September 15, 2025; Washington, D.C. - The NPR membership elected Brad Dancer, WSHU Public Radio, Fairfield, CT; Paul Hunton, WUNC, Chapel Hill, NC (incumbent); Margaret Low, WBUR, Boston, MA (incumbent); R.C. McBride, WGLT, Normal, IL (incumbent) as Member Directors of the NPR Board, all for three-year terms beginning in November 2025.
In addition, the NPR membership confirmed the Board's election of Milena Alberti-Perez (incumbent), Scott Donaton (incumbent), and John McGinn to three-year terms as Public Directors, beginning in November 2025. On a separate ballot, PRSS representatives ratified the Board's election of Colin Andrews and Brian Wadsworth, as Non-Board Distribution/Interconnection Committee members.
At the September 11-12, 2025 Board meeting, the Board elected Tina Pamintuan, KUOW, Seattle, WA, as a Member Director of the NPR Board, to fill an unexpired term vacancy ending in November 2027.
NPR's 23-member Board of Directors is comprised of 12 Member Directors who are managers of NPR Member stations and are elected to the Board by their fellow Member stations, nine Public Directors who are prominent members of the public selected by the Board and confirmed by NPR Member stations, the NPR Foundation Chair, and the NPR President & CEO.
Biographies:
Brad Dancer
Dancer began his broadcasting and media career working in local television in Detroit and Raleigh before moving into national roles in entertainment and media in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Purdue University (B.A., Communications and Film Studies) and the University of Maryland Global Campus (M.B.A.), Dancer spent more than 20 years at National Geographic Partners, where he led teams in brand standards, corporate and content strategy, insights and analytics, and digital media. His work there included helping steer the company through its joint venture with Fox and its transition to The Walt Disney Company. Dancer was integral to the building of National Geographic as the #1 brand on Instagram, revamping their business model for television (leading to NG's first and only Oscar win) and designing a fully integrated data ecosystem merging TV, streaming, publishing, digital, social, and travel leading to record levels of revenue across NG's business units.
He went on to serve in senior leadership roles at WWE, where he was instrumental in negotiating WWE's purchase by Endeavor and the formation of TKO, Inc as well as transforming the data analytics team from a cost center to a profit center by creating services outside of WWE. At Canela Media, Brad implemented first of its kind data integrations including the largest Hispanic language first part data set, Canela Audience Solutions and AI driven advertising opportunities.
Dancer joined WSHU Public Radio in July 2024 as President & General Manager. WSHU Public Radio, owned by Sacred Heart University (SHU), is a NPR member station, running a number of news and music format stations serving Connecticut and Long Island. Since his arrival, WSHU has expanded its teaching newsroom, balanced its budget, received record levels in active donors, welcomed record numbers of student fellows and interns, launched new local programming, and begun laying the foundation for deeper collaborations across SHU.
Dancer currently serves on NPR's Board of Directors. He has been active in board and advisory roles throughout his career, currently serving on boards for the Connecticut Broadcasting Association, SHU Discovery Science Museum and was a long-time member of the School of Liberal Arts board for Purdue University. Dancer also mentors students in media through the International Radio & Television Society (IRTS) and has previously served terms on the boards for Modal Learning, All People Marketplace and CT Gift of Adoption.
His passion for lifelong learning extends into the classroom, where he was an adjunct professor at Roosevelt University, teaching graduate courses on technology in the performing arts and has since turned back to student, seeking an MA in Higher Education from Sacred Heart University. He is a lifelong fan of storytelling in all its forms — film, radio, television, and the performing arts — and brings that passion to his leadership in public media.
Paul Hunton
Paul Hunton is the President and General Manager of North Carolina Public Radio — WUNC. He has over two decades of experience in public media, focusing on journalism, digital innovation, and organizational leadership. Before WUNC, he was the General Manager of Texas Tech Public Media, where he merged PBS and NPR stations to create a regional media hub. He has won multiple awards for his documentary filmmaking, directing films like Between Earth and Sky: Climate Change on the Last Frontier and executive producing Through the Repellent Fence. He also co-created the YouTube series Global Weirding. Hunton has served on the PBS National Board of Directors, chaired Texas PBS, and currently sits on the Vision Maker Media board, supporting Indigenous storytelling. He holds a Master's in Mass Communication from Texas Tech University and a Bachelor's in Broadcast Production, Film, and Television from Eastern New Mexico University.
Margaret Low
Margaret Low is the CEO of WBUR in Boston, an award-winning producer of high-quality journalism. WBUR reaches 6.5 million listeners weekly with its national programs On Point and Here & Now, and is a pioneering podcaster. In her five years at WBUR, she has transformed its editorial and business operations, leading its digital transformation and launching The WBUR Festival. Before WBUR, Low was president of AtlanticLIVE, The Atlantic's events division, where she transformed the business into a live journalism juggernaut. Prior to The Atlantic, Low had a long career at NPR, rising from an overnight production assistant to senior vice president for news, overseeing 400 journalists worldwide and coverage of major news events. Low also served as vice president for programming, reinventing shows like Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me\! Under her leadership, NPR earned numerous prestigious honors, including Peabody Awards and duPont-Columbia Awards. Low won the 2025 Pinnacle Award for "Lifetime Achievement" from the Women's Network. She is on NPR's Board of Directors, the board of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, is vice chair of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of The Press (RCFP) board, and a member of the advisory board of the Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
R.C. McBride
R.C. McBride began his broadcasting career in high school and is a graduate of Illinois State University's School of Communications. He worked at WJBC as a reporter, severe weather anchor, talk show host, and program director, winning a national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2002. As P.D., the station won two Marconi Awards as National Radio Station of the Year. In 2017, he became Executive Director of WGLT, where he has balanced the budget, expanded staff, increased online readership, launched a daily news podcast, and created a paid internship program. In 2019, WGLT and Illinois State entered an agreement with Bradley University to manage WCBU, Peoria's NPR station. He was elected to NPR's Board of Directors in 2022 and has worked on the Distribution and Interconnection, Governance, and NPR CEO search committees, currently chairing the ad hoc communications committee. R.C. is also the TV play-by-play voice for Illinois State women's basketball on ESPN+ and previously did play-by-play for the Missouri Valley Conference. He volunteers as Chair of the Town of Normal's Planning Commission and is a member of the McLean County Historical Society board. He was elected to Normal's City Council in 2015. He lives in Normal with his wife and three daughters and is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan.
Tina Pamintuan
Tina Lacdao Pamintuan has spent over 20 years in public media as a journalist, educator and leader. She is the President and CEO of KUOW in Seattle, where she leads vision, strategy, and culture for the organization.
Before making the leap to Washington State, Pamintuan made her home in cities along the east and west coasts, as well as the midwest. Most recently, as the CEO of St. Louis Public Radio (STLPR), she partnered with her staff to transform the company's workplace culture. Together, they created a three-year strategic plan, and, under her leadership, STLPR won the highest number of journalism awards in its history two years in a row.
In San Francisco, Pamintuan was the general manager of KALW, where she founded the nonprofit KALW Public Media and negotiated a long-anticipated legal agreement with the station's license holder to operate the station independently from the city. She brought the station into labor and FCC compliance, and led the station's first professional rebranding and marketing efforts. She also programmed the station to attract a more diverse and younger listening audience, bringing more BIPOC voices to air both nationally and locally. As part of the station's new music initiative, KALW also saw the opening of its first studio in the east bay under her leadership.
In New York, Pamintuan created and directed the audio journalism program at The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism where she taught radio writing and reporting, news magazine production, audio documentary and oral history. She now enjoys hearing former students on-air reporting from stations across the country, launching their own investigative series and podcasts and producing and hosting for nationally syndicated programs.
Pamintuan was a 2014 Nieman Visiting Fellow at Harvard and a 2015 Scholar-in-Residence at the Tow Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. In 2019, she was honored to receive the Philippine American Press Club's Ocampo-Henry Memorial Award in Radio, but even more delighted when her mother, who always wanted to become a journalist, accepted the award on her behalf.
She began her career as an intern at National Public Radio and now serves on its board of directors. Pamintuan is a graduate of Georgetown University where she studied philosophy and physics.
Milena Alberti-Perez
Milena Alberti-Perez is a financial and media executive with over 20 years of experience in book publishing, manufacturing/logistics, and digital companies. She has led and mentored teams of over 200 people across financial analysis and reporting, including the largest merger in book publishing history. Most recently, she was the CFO of Getty Images, Inc., where she participated in taking the company public. Prior to that, she served as CFO of MediaMath and held various financial and publishing roles at Penguin Random House, including Global and US CFO. She also worked at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. Ms. Alberti-Perez serves on two public company boards (Pitney Bowes as board chair, Allurion as Audit Committee chair), three private company boards (Overdrive, ILP, Simulmedia), and two non-profit boards (National Public Radio, Jumpstart). She previously served on the boards of Digimarc Corporation and The University of Pennsylvania Executive Fund. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and since 2023 has taught as an Executive Fellow. Born in Peru and a native Spanish speaker, she lives in New York City and is an amateur triathlete.
Scott Donaton
Scott Donaton is an award-winning marketer, creative leader and content producer who has spent his career at the intersection of marketing, media and technology.
He currently serves as Global SVP-Brand & Community for anime lifestyle company Crunchyroll, overseeing brand strategy & positioning, streaming and theatrical marketing, audience development, experiential and creative services. (Crunchyroll is an independently operated joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan's Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment.)
Prior to that, Donaton served as Chief Marketing Officer at Versus, an AI tech startup that gamifies content on media and entertainment platforms to drive deeper fan engagement.
Earlier, Donaton was Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Creative Officer at Hulu where he oversaw marketing strategy, subscriber acquisition, engagement & retention, brand marketing, creative, media and consumer insights & analytics.
While at Hulu, he executive produced the Emmy Award- and Producers Guild of America Award-winning One Killer Question, the after-show to the popular series, Only Murders in the Building.
Donaton earlier served as Global Chief Creative & Content Officer at Digitas and as Global Chief Content Officer at Interpublic Group's UM Worldwide. As a media executive, Donaton served as publisher of Entertainment Weekly and before that editor and publisher of Advertising Age.
Donaton coined the phrase "Madison & Vine" and is the author of an acclaimed book by the same name.
He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of NPR since September 2023.
John McGinn
John McGinn is the Chair of the NPR Foundation Board of Trustees and also serves on the boards of NPR, the Brearley School, Radio Diaries, and the American Friends of Covent Garden (which he chairs). He previously served on the boards of New York Public Radio and The Civilians. In the private sector, McGinn held several leadership roles in consumer lending and risk management, including head of Citigroup's Global Consumer Risk unit, Chief Risk Officer for Citi's Student Loan Corporation, and chief of staff for the Chief Risk Officers of the Global Consumer Group and the Latin American Consumer Bank. Before Citigroup, he worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. McGinn has a B.A. in economics and an M.B.A. with a concentration in finance, both from the University of Chicago. He has remained an active alumnus, previously serving as President of the Alumni Board of Governors and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Joint Task Force on Alumni Relations, and was awarded the Alumni Service Medal by the University of Chicago. He lives in New York City with his husband and two children.
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