John F. Wilson Named Vice President, Project Management for WETA, The Flagship Public Broadcasting Station in the Nation’s Capital

[March 25, 2019; Arlington, VA] – Sharon Percy Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA, announced today that John F. Wilson has been named Vice President, Project Management at WETA, effective immediately. Wilson will oversee relationships with several key clients in the WETA National Production portfolio and coordinate efforts on new initiatives, reporting to WETA Executive Vice President and Chief Programming Officer Dalton Delan. He will focus on projects with production partners including Florentine Films, Inkwell Films and McGee Media.

“John brings with him nearly 30 years of public broadcasting expertise,” Rockefeller said. “He is an effective communicator who understands WETA and the public media mission, and he will support our continued endeavor to present high-quality programs and content to our audiences.”

“I could not be more excited to welcome my esteemed colleague John Wilson to the WETA National Production team,” said Delan. “Joining us, John brings significant experience working with our extraordinary filmmakers as a prior longtime programming executive at PBS.”

”I am delighted to be working with Sharon, Dalton and the WETA team, as well as Ken Burns, Professor Gates, and Dyllan McGee,” Wilson said.  “It’s an honor to play a part in presenting their worthy work to the American public.”

WETA is the second-largest station producer of national content for the public television system, creating more than 350 hours of national programming annually. WETA productions and co-productions include PBS NewsHour and Washington Week; documentaries with Ken Burns and Florentine Films; history and genealogy series with scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and his colleagues at Inkwell Films and McGee Media; and performance and art specials from the nation’s leading cultural venues. The Mayo Clinic: Faith - Hope - Science, Julia Louis-Dreyfus: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize, and the fifth season of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., were the latest WETA programs to air on PBS in the past six months.

The WETA National Production portfolio continues to expand with the addition of new annual documentaries with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., alongside the popular Finding Your Roots series; and a pipeline of new projects with Ken Burns and Florentine Films. Wilson’s responsibilities on these upcoming productions will include supervision of project logistics with an expanding roster of partners, and close collaboration with the WETA content team on digital and cross-platform initiatives.

Prior to joining WETA, Wilson was Vice President and Director of AARP’s Life Reimagined Institute, and a consultant working with content creators to develop proposals and treatments for media distribution. Wilson spent 20 years at PBS working in program scheduling, planning and editorial management, serving as Chief Program Executive & Senior Vice President from 2000 to 2014. During his tenure, PBS programs earned more Emmy, Peabody, duPont Columbia, and Children’s Daytime Emmy awards than all other cable networks or broadcast networks combined. His television career began at Arizona PBS (KAET) in Phoenix, where he held a variety of positions in production and programming. Wilson is a graduate of Arizona State University and lives with his family in Alexandria, Virginia.

For more information, please visit weta.org. Press materials and photography can be found at weta.org/press.

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About WETA
WETA is the leading public broadcasting company in the nation’s capital, serving Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia with educational initiatives and with high-quality programming on WETA Television and Classical WETA 90.9 FM.  For fiscal year 2019, the company had an annual operating budget of $100 million, nearly 300 employees, and more than 125,000 contributing members. Classical WETA 90.9 FM brings classical music, concerts and specials to Greater Washington. As the largest PBS station serving Greater Washington, WETA Television broadcasts on four channels: WETA TV 26, WETA HD, WETA UK and WETA Kids. WETA Television celebrates the people and history of this region through programs such as WETA Around Town, WETA Extras and WETA Arts. For national PBS audiences, WETA Washington, D.C., is one of the largest-producing stations of new content for public television in the United States, with news and public affairs programs including PBS NewsHour and Washington Week; films by Ken Burns such as The Civil War and The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; and performance specials from the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. WETA creates leading public service websites such as www.ReadingRockets.org, www.LDOnline.org, www.ColorinColorado.org, www.AdLit.org and www.Brainline.org; and the station develops community outreach programs to engage people of all ages in the joy of lifelong learning. The WETA studios and administrative offices are located in Arlington, Virginia. Sharon Percy Rockefeller is president and CEO.  More information on WETA and its programs and services is available at www.weta.org. On social media, visit www.facebook.com/wetatvfm on Facebook or follow @WETAtvfm on Twitter.

Press Contact
Olivia Wong, WETA Director of Public Relations, 703.998.2086, owong@weta.org