Jennifer Lawson is Senior Vice President, Television and Digital Video Content at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). She recently ended her six-year term as PBS Professional Director of the PBS Board of Directors and served as Professional Vice Chair of that board from 2009-2010. Jennifer Lawson was General Manager/CEO of Howard University Television - WHUT, Washington, D.C., a position she held from 2004 – February 2011.
Ms. Lawson has over 20 years experience in public broadcasting. In 2007, she co-produced Security versus Liberty: The Other War for America at a Crossroads and in 2001, she co-produced AFRICA, a nine-hour award-winning television series in association with WNET and National Geographic Television. She was also an executive consultant from 1996-2004, with WETA, CPB, CBS, Maryland Public Television, PBS, the Minority Consortia, and KERA among those on the client roster.
From 1989 to 1995, Ms. Lawson was executive vice president, programming and promotion services at PBS. She was public television's first chief programming executive and her staff was responsible for the scheduling and promotional strategies that resulted in two of PBS’s most successful series, Ken Burns’ The Civil War and Baseball. She developed several highly regarded children's series including Barney & Friends and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Before joining PBS, she was director of the Television Program Fund at the CPB. Prior to CPB, she was CEO of The Film Fund, a New York foundation supporting independent filmmakers.
The Hollywood Reporter named Ms. Lawson as one of the "Power 50," or fifty most influential women in entertainment in 1994, and Entertainment Weekly recognized her in 1990 as one of "the 101 Most Influential People in Entertainment.” She is chair emerita of the board of American Public Television (APT); a member of the Senior Advisory Board, Washington Women in Film and Video; and a charter member of the Community Advisory Board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Lawson chaired the PBS Board of Directors Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and served on the PBS Executive, Station Services Committees and PBS Dues Review Task Force. She also served on the PBS CEO Search Committee and was Chair of the Station Services Committee and Co-Chair of the Diversity Task Force.
Ms. Lawson attended the Executive Management Program at Harvard University in 1981, received a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University, NY in 1974 and attended Tuskegee University for undergraduate studies. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work in public media.
