UGA's Peabody Awards Welcome Three New Board Members

ATHENS, Ga., Aug. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of Georgia has approved three new members of the George Foster Peabody Awards Board. Joining other distinguished experts who select television and radio's most coveted prize are Eddie Garrett of Chicago, Marquita Pool-Eckert of New York and N. Bird Runningwater of Los Angeles.

"Determining the 'best of the best' in electronic media productions is a difficult task," said Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards. "The process of determining Peabody recipients is grounded in extensive face-to-face deliberations and requires an exceptionally broad range of experience and expertise. These distinguished new colleagues will bring fresh ideas and seasoned judgment to our work, and we are grateful for their commitment of time and effort as we examine the ever more expansive media ecology."

In March, Garrett, Pool-Eckert and Runningwater will join Newcomb, 2011-12 board chair Joe Urschel and 11 veteran board members in Athens to choose the recipients of the 71st annual Peabody Awards from a field of more than 1,000 entries from broadcast and cable television, radio and the Internet. The 2011 recipients will be announced in early April.

Garrett recently joined the Edelman Company, a global public relations firm based in Chicago, as senior vice president for digital strategies. Prior to this new position, Garrett served as senior vice president for new media at Porter Novelli, a public relations firm in Washington, D.C., and as director of communications and new media for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Garrett, who holds a bachelor's degree in communications and a master of business administration from the University of Georgia, was a member of the CNN team that won a 2005 Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Pool-Eckert has taught journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the City College of New York's Hunter College, since retiring in 2006 from her position as senior producer, CBS News Sunday Morning. In a 30-year career at CBS News during which she also worked as a producer for CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, she covered events from the 9/11 attacks to Nelson Mandela's inauguration in South Africa to the Iran hostage crisis. Pool-Eckert received her master of arts degree from Boston University and her master of science from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Honors for her work include 12 national Emmys.

Runningwater is director of the Native American program at the Sundance Institute. Previously, he oversaw the Institute's Native American and Indigenous Program, served as executive director of the private philanthropy organization, Fund of the Four Directions, and as a program associate in the Ford Foundation's Media, Arts and Culture Program. Currently based in Los Angeles, he is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with degrees in journalism and Native American studies. He received his master of public affairs degree from the University of Texas at Austin's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

Full biographies of all 15 Peabody board members are available upon request from Noel Holston, [email protected].

The Peabody Awards, established in 1940 and administered by UGA's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, are the oldest honor in electronic media. Today the Peabody recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. For more information, see www.peabody.uga.edu.

Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in journalism, advertising, public relations, digital and broadcast journalism, and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.

SOURCE The George Foster Peabody Awards