Ted Krichels

Associate Vice President for Public Engagement and General Manager of Penn State Public Broadcasting

Ted Krichels is General Manager of Penn State Public Broadcasting (PSPB) and has been recently appointed to the position of associate vice president for public engagement at Penn State. He has long been active in national policy initiatives within public broadcasting and has served on numerous CPB and PBS task forces.

At Penn State, in addition to overseeing PSPB’s transition from analog to digital broadcasting, Krichels has worked to integrate the mission of public broadcasting with that of the land grant university. To this end, Penn State has hosted various conferences and projects including: Partners in Public Service, which explored new models for collaborations between public broadcasters, libraries and museums; Engaging Faculty in a Digital Future, aimed at involving academia more directly in public broadcasting; and the Public Service Media Initiative, focusing on better integrating public media and Penn State academic disciplines, and on developing significant collaborative projects. Krichels helped to found public broadcasting’s University Licensee Association and served as its first chair. During the past year he was chair of the Affinity Group Coalition, representing all public television affinity groups.

In his new role as AVP for public engagement at Penn State, Krichels is leading a new effort to promote innovation throughout Penn State Outreach, which has over 1500 employees and includes the areas of continuing and distance education and Cooperative Extension. He is also directing a new health initiative, which will tie the strong capacities of Outreach with the Penn State College of Medicine and College of Health and Human Development to address critical health needs within Pennsylvania.