WASHINGTON - February 15, 2018 - America's Public Television Stations (APTS) today announced the election of its 2018 board officers, re-elected board trustees and newly elected board trustees.
Ronnie Agnew, Executive Director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, has been re-elected Chairman; Roy Clem, Executive Director of Alabama Public Television, has been re-elected as Professional Vice Chair; and Carol Kellermann, Lay Trustee, Thirteen/WNET, New York, New York, has been re-elected as Lay Vice Chair.
The following trustees were re-elected to the APTS board: William J. Jones, Lay Trustee, Kentucky Educational Television - KET, Lexington, Kentucky; and Molly Phillips, Executive Director and General Manager, Iowa Public Television, Johnston, Iowa.
The newly-elected trustees to the APTS board are: Jeffrey Gilbert, Lay Delegate, New Hampshire Public Television, Durham, New Hampshire; Mimi Chapin Gregory, Lay Trustee, WGCU, Fort Myers, Florida; and Ed Ulman, CEO and General Manager, Alaska Public Media, Anchorage, Alaska.
Newly-elected trustees will begin their term on the APTS board of directors on Monday, February 26, 2018.
Following is background on the newly-elected board members:
Jeffrey Gilbert
Jeffrey Gilbert is a broadly experienced businessman who graduated from Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He practiced law for 14 years, primarily as a business lawyer, and thereafter spent a number of years as an investment banker. As an investment banker, Gilbert was responsible for the negotiation and placement of financing packages with major firms, as well as the consummation of a number of mergers and acquisitions.
For approximately 10 years, Gilbert was the Chief Executive Officer of several retail businesses, the largest of which had over 80 locations in regional malls in 14 states. Currently, he is one of the two principals of W.J.P. Development, LLC that owns and manages five community shopping centers in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Since 2000, Gilbert has been active in politics, serving as a State Representative until 2005. From 2002 to 2004, he was Vice Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, Chairman of the State Revenue Estimating Panel, Chairman of the Joint House and Senate Economic Development Study Committee, and a member of the joint House and Senate Higher Education Oversight Committee. Gilbert presently serves the State as Treasurer of the Port Advisory Council and as Vice Chairman of the State Park System Advisory Council.
Gilbert is involved in a number of community and nonprofit pursuits and has been active in his church as a member of the vestry and the finance committee. He is an Eagle Scout and a 2004 graduate of Leadership New Hampshire. Currently, Gilbert is President of the Board of Trustees of The Housing Partnership, a local organization providing affordable and workforce housing in the seacoast region, and is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of New Hampshire Public Television. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.
Gilbert has three grown children and resides with his wife in Rye, New Hampshire.
Mimi Chapin Gregory
Mimi Chapin Gregory has been actively involved in international affairs for the past 30 years. Her interest in foreign affairs was fostered by her opportunities to live abroad, her European ancestry, and her pursuit of languages and Slavic studies as her major in college.
As an executive recruiter for the Banking industry, she represented Warren Management Consultants in Paris during the years 1978-1980. Upon returning to the U.S., she continued to pursue her interest in the French language and culture within the Alliance Française, a worldwide organization with 114 not-for-profit chapters in the United States.
While living in Boston, Gregory worked with the Consul General of France and Serge Bellanger of Banque Transatlantique CIC to create a French-American Chamber of Commerce, and served as its Vice President for five years. Her contributions to the various French organizations were recognized in 1990 when she was decorated by the French Government as a "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters."
Gregory also served on the Board of the Friends of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, the American Heart Association and other civic organizations. As Vice President and Board member of the World Affairs Council of Boston, now WorldBoston, she worked on major fundraising activities, hosting VIPs including: President Bush, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Secretary James Baker, Javier Solana, Senators John McCain and John Kerry.
Now a resident of Naples, Florida, Gregory is a Past President of the Naples Council on World Affairs, and remains program Chairman, a chapter comprising 2500 members and an affiliate of the World Affairs Councils of America. Gregory was elected to the national Board of the World Affairs Councils of America in 2004 and was named national Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee in 2005. She has been on "Leadership Missions" with the council to Lebanon, Kuwait, Israel, Egypt, Taiwan, the Federal Republic of Germany, Iraq, and in March, 2012, to Afghanistan. In May of 2015, she led a group of Council travelers to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In 2005, Gregory was named the Florida Council for Social Studies' Outstanding Citizen, and in 2010 she was named to the Advisory Board of WGCU Public Media in Ft. Myers, Florida, an NPR and PBS affiliate, and serves as Chairman. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the France Florida Foundation for the Arts.
In October 2011, Gregory was named a "Commander" in the National Order of Merit, by decree of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
Edward Ulman
Edward Ulman is the CEO and General Manager of Alaska Public Media (AKPM), Alaska's largest PBS, NPR and statewide news organization. Ulman joined AKPM in May 2016. Since his arrival, Ulman has revitalized local television production, expanded statewide enterprise journalism efforts and redefined community engagement, while increasing TV, radio and online audiences. In addition, membership and major giving has grown by six percent year-over-year.
Ulman shifted community engagement activities by focusing on localizing national content while also delivering Alaskan stories to national public media audiences. For example, in addition to executive producing Debate for the State, which aired nationally on C-SPAN, several AKPM video news packages were aired by the PBS NewsHour. AKPM's reporters regularly contribute stories on various NPR programs and AKPM partnered with NPR to distribute "Midnight Oil," an eight-part podcast covering the 40-year history of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline, that garnered over one million downloads.
Ulman has actively engaged the Alaska's Congressional Delegation and state legislature. These activities helped secure federal funding support from Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan and Congressman Don Young. State wide advocacy, which for the first time address the vital public safety role public media plays in Alaska, led to level funding for PBS and NPR stations in Alaska despite calls to eliminate funding entirely.
Before being selected by AKPM, Ulman served as Development Director, Interim General Manager, and after a national search that concluded in 2014, Executive Director and General Manager for KBTC Public Television in Tacoma, Washington. In 2013, PBS President Paula Kerger acknowledged KBTC's Ready To Learn partnership with the Tacoma Housing Authority in an interview on CNN and again, at the PBS Annual Meeting. With his Seattle counterpart at KCTS 9, Ulman received the Association of Public Television Stations 2015 National Advocacy Award. In addition to his public television responsibilities, Ulman served as Dean of Instruction for the Bates Technical College broadcast, audio, video production and digital media programs.
Ulman is also a jazz musician and an art enthusiast. He began his public broadcasting career, first as volunteer fundraising talent on KUAT-TV and KUAZ-FM in Tucson, Arizona, and then at New Mexico PBS in Albuquerque, where as Education and Outreach Manager, he led teams that earned a National Educational Television Association award for Take One Step: A Women's Health Initiative in 2007 and a PBS Development Award for KNME Science Central in 2008. Ulman has served on the PBS Teacher's Advisory Panel, the WGBH Teacher's Domain Implementation Advisory Committee and KCET's A Place of Our Own Station Advisory Committee.
About APTS
America's Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system that provides essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
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