Senior Director of Grants and Education, WVIA

Vicki Austin

Vicki Austin is Senior Director of Grants and Education at Northeastern Pennsylvania Educational Television Association, a joint NPR and PBS licensee (WVIA). Vicki started with WVIA a little over a year ago and has been in her current role for six months. Vicki oversees department budgets, goals, strategic planning, and staffing. She is responsible for the vision and execution of local, regional, state, and national foundation support for WVIA. Vicki designs and supervises 20+ robust educational programs (including the Public Media Award-winning Careers that Work/Carreras que funcionan) within WVIA’s 22-county region encompassing initiatives in over 45 of the 60 school districts in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. Vicki established the first WVIA Education Bilingual Advisory Board, now in its second year.

Vicki’s growth of foundation income for WVIA in the last year has allowed WVIA Education to expand its regional footprint and WVIA News to double the size of its team of journalists. Most recently, Vicki was part of a leadership team that developed a one-year, data-driven strategic plan to ensure WVIA’s sustainability while firmly staking WVIA News as a trusted, recognized source of community news for our 22 counties. As a current member of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Workforce Leadership Academy, Vicki is an Aspen Institute Economic Opportunity Fellow and is working with other local and national workforce-development leaders to deepen networks, intentionally apply systems change and equity frameworks, and expand knowledge of effective tools and programs.

Vicki is a multi-award-winning fundraiser, administrator, and educator and a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 2010. She graduated with honors from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor of Science in Education and has taught in Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Vicki developed, expanded, and financially stabilized Misericordia University's nationally recognized and regionally replicated Ruth Matthews Bourger Women with Children Program. She is proud to serve on the Steering Committee of the Wilkes-Barre Interfaith Resource Center for Peace and Justice and the Advisory Committee of the Wyoming Free Library. A writer in her free time, Vicki is a published author of selected works of poetry, creative nonfiction, humor columns, and professional articles.