Maria Vera Whelan will be promoted to Vice President, Marketing & Brand Engagement, PBS KIDS. She will oversee the marketing of PBS KIDS across all user touch points, leading a holistic strategy to engage new and existing audiences with PBS KIDS’ mission, values, content and distribution platforms. Maria Vera Whelan starts when she returns to PBS from parental leave.
PBS also announced new promotions across Technology & Operations, the Office of the Chief Operating Officer, and Corporate Communications.
Technology & Operations
Rachelle Byars-Sargent has been promoted to Vice President, Enterprise Metadata Management. In her new role, Rachelle will manage the establishment and implementation of PBS’s metadata management strategy. She will lead the way on how metadata is captured, curated, retained and distributed across PBS to increase our discoverability.
Jimmy Benoit has been promoted to serve as Vice President, Cybersecurity. In this expanded role, Jimmy is responsible for developing and implementing PBS’s cybersecurity strategy and vision. He will lead the team dedicated to ensuring our assets, technology infrastructure, information and people are protected.
Office of the Chief Operating Officer
Kate Alany has been promoted to Vice President, Strategy & Organizational Performance and will oversee the development, tracking and reporting of organizational performance metrics. In her new role, Kate will lead key organizational projects and work across all departments to provide corporate-wide strategic business analysis. She will continue to report to Jonathan Barzilay.
Corporate Communications
Michae Godwin has been promoted to serve as Vice President, Publicity. With this expanded role, Michae will lead the development and implementation of comprehensive publicity campaigns that support multiplatform content. She will continue to build key relationships with producing partners and work to maximize publicity opportunities for PBS program talent and filmmakers.