Jim Dunford
President and CEO
Jim Dunford is President and CEO of American Public Television (APT), the leading syndicator of content to U.S. public television's 340+ stations. Prior to his appointment as President and CEO in 2023, Dunford was PBS Senior Vice President, Station Services, developing and overseeing system-wide strategic initiatives around leadership, digital competence and fundraising for PBS’s 335 member stations. Dunford joined PBS in 2016 as Vice President, Programming and Operations, where he was responsible for the leadership of PBS content services and operations in support of PBS’s award-winning programming. In addition, Dunford supported content strategy, planning and analysis, and he managed several high-profile projects, including the station-focused engagement campaign for “The Great American Read.”Previous public media experience includes a variety of roles at GBH in Boston, including Managing Director for PBS history series American Experience, where Dunford led strategic planning for content distribution and presentation, audience development, promotion, communications, post production and digital production; Director of Board Relations and Development Operations, where he managed all activities of the WGBH Board of Trustees; as well as Series Manager and Post Production Director for American Experience.
Dunford is a graduate of Boston College, where he also served as a member of the adjunct faculty. In that role, he oversaw course design and delivery of communications-related courses in the College of Arts and Sciences, including Broadcast Writing and Broadcast Programming. He is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and his work has earned awards from Promax and the Webbys.