Cable in the Classroom, the cable-industry educational foundation providing programming and other services to K-12 schools, is losing its executive director, as Peggy O’Brien moves over to a Corporation for Public Broadcasting post.
O’Brien, a former educator who joined CIC in 2001, leaves as of Sept. 29. The existing management team — director of public affairs Carol Vernon, director of technology Carolyn Wapnick and director of operations Maria Huppe — will share management duties on an interim basis, CIC said.
She informed directors of CIC and of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, which oversees her organization, of her decision last week, CIC said.
Her new title will be senior vice president of educational programming and services.
NCTA CEO Robert Sachs said in a statement: “We have benefited immensely from Peggy’s leadership for more than three years. Peggy has been a wonderful partner for NCTA, successfully managing a transition that saw CIC raise its profile nationally in the policymaker and education communities. We’ll miss her greatly, and we wish her the best.”
O’Brien said in a memo to the NCTA Board: “I have valued greatly the chance to work at CIC and in the cable industry. I have been offered, however, a senior management position at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This offers me an opportunity to oversee a substantial enterprise that is critically important to the American public. It was too good an offer to turn down.”
O’Brien’s career before CIC included a stint at CPB, as vice president of education, and at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Sachs cited accomplishments for CIC during O’Brien’s tenure, including the creation of demonstration projects that emphasize to the education community cable technology and content; work with groups such as the National PTA and the Federal Communications Commission on educating families about cable learning resources; development of the industry’s first-ever national education awards program, Cable’s Leaders in Learning Awards.
