NPT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Andrew Jackson was the third son of Scotch-Irish immigrants.
He was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws, a harsh barren region along the border of North and South Carolina. His father, also Andrew Jackson, died while building a log cabin a month before Andrew's birth. His mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, was a pious woman whose dream was for Andrew to become a Presbyterian minister. Many have said she and Rachel resembled one another a great deal.
Throughout his life, Andrew's hatred for the British was a driving force. This hatred formed from stories his mother told him of their family's suffering under British rule in Ireland, and escalated during his own experience during the American Revolution including losing his mother. Andrew Jackson was an orphan at thirteen.
At about the same age, Rachel Donelson, later to be known as Rachel Jackson, Andrew's wife, was traveling west on a flatboat called the "Adventure" with her father leading a crew of family and friends. They covered over a thousand miles on water to reach the last outpost on the American Frontier - Fort Nashborough - today Nashville, Tennessee.
After only a few months in Fort Nashborough, Rachel's family left for a more civilized area. Indian attacks were growing more frequent and dangerous. They settled in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where, at seventeen, Rachel married her first husband, Lewis Robards. After a tumultuous few years, in 1788, Rachel returned alone to her mother's home, now back in Fort Nashborough. Her mother was now a widow.
Around the same time, newly certified attorney Andrew Jackson traveled more than 300-miles from Salisbury, North Carolina, to a blockhouse, recommended by friends in Fort Nashborough. The blockhouse was owned by widow Donelson, Rachel's mother.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- CEO
- President
- President and CEO of Nashville Public Television
Becky Magura has been serving as president and CEO of Nashville Public Television since September 2021. An established leader in public media, Magura has more than 40 years of experience in production, educational outreach, and management in public media.
A native Tennessean, Magura has extensive service on numerous regional and national boards. Magura has received numerous awards, including a Nashville/Midsouth Regional Emmy, Tennessee Governor's Award for Excellence in Early Foundations, the Cumberland Business Journal's Ovation Award for Community Service. Additionally, she was named a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow.
Magura holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in Education, with an emphasis in Communications, from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, where she continues to serve on the TTU Alumni Board of Directors. She has decades of experience in television production as an on-air host, producer, and videographer. Magura is a skilled leader in strategic partnerships and change management. Early in her tenure, she led the NPT team in adding two new broadcast channels: NPT WORLD and NPT CREATE.
While serving as president and CEO of WCTE - Central TN PBS, Magura led the station team through great change, including the digital transition, station relocation to downtown Cookeville and the development of a joint broadcast master control with Lite Wire Media Management.
Magura is currently serving on the American Public Television (APT) Board and the Major Market Group (MMG) Executive Board. She previously served six years on the national PBS Board of Directors, including the PBS Executive Board and as chair of the PBS Interconnection Committee. Her other national board service include the Association for Public Television Stations (APTS) Board, National Telecommunications Association (NETA) Executive Board and the Small Station Association Executive Board.
Magura believes strongly in supporting independent producers and collaborative station productions to develop a broad audience connection through public media. She and the NPT team have been actively producing and pursuing new content such as Facing the Laughter: Minnie Pearl, Ear to the Common Ground and two new regional series, A Slice of the Community and Clean Slate with Becky Magura. Previous national productions Magura stewarded for national distribution include Bluegrass Underground, Barnegie Hall, Songwriting with Soldiers, Havana Time Machine, Ray Stevens' Cabaret Nashville, Jammin' at Hippie Jack's and Food Roots: Philippines.
Committed to lifelong learning and the use of public media for K-12 education, Magura has successfully served as the liaison for the Tennessee PBS At Home Learning Collaborative in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education and all six Tennessee public television stations.
Magura was a 2021 recipient of PBS' C. Scott Elliott Development Professional of the Year Award and completed the Public Media Diversity Leaders Initiative, a program of the Riley Institute at Furman University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Nominating Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Loretta Lynn, Sissy Spacek and Sheryl Crow on Lynn's work and her song, "The Pill."
Lynn, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood talk about Lynn's hit partnership with Twitty.
Job Titles:
- Director of Human Resources
Job Titles:
- Executive Producer & Sr. Director of Content
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Rachel Jackson died at the age of 61, only a month after Andrew Jackson won the presidency in 1828. He never married again and deeply mourned Rachel's death for the rest of his life.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Director of Education & Engagement
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategy & Operations
Job Titles:
- Director of Brand, Digital, & Marketing
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Loretta Lynn wrote the song after hearing the plight of a young fan worried about a rival.