Joseph Tovares is senior vice president for Diversity and Innovation at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He provides strategic guidance and leadership to strengthen CPB’s capacity to serve as a catalyst for innovation and inclusion with public media, as well as broadening the reach and diversity of public media’s audience.
Prior to that, he served as the senior director of operations for Television Programming, where he managed the administration of programming grants to stations and independent producers.
Tovares is an award-winning producer and executive producer with a long history of commitment to public media. Prior to his work at CPB, Tovares was the executive producer for La Plaza, the Latino production unit at WGBH and was the series editor and director of New Media at American Experience. He also produced a film for Blackside, Inc. and has worked for KLRN in San Antonio, KLRU in Austin, and KET in Lexington.
His multi-platform projects include Zoot Suits Riots and Remember the Alamo, both for American Experience. He was the executive producer of Maria Hinojosa: One-On-One and its Spanish language companion series, Conversaciones con Maria Hinojosa, as well as the Emmy award-winning Luis Tiant, A Baseball Story.
A native of San Antonio, Texas, Tovares holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcasting and Film from Boston University and a master’s in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin.
