Paula A. Kerger

Paula A. Kerger is president and chief executive officer of PBS, the nation’s largest non-commercial media organization with nearly 350 member stations throughout the country. Having joined PBS in March 2006, Kerger is the longest-serving president and CEO in PBS history. Kerger also serves as president of the PBS Foundation, an independent organization that raises private sector funding — a significant source of revenue for new projects at PBS.

Kerger is regularly included in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment Power 100,” an annual survey of the nation’s top women executives in media, as well as Washingtonian Magazine’s Most Powerful Women in Washington. She has been honored with the Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Development, New York, the National Education Association Friend of Education Award, and Promax/BDA, B&C and Multichannel News Brand Builder Award. In 2017 she received the Advancing American Democracy Award from the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site. Prior to joining PBS, Kerger served for more than a decade at Educational Broadcasting Corporation where her ultimate position was executive vice president and chief operating officer. Her tenure boasts many achievements, including WNET’s completion in 1997 of the largest successful endowment campaign ever undertaken by a public television station.