Bethlehem, Pa. – April 25, 2024 – Lehigh Valley Public Media announced today that Father James Greenfield, President of DeSales University, has become the new chair of its PBS39 Community Advisory Board. Also joining as new members are Steve Thompson and Mike Grabarits.

Father Greenfield began his tenure as president of DeSales University in 2018 and is an alumnus of the college. He previously served as provincial of the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales for 10 years, leading 145 priests, brothers, and seminarians along the East Coast. Prior to that, Greenfield was an adjunct lecturer at George Washington, The Catholic University of America, and the former Washington Theological Union, all in Washington, D.C., where he taught courses in human development.

The Community Advisory Board is a public media requirement from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It was established by WLVT PBS39 to advise the governing body of the station with respect to whether the programming and other policies are meeting the specialized educational and cultural needs of the communities served by the station. It is advisory in nature, and functions independently of the management of the station, exercising no control over station operations.

The CAB proactively provides station staff and management with suggestions for programming and other outreach activities that use a variety of media and venues to increase the positive impact of PBS39. Individual board members also represent the CAB at select station committee meetings and activities. The board strives to include among its members a diverse range of backgrounds, cultural experiences, and community relationships to ensure a broad representation of area interests.

Steven Thompson is the Vice President of Finance at Delane Consulting and Talent Management, which focuses on consulting and staffing for leaner business processes. He has spent much of his career working in the manufacturing and services sectors of the communications industry. His career experience includes working for AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Verizon Communications. He is a former LVPM board member.

Mike Grabarits, a self-defined serial entrepreneur, was the CEO of ExecuTrain of Pennsylvania, a computer technology company; the retired chairman and founder of The Institute For Literacy and Learning, an international literacy research think tank with the mission of promoting evidence-based research to practice in every classroom; and also the retired president and CEO of Step By Step Learning, a professional development company that trained teachers on how the brain learns to read in order to be more effective in closing academic gaps when teaching reading, writing, spelling, and comprehension.

About Lehigh Valley Public Media

Lehigh Valley Public Media is a community-owned public media organization serving Eastern Pennsylvania and Western New Jersey. Headquartered at the Univest Public Media Center on the SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem, Pa., Lehigh Valley Public Media is home to PBS39, the Lehigh Valley’s public television station, 91.3 WLVR, the Lehigh Valley’s all day everyday NPR news station, and LehighValleyNews.com, the region’s only nonprofit and locally operated digital news platform providing coverage across more than a dozen editorial beats.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Lehigh Valley Public Media