Stacia Philips Deshishku

Stacia Philips Deshishku is vice president and general manager of ABC Audio, the premier source for audio news, entertainment and music formats in the United States with distribution to over 1,650 radio stations and digital distributors. Deshishku oversees business development and operations for ABC News Radio, where more Americans get their radio news than any other commercial broadcaster; Air Power, station services with format-specific music content, entertainment and news; ABC Digital, publisher of news, entertainment, lifestyle and music format-specific stories updated 24/7; syndicated music and talk programming brands; and on-demand content including ABC News’ flagship daily podcast “Start Here,” the international chart-topping hit “The Dropout” and the award-winning “Ten Percent Happier.”

Previously, Deshishku was the deputy bureau chief for ABC News Washington. Managing the day-to-day operations of the D.C. bureau, she led a team of award-winning journalists covering the White House, Congress, Global Affairs, Transportation and Law & Justice beats. Prior to joining ABC and The Walt Disney Company, she was director of News Planning in the CNN Washington Bureau. Deshishku moved to D.C. in 2010 to head up CNN’s White House unit covering the Obama administration. Previously, she served as the director of Coverage for CNN/U.S. where she was responsible for coordinating the network’s newsgathering resources and heading up the National Assignment Desk at headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

Deshishku began her career at CBS News eventually joining CNN’s Washington bureau in 1992 where she covered the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, the ValuJet crash in Florida and Hurricane Marilyn in St. Thomas. Later, she worked in the network’s Dallas bureau as a field producer where she produced stories ranging the tragedy at Columbine to the Timothy McVeigh trial. She served as CNN’s manager of Political Coverage during the 2000 election cycle, directing the newsgathering resources for the presidential campaign, conventions and election. In 2001, Deshishku moved to Prishtina, Kosovo, where she worked for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo as a public information officer and chief of Television. She returned to CNN’s Dallas bureau in 2004 as supervising producer for the Midwest region and led the network’s Peabody award-winning team coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She has also received the Peabody award for CNN’s coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign and its 2010 coverage of the Gulf oil spill.

Deshishku holds bachelor degrees in both broadcast journalism and religious studies from Southern Methodist University and a master’s degree in strategic communications and leadership from Seton Hall University.