The Future is Now: Meet the Speakers
Looking for inspiration? Hope? Energy? Start your new year off with vision, clarity and community. Join Public Media for All for our 6th annual Day of Action & Education webinar. We're thrilled to announce that the following have leaders from a range of organizations and backgrounds will be sharing their visions for a better public media and the practices they're putting in place now to get us there now.
Steve Bynum
Steve Bynum is the manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) for Chicago Public Media, the parent company of WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times. He has won numerous awards in broadcast excellence and lectures and moderates discussions on the media’s role in democracy, culture, and communities. He is also a consultant on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in media and the workplace.
He was a senior producer at WBEZ for “Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons.” For nearly two decades, Steve was the senior producer for “Worldview with Jerome McDonnell,” WBEZ’s 25-year global affairs/news program. Steve led “Worldview” through words from a work of ancient Roman playwright Terence: “I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.”
His operating principle is that global citizenship is the bulwark to defeat racism in its psychological and structural forms. When he began traveling abroad, Steve realized that, rather than being an ethnic minority, he was part of a global “majority.” Traveling and living abroad expanded his thinking, aspirations, and opportunities. As Steve says, “At that point, racism lost its psychological grip on me and a wall came down.” He wishes for young people of color to see leaving America as an option for realizing their genius, in the tradition of “American Nomads” like Frederick Douglass, Ira Aldridge, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin.
Steve is a University of Notre Dame alumnus and attained a Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) degree from Northwestern University. He is completing a Master’s degree in Eastern Orthodox Theology.
Kristin Hall
Kristin Hall is the General Manager of KYUK, the oldest Indigenous-led public radio station in the United States. Based in Bethel, Alaska, KYUK is a bilingual radio and television station that provides essential news, cultural programming, and Yup’ik language content to more than 50 Alaska Native communities across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a region spanning 75,000 square miles, off the road system in western Alaska.
Since joining the station as a volunteer in 2011 she has supported operations in radio programming, community engagement, and development. Taking on the role of General Manager in September 2025, she now oversees strategic planning, fundraising, advocacy, and operations for one of the most remote and mission-driven public media stations in the country. Her leadership has supported everything from major capital projects and infrastructure expansion to launching KYUK’s first endowment fund in 2021.
KYUK is a multiple-time recipient of regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and earned first place from the Society of Professional Journalists for its comprehensive pandemic coverage— competing against small-market outlets across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The station’s work has been featured by national outlets including NPR, PBS NewsHour, and The Washington Post, underscoring KYUK’s vital role as a trusted source of rural and Indigenous journalism.
Hall is committed to preserving KYUK’s legacy and advancing its mission as a cultural and informational lifeline for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Mollie Kabler
Mollie Kabler is the executive director of CoastAlaska, Inc, a public media collaborative serving Alaskan based stations. She loves living in Sitka and working with Alaskans that care about public media. Mollie earned her bachelor’s degree at Carleton College as a biology major and a Master’s in Public Administration from University of Alaska SE. Mollie has been active in many facets of the Sitka community including local government, arts administration and local radio. Mollie loves camping, hiking and gardening. Her seasonal radio shows about how to garden in southeast Alaska have been on the air every spring for over 30 years.
Doug Mitchell
Doug is the Founder and Director of "Next Gen Radio," a locally focused and produced digital media skill development program. We are funded by public media stations, colleges, and universities, with additional support from other non-profit and for-profit organizations. Since 2013, Next Gen Radio has more than 526 program alumni from 93 one-week projects working across media, journalism, and communications.
Doug Mitchell’s role has evolved. While he builds and leads the project staff (they are never the same), he also guides the Next Gen-curated community of nearly 700 people, helping to dissect the nuanced ups and downs of life and work. Next Gen is currently undergoing a slight rebrand for 2026 as we transition to an independent nonprofit entity.
Doug has been awarded four international fellowships. Three were to Santiago, Chile, and with the International Center for Journalists, the US State Department, and Fulbright. The fourth was through an NGO that works with exiled journalists and to Dakar, Senegal.
Joanne Griffith
Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer of American Public Media’s Marketplace, where she oversees the multichannel strategy across broadcast, on demand and digital platforms. She joined Marketplace in 2025 after four years leading podcast editorial for APM Studios. In that time, Joanne developed the framework that led to significant shifts in audience and staff diversity.
She was the founding managing editor of the California Newsroom, an NPR regional news hub, bringing together 15 stations in the midst of the pandemic. As a documentarian, she was the lead producer for the ESPN "30 for 30" podcast, "The King of Crenshaw." She has also led teams at Southern California Public Radio, and the BBC. Outside of the office, Joanne supports creators through En(title)d! Leaders, a conversation and coaching space for leaders of color in creative industries.
