Alexandria, VA - November 28, 2001 - The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) today announced that Jinny Goldstein is stepping down as senior vice president, education, after two decades of championing public television's education mission and creating innovative learning services serving millions of Americans.
During her tenure at PBS, Goldstein has been in the forefront of the distance learning movement and a pioneer in applying technology to advance education at all levels. As PBS's senior corporate officer for education, she developed PBS's first education strategic plan last fall, and recently completed the plan's initial implementation phase.
"Deciding to leave PBS after 20 years was very difficult," Goldstein said. "No one could ask for a more exciting, rewarding tenure or more dedicated, supportive colleagues than I have experienced in public television. But I depart with a sense of accomplishment: an education strategic plan is in place, there are strong education services for kids, parents, teachers and adult learners, and our member stations are well-positioned to deliver these services to their communities. I'm also excited about finally being able to pursue the new opportunities and interests that I have had on the back burner."
Goldstein first joined PBS in 1980 as associate director of TV is For Learning. A year later, she played a key role in the launch of the PBS Adult Learning Service (ALS), the first nationally-coordinated distance learning service for adults. As associate director and then director, Goldstein built ALS into a self-supporting service that is the largest of its kind in the nation, reaching more than five million learners since 1981 through hundreds of local partnerships of public TV stations and colleges . She also secured federal Star Schools funding to create PBS LiteracyLink, a technology-based service that provides adults with basic education and work skills.
Goldstein served for three years as the president and chief executive officer of The Business Channel, a joint venture of PBS and Williams Communications in the field of corporate training. In 1999 Goldstein returned to PBS as senior vice president, education, a newly created position with responsibility for all of PBS's learning services. In that role, she established a new education division, secured major government and private grants to launch new initiatives, accelerated public television use of technologies for teaching and learning, strengthened relationships with national education organizations and federal agencies and expanded support of local PBS stations.
Goldstein secured increased federal funding for Ready To Learn to support PBS's award winning children's programming, including BETWEEN THE LIONS, CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG and DRAGON TALES, new online sites for parents, teachers, childcare providers and children, and new resources for station outreach efforts, including children's books.
Goldstein was also responsible for a new federal grant to launch PBS TeacherLine, a cutting-edge, customizable online professional development service to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and the use of technology in the classroom; repositioning PBS Adult Learning Service as a leader in e-learning with an expanded portfolio of web-based courses; support of LiteracyLink's new multi-media products, Workplace Essential Skills and the soon-to-premiere GED Connection; expanding PBS TeacherSource to include resources for pre-school teachers; and most recently finalized a new arrangement to continue PBS YOU, PBS's lifelong learning digital service.
"Millions of learners, from pre-school kids to workers, are better off today because of the education services that were launched under Jinny's leadership," said Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBS. "For all of us who know and admire her vision in education, her dedication to public television, and her unswerving commitment to excellence-she will be deeply missed."
PBS, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is a private, nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 349 public television stations. Serving nearly 100 million people each week, PBS enriches the lives of all Americans through quality programs and education services on noncommercial television, the Internet and other media. More information about PBS is available at PBS.org.
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Contacts:
Kevin Dando
PBS
703-739-5073