“Grass-roots community engagement is the heart and soul of any successful outreach initiative and the most challenging. Creating an optimal collaboration at the grass-roots level often means negotiating expectations and agendas, and gaining the respect of gatekeepers. It also requires a high degree of trust and a willingness, mainly on the part of the media partner, to relinquish a certain degree of control.”
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Tania Jones
tania@mascomm.net
Tania Jones has had a rewarding 13-year career in public broadcasting. Having worked in public television outreach in three major markets, she brings a pragmatic understanding to the work of community development and the many challenges to creating meaningful and sustainable grass-roots engagement. As MasComm’s newest consultant, Tania is eager to contribute her talents to new projects that are under development.
She began her career as Outreach Coordinator at WMVS/WMVT Milwaukee Public Television in 1988. She then joined St. Louis’ Public Television station, KETC, in 1993 as Director of Community Outreach, where she managed the station’s first outreach department. In 1998 she assumed dual positions as Western Regional Director for the Public Television Outreach Alliance (PTOA) and Director of Community Relations for KCTS Public Television in Seattle, WA.
As Western Regional Director for the PTOA, Tania was responsible for the conceptualization and oversight of a three-year national campaign examining diversity in America, titled “Many Faces, Many Voices.” Under her direction, she led a team comprised of producers, Web and graphic designers, and PTOA regional directors who created content for an interactive Web site, developed an online station toolkit, wrote print materials, coordinated a station training event, and produced a teleconference and on-air interstitial spots. In addition to her responsibilities with the PTOA, she also administered KCTS’ local community service initiatives including media literacy training for parents and caregivers, a book distribution program that provided free books to disadvantaged children, and the station’s local diversity campaign.
Tania holds a BA in Communication/Public Relations from Mt. Mary College, Wauwatosa, WI. She is also a 2001 graduate of Seattle’s Leadership Tomorrow, a nine-month program designed to foster leadership skills and civic participation among emerging leaders in the Greater Puget Sound.
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