Media with a Mission: Laura Walker ’87, Founding President and CEO of New York Public Radio with Max Dworin ’20

Laura Walker was the founding President and CEO of New York
Public Radio and held that position for 23 years until earlier
this year. She is now an Executive Fellow in Residence at the
Yale School of Management and an advisor to New York Public
Radio, Common Sense Media and a range of startups.


New York Public Radio is an independent non profit that owns the
nation’s largest public radio station group and is one of the
world’s preeminent producers of podcasts and national radio
stations and reaches 26 million people each month, including
Radiolab, On the Media, and The New Yorker Radio Hour.


Under her leadership, NYPR increased its annual budget from $8
million to $95 million, its employees from 55 to 425 and its
monthly audience from one million to 26 million and led the
acquisitions of The Gothamist, 4 stations of New Jersey Public
Radio and of WQXR Radio from The New York Times. Since 2000, NYPR
has been honored with 10 George Foster Peabody Awards and five
Alfred I. DuPont Columbia Awards. A pioneer in podcasting, she
was responsible for the creation of WNYC Studios which was one of
the top 3 podcast studios in the world, with 32 million downloads
a month.


Ms. Walker was honored with an Edward R. Murrow Award from the
Corporate for Public Broadcasting. In 2009 and again in 2017, she
was named by Crain’s as one of New York City’s 50 Most Powerful
Women. Ms. Walker began her professional career as a print
journalist. She later moved to National Public Radio where she
worked as a producer. At Carnegie Hall, where she launched the
award-winning series, AT&T Presents Carnegie Hall Tonight.
After business school, she joined Sesame Workshop as the Vice
President of Development. Ms. Walker sits on the boards of The
Commonwealth Fund, Yale Center for Customer Insights, Tribune
Media Company, and the Eagle Picher Trust.


She was recognized in May with the honorable Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis Award by the Municipal Arts Society for her notable
contribution to the public media landscape.


Ms. Walker holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a
BA in History magna cum laude, from Wesleyan University, where
she was an Olin Scholar.