Primary Job Title President and General Manager Primary Organization WUNC
Location Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States Regions Research Triangle, East Coast, Southern US Gender Female
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Connie Walker has been the President and General Manager of North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC since 2009, she was the Interim Program Director since July 2008. She started working at WUNC in April of 2005 as the station's news director.
Connie previously worked at Wisconsin Public Radio for 17 years. She was a reporter, an on-air host,
and then News Director of the statewide network.
She is a leader in the public radio system, and joined the Board of Directors for NPR in 2012. The board sets the policies and overall direction for NPR management, monitors NPR's performance, and provides financial oversight.
Connie also was appointed to the board of DEI, the development exchange, in 2013. DEI provides nationwide leadership in fostering integrated and innovative business practices so that local communities can sustain high-quality public radio.
She is currently also serving on the boards of the Station Resource Group, Eastern Regional Public Media, and is Secretary for the board of The University Station Alliance. She also served two terms as president of Public Radio News Directors Incorporated from 2001 to 2005.
Connie is responsible for the management, growth and sustainability of WUNC, the public radio broadcast service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. WUNC serves 300,000 weekly listeners across analog, HD and online platforms. In North Carolina, WUNC reaches 42 counties, from Greensboro to the Outer Banks. North Carolina Public Radio is headquartered on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, and also has a large production facility at the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham. North Carolina Public Radio has reporters at bureaus located in Greensboro at the Triad Stage, a Raleigh studio at the Museum of Natural Sciences and at the state legislative building. In addition to WUNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina Public Radio broadcasts on signals in Rocky Mount, Manteo and Buxton.
Under Connie’s direction, North Carolina Public Radio is a system leader in audience, fundraising and program production. WUNC is number one in morning drive in the Raleigh market and consistently outperforms its market size nationally in nearly every audience measurement category. In addition, WUNC’s programming teams have won some of the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism.
Locally, Connie’s activities include membership on the Board of Directors for the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Association of University Women Professionals, membership in the Triangle Leadership Group of Fifty and participation in the American Heart Association’s “Circle of Red”. She is also a Big Sister mentor to a teenage girl through Big Brothers and Sisters of the Triangle.
Connie has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and English from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. She was a recipient of the university’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 1993.
