Ed Ulman

Ed Ulman is the President & CEO of Alaska Public Media (AKPM), Alaska's largest PBS, NPR, and statewide news organization. Ulman joined AKPM May 2016. Since his arrival, he has revitalized local television production, established AKPM as a CPB-PBS Ready To Learn station, redefined community engagement, and expanded statewide enterprise journalism efforts, while increasing TV, radio and digital audiences. In addition, membership (41% growth over four years), major giving, and grant funding continue to rise. Recently, AKPM earned its first NATAS Regional Emmy, two NATAS Citations for Outstanding Community Outreach, multiple Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, and a National Edward R. Murrow Award for video journalism.

Ulman shifted community engagement activities by focusing on localizing PBS national content while also delivering Alaskan stories to national audiences. Examples include: Indie Alaska - PBS Digital Studios with over 3.8M YouTube views, live action interstitials produced for the first season of Molly of Denali, ENG packages aired on 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 1M downloads.

Ulman served as Development Director, Interim General Manager, and Executive Director/General Manager for KBTC Public Television in Tacoma, Washington from 2009-16. 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. Ulman also served as Dean of Instruction for the Bates Technical College broadcast, audio, video production and digital media programs.

Ulman started as volunteer fundraising talent on KUAT-TV and KUAZ-FM in Tucson, Arizona, and then at New Mexico PBS in Albuquerque. A KNME’s Education and Outreach Manager, he led teams that earned a National Educational Television Association award for Take One Step: A Women's Health Initiative and a PBS Development Award for KNME Science Central. 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.

Ulman currently serves as a Trustee for America’s Public Television Stations, is Chair of the Affinity Group Coalition and Small Station Association, and is a member of the PBS Development Advisory Council and PBS Interconnection Committee.