PMJA is proud to announce Kathy Merritt as the recipient of the 2026 Leo C. Lee Award, recognizing her extraordinary contributions to public media journalism.

Kathy spent her career doing what the best in public media do: figuring out what journalism needs most, and then doing the hard work to provide it. For her, that meant championing collaborative journalism long before it became the industry norm.

Building a Foundation for Collaboration

As a leader at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kathy spearheaded CPB's early investments in collaborative journalism beginning in 2009, when CPB's board turned its attention to the decline of local news. Over the years that followed, CPB awarded more than $50 million in discretionary grants to support collaborative journalism, connecting more than 150 public media stations in nearly every state.

That funding created jobs for local reporters and editors, giving newsrooms the capacity to do more: more regional beat reporting, more ambitious investigations, more coverage that mattered to local communities. The resulting journalism was free, accessible, and built to serve the public.

Some of those collaborations are names you know: Harvest Public Media, Mountain West News Bureau, Gulf States Newsroom, the Texas Newsroom, Alaska Desk. Others did vital, unsung work in the communities they served. All of them were made possible in part by Kathy's vision.

A Legacy of Leaders

The best measure of an investment in journalism isn't just the stories it produces. It's the people it develops. The collaborations Kathy helped build became training grounds for some of public media's most impactful leaders. Journalists and editors who came up through those newsrooms have gone on to lead major outlets, shape emerging markets in public media, mentor early-career reporters, and become some of the most recognized voices in the field. The ripple effects of those early investments are still being felt across the industry today.

A Career Rooted in Public Media