Nikki Vradenburg is from Bozeman, Montana and joined MontanaPBS in 2017 to implement the Teacher Community Program grant--an initiative to support teachers in rural Montana schools and build capacity in the Education work of rural PBS stations. Nikki brings 16 years of K-5 classroom teaching experience to her role as Director of Education at MontanaPBS in which she serves K-12 educators in Montana. Nikki is proud to provide professional development for rural Montana teachers interested in technology integration and media literacy. She also leads the production of digital learning resources contributed to PBS LearningMedia by MontanaPBS and is overseeing the station’s efforts to support early childhood educators and the families of preschool children in Montana. Nikki is a National Board Certified teacher with a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership and is honored to have been a finalist for Montana Teacher of the Year in 2017. Nikki holds many digital certifications including ISTE Certification, Google Level 1, Seesaw Ambassador and Microsoft Innovative Educator. She is in the process of earning an Ed.D in Curriculum and Instruction researching program evaluation, and media literacy education for K-12 educators.

Nikki is honored to be part of the NETA Education PLC where she collaborates with other PBS stations and NETA to build and strengthen education work across the system. Nikki is passionate about professional learning and welcomes the opportunity to participate and support the growth of her peers in public media. Nikki truly believes that we are better together!

Laura Evans joined Georgia Public Broadcasting in 2015 and serves as the station’s director of education. She leads the GPB education team in the creation, curation, and distribution of educational resources across Georgia and to educators around the nation via PBS LearningMedia. GPB’s education team provides training and outreach to thousands of educators, kids, and families each year, and they develop innovative learning resources, including educational games, virtual field trips, video series, and XR experiences. As a former classroom teacher of 11 years, Laura understands the daily challenges educators and families face in wanting to ensure their children are learning and thriving. Through networking and collaboration with other members of the public media education community, she has been able to grow and enhance GPB’s education division and services over the last seven years to better support the learning ecosystem of families, educators and students.

Laura welcomes the opportunity to strengthen the relationships with other education leaders as co-chair of the Education PLC Executive Committee. She is honored to share the experience and expertise she has gained in her role at GPB. She believes we are stronger as a system when we learn from and share with each other. Laura continues to be inspired by her public media education colleagues and uses that inspiration to guide and focus the work she does at GPB.

Lindsey Foat comes to NETA with over a decade of public media experience. After working in various public radio newsrooms in college, she spent the beginning of her career as a reporter and producer specializing in community engagement at Kansas City PBS. There she led award-winning content and engagement efforts focused on veterans, managed an array of PBS/CPB grants, coordinated Indie Lens Pop-Up community screenings, and had a lot of fun creating some unusual community and education projects, including a Mister Rogers Kindness Crawl. In recent years, Lindsey has worked with both The Kansas City Public Library and The Rabbit hOle, an immersive museum for children's literature, to develop digital content, social media, creative communications strategies, and community events. She is delighted to be back in the public media neighborhood, and looks forward to connecting with you!