ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (Jan. 12, 2024) - Director and General Manager of Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) Radio and Television Services, Melba Smith, has been accepted into the Public Media Diversity Leaders Initiative (PMDLI) Spring 2024 cohort.
South Carolina Educational Television has partnered with the Riley Institute at Furman University to offer PMDLI. It is a highly interactive virtual program, designed with the unique needs of public media in mind. Within the cohort, participants will explore best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as those already in place within public media, and content tailored to examine various challenges, themes, and topics.
“I am honored to have been selected for this distinction,” Smith said. “Any opportunity to streghthen my knowledge in this field, and then bring that knowledge back to my fellow colleagues and the institution where I serve is welcomed.”
The cohort, which meets once monthly from February through June, will also study content that can serve as a professional development pathway that supports public media leadership.
Smith has been at ECSU for 22 years. She manages content and initiatives for WRVS and W18BB-DTV. Listeners can tune in via radio or online. The station also hosts various community projects, including its annual ‘Coats in Totes’ event, Back 2 School Bash and Food Drive and the R. L. Vaughan Border Clash Basketball Invitational.
Additionally, Smith recently completed the Community Counts Initiative program presented by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) and is currently participating in an oral history project for WRVS through the HBCU Radio Preservation Project, a partnership between WRVS 89.9 and the ECSU Archives.