Michelle Duke, President of the NAB’s Leadership Foundation and the NAB’s Chief Diversity Officer, recently joined Nicole Ovadia, BIA’s VP of Forecasting and Analysis for a Leading Local Insights podcast interview. Michelle has been with the NAB since 2005 and has played an integral role in developing the programs offered by the Leadership Foundation which were the subject of Michelle and Nicole’s discussion.

The foundations main mission is to advance diversity in the industry, to develop the next generation of leaders in the industry and to highlight the community service efforts of television and radio stations across the country.

The conversation begins discussing the Technology Apprenticeship Program, of which applications are still be accepted. The Technology Apprenticeship program provides an opportunity for college students, recent college graduates and career changers to learn about the opportunities that exist in engineering and technology in radio and television. This is a six-month program both in person and online to prepare the students for a technology career in broadcasting.

The Media Sales Academy, also directed towards college students and recent graduates, began as a ten-day boot camp but has since evolved into a six-month training program. It is directed at students really interested in going sales and especially into a career in media sales. Stations also need to take an active role in this initiative by offering sales internships. This will help to attract some of the best candidates to media sales positions.

The Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) Program is a ten-month, one weekend per month executive MBA style program with a goal of preparing senior level broadcasters for even more senior level positions in the industry and even ownership.

What’s next for the Leadership Foundation? New initiatives include the Emerson Coleman Fellowship, for students who are interested in television programming and content production. The goal is to help diversify the individuals who are working with syndicators making programming decisions and contributing content at both a national and local level.

The Foundations Service to America Gala is now filmed for Television coverage. Shown by almost 800 stations last year and will air on local stations across the nation July 9th-August 14th. This is an opportunity to share with the general public the charitable work television and radio stations are doing in their local communities.

Diversity initiatives from the NAB include a diversity resource center that is free on the Foundations website, webinars on building diversity strategies, and the Diversity Symposium. The goal is to be a resource to stations on diversity issues.

Listen to the podcast now for more color and insights on these topics.