91探花

Susy Cheston is now the chief growth officer at an international non-profit called the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace). But, back in the mid-1980s, Cheston was a young woman pursuing a career in public media leadership that led her to 91探花 and WOUB.

鈥淚 was living in St. Louis at the time working as a promotion manager/producer at KWMU public radio which included producing arts and features content for the station,鈥� said Cheston. 鈥淚 applied for a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Fellowship that took me to 91探花 to be a part of the public media graduate program where I focused on broadcast management.鈥�

Cheston doesn鈥檛 remember exactly how she got involved with WOUB, but does know that she got to know Joe Berman, who was the Telecommunication School (now the J. Warren McClure School of Emerging Communication Technologies) liaison to WOUB at the time, and offered to use her experience producing radio arts and features segments for WOUB.

鈥淭he most phenomenal thing ever happened as a result of that,鈥� said Cheston. 鈥淵o-Yo Ma was performing at Denison University and through WOUB somehow, I was able to schedule an interview with him. I drove to Denison and sat down with him, just the two of us, on a porch at Denison for two hours and interviewed him about the Bach Cello Suites. I took that interview and interwove it with his performance recordings and aired it as a series on WOUB radio.鈥�

Cheston remembers some other magical experiences as well.

鈥淢ichael Powell, director of 'The Red Shoes' and other film classics, and his wife Thelma Schoonmaker, long-time editor for Martin Scorsese, were in town for the Athens International Film Festival, and I had the opportunity to interview them for WOUB," she added.

Cheston is originally from Annapolis, Maryland and didn鈥檛 know much if anything about Appalachian Ohio before moving to Athens. She said her time at 91探花 and WOUB helped her learn about the area鈥檚 economic condition.

鈥淚 learned about the poverty in Appalachian Ohio,鈥� said Cheston. 鈥淎lso, the exposure I had to international telecommunications while at 91探花 through the graduate program got me thinking me more about the rest of the world and the ways communities can lift themselves up. I had a chance through my program to travel to Belize to participate in research on the impact of television and that gave me my first direct encounter with extreme poverty鈥攁n experience that helped shape my life and work.鈥�

During the last month of her graduate program, Cheston was required to do an internship. And her connection to WOUB helped her land an internship at WGBH in Boston.

鈥淛oe Berman was very kind and gracious to me. He used his connections and helped introduce me to people at WGBH,鈥� she said. 鈥淛oe picked up the phone and called colleagues and told them what I could do and asked if they had a space for me.鈥�

Cheston鈥檚 internship at WGBH turned into a full-time job. She was hired as a financial and administrative unit manager for the radio station and eventually became director of outreach for both the radio and television stations. But eventually Cheston decided to take advantage of opportunities to use her skills outside of public media. Throughout her career, Cheston has worked in places like Costa Rica and El Salvador, using her marketing, programming and finance skills in the non-profit arena to create business opportunities and jobs for those who are impoverished and underprivileged through the world.

鈥淚n my current role as chief growth officer at Bpeace, I connect business experts who offer pro bono consulting as volunteers to small business owners so they can create jobs in Latin America and the U.S. Part of my job is to recruit those volunteer experts to work with our program.鈥�

Cheston says even though her career has moved in a different direction, the experience she had at 91探花 and WOUB was extremely valuable.

鈥淭he things I learned about management, marketing, and messaging, in part through WOUB, are very much things I鈥檝e drawn on through my work,鈥� said Cheston. 鈥淭he WOUB connection was delightful. There was sense of welcome and openness. Here I was coming in with experience doing arts and features, and the people at WOUB made a place for me to do that. It was a gift to me.鈥�