Executive Team
To contact any member of the Nine PBS executive team, please call (314) 512-9000 (9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday-Friday) or email contactus@ninepbs.org.
Amy Shaw, President and CEO
Amy Shaw became the President and CEO of the Nine PBS in February 2020 after serving the organization in various leadership roles beginning in 2003. She is the first woman to lead Nine in its 70-year history. She is recognized as a national leader and innovator in community engagement and public media. Shaw leads a talented team in groundbreaking work that leverages on-air, online and community engagement for measurable impact around important and complex issues in the St. Louis region.
Shaw created the Nine PBS Model for Engagement designed to guide the work of Nine PBS and public media organizations in deepening their commitment as essential community institutions. Using this model, she led numerous national content initiatives that created durable change in local communities, including national/local Facing the Mortgage Crisis, public media’s response to the national financial crisis and the American Graduate initiative to rally communities to improve outcomes for youth. Shaw is deeply committed to the power of public media as a means for strengthening communities.
Shaw serves on the national board of PBS, is the chair of public media’s Affinity Group Coalition, vice chair of the Public Television Major Market Group, immediate past chair of the FOCUS St. Louis board, and serves on the Grand Center, Inc. board. She is a member of the St. Louis Forum, the International Women’s Forum, and is a graduate of the 2012-13 class of Leadership St. Louis. She was inducted into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame in 2022 and named one of 25 Most Influential Business Women in the St. Louis region by the St. Louis Business Journal in 2021. Under her leadership, Nine PBS has become the most watched PBS station in the country as a percentage of households watching and was recognized in 2020, 2021, and 2022 by the Women’s Foundation of Greater St. Louis as one of the region’s best places to work for women. She was an inaugural Eisenhower Zhi-Xing Fellow in 2015, spending a month in China studying Chinese media and how communities address complex issues. Shaw is a proud alumna of Bradley University and holds a master’s degree in telecommunications from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Angela Carr, Vice President and Chief Impact Officer
Angela Carr is Vice President and Chief Impact Officer. Carr oversees the fundraising activities and execution for on-the-ground community engagement initiatives, including early education, American Graduate: Getting to Work, and special projects in health, arts, economy, and education. She is also responsible for strategy and execution of grant and foundation accounts, cultivating funder relationships, and managing long-term fundraising plans. Before joining Nine PBS in 2015, Carr was the Director of Special Events at the Peabody Opera House (Stifel Theatre). There, she hosted high-profile events featuring national celebrities, including Michelle Obama, and the Oprah Winfrey Network. She holds a master’s degree in hospitality management from Drexel University and a bachelor’s degree in advertising and communications from Webster University.
Matt Huelskamp, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
As Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Matt leads all of the Nine PBS marketing and communications efforts, using internal and external resources to advance Nine PBS’s brand identity, visibility, support, and impact locally and nationally. He’s responsible for the strategy and execution of the branding and marketing of Nine PBS’s programming, initiatives, and events. He is the station’s primary contact for all media relations. Highlights of his career at Nine PBS include lead roles in the transitional branding of KETC/Channel 9 to the Nine Network of Public Media in 2010 and to Nine PBS in 2021, conceptualizing and executing the grand opening of the Public Media Commons and Nine PBS’s first-ever gala, and the launch of a new national food series, tasteMAKERS, in partnership with American Public Television (APT). He has served as chair of the Communications Council of the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), authored webinars for public television, and initiated Nine PBS’s green business efforts. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in design from Southern Illinois University–Carbondale.
Denise Kahle, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Denise Kahle serves as Nine PBS's Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Kahle is responsible for all of Nine PBS's fiscal and administrative affairs, including budgets, financial statements, tax documents, internal controls and compliance, annual audit, and CPB compliance, among other important activities. Kahle has been with Nine PBS since 2017 and held the role of controller prior to the CFO position. She has over 15 years of full-cycle accounting and management experience. She has worked in a variety of industries, including financial, real estate, printing, consumer goods distribution, and the nonprofit sector. She holds a Certified Public Accountant license and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a major in finance, from Saint Louis University.
Chrys Marlow, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
As Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Chrys Marlow oversees all technology at Nine PBS, including the engineering, production, operations, traffic and IT departments. Since joining Nine PBS in 1985, Chrys has held a number of positions, including maintenance engineer and senior editor. His background includes nearly 30 years in television, beginning in high school when he was employed by KDNL in St. Louis. Chrys attended Jefferson College and graduated with an associate's degree in electronic technology.
Kate Midgett, VP and Chief Organizational Excellence Officer
Kate Midgett is VP and Chief Organizational Excellence Officer at Nine PBS. She leads the human resource, organizational development, and change-management efforts to build an engaged, inclusive, and high-performance culture at Nine PBS. Her goal is to ensure that every team member has the support they need to thrive in their position, thereby increasing Nine PBS’s impact across our region. Her work also focuses on the continuous quality improvement of programs and activities through survey data and action.
Midgett came to Nine PBS in 2019 from the Gateway Region YMCA where she served as the Association Director of Quality and Impact for over five years. Prior to that she worked as a consultant to nonprofits for 12 years, including Vice President of a consulting firm for six years. Midgett has a master’s degree in organizational development from Webster University and a master’s degree in sociology, with an emphasis in qualitative research and structural inequality, from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
She is a St. Louis native, loves to travel, and enjoys spending time with her husband James, their blended family of four children, and three dogs.
Amy Turck, Vice President and Chief Individual Giving Officer
As Vice President and Chief Individual Giving Officer since March 2022, Amy is responsible for shaping short- and long-term fundraising strategies for individuals and major donors. Before joining Nine PBS, Turck led the member experience strategy for the Gateway Region YMCA, encompassing 26 local branches. She also oversaw strategy for the YMCA at the national level. Turck started her career in service with the Illinois Army National Guard, as well as working in marketing and sales with the St. Louis Cardinals. She is a native of Granite City, IL, and holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She enjoys spending time with her husband and five-year-old daughter.
Aja J. Williams, VP and Chief Content Officer
Aja J. Williams is Vice President and Chief Content Officer. She provides leadership and oversight of the creation and distribution of Nine PBS content, anchoring local content to the needs of the community and optimizing audiences across multiple platforms. Williams formerly worked at Nine PBS as a digital media producer from 2014-2017. She previously served as a senior content strategist at Edward Jones and social community manager and capital planning strategy specialist at Ameren Missouri. She holds a Master of Science degree from Temple University in digital innovation in marketing and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri–Columbia. She is a native of East St. Louis and a member of the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.