Kathleen Merritt  ’83

Distinguished Alumna Award

Kathy Merritt serves as senior vice president for radio, journalism, and CSG services at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where she is responsible for leading efforts to distribute more than $300 million annually in community service grants to qualified public radio and television stations and for advancing  public media’s journalism efforts, locally, regionally and nationally.

Kathy served on the UNC Charlotte Alumni Association Board of Directors and co-founded the Ron Wilder Memorial Bike Ride to benefit the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.

Kathy is the recipient of many awards and honors including the Society of Professional Journalists’ National Award for Public Service in Broadcasting, the New York Festivals’ Gold Medal for Best News Magazine and the Washington AIR Award for Best Local Public Affairs Program in Washington.

Kathy received her bachelor’s degree in English from UNC Charlotte and a graduate certificate in multimedia journalism from the University of Maryland.

One of her colleagues said it best, “Kathy has had, and will continue to have, an enormous impact in public media. Because of her work, public media has grown its capacity to produce meaningful journalism, and public media stations across the country are poised to do their best work for their communities.”