leadership Award was presented to David Steward II during the APTS Public Media Summit on Tuesday, February 23, 2021.
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org