Kathy Knauer, Environmental Radio Executive Producer
Name: Kathy Knauer
Occupation: Executive Producer of The Allegheny Front, a public radio program focused on the environment
Place of Residence: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Background and Personal History: Kathy Knauer is the Executive Producer of The Allegheny Front, an award-winning, independently-produced public radio program that covers the environment in Pennsylvania. She came to radio by accident, volunteering to help out a little but then got roped in — and that was over 18 years ago.
Today, she leads a small team of dedicated environmental journalists, themselves an endangered species in the media landscape, who report on topics such as cleaning up Pittsburgh’s air, restoring polluted watersheds, the conflicts between wildlife and energy development — the list goes on and on and can be found in the program’s archives.
In Pennsylvania, energy issues dominate the conversation, from hydraulic fracturing throughout the Marcellus shale to wind turbines along the ridges of the Appalachians. The Allegheny Front, on the air since 1991, continues to be on the forefront of the conversation about how the environment intersects with the economy, communities and culture.
For many years, Kathy was an environmental scientist with a wastewater agency and worked at Carnegie Mellon University managing a water quality survey of Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers and small watersheds. She has a Master of Science in Environmental Health from the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh.
Current Projects: The Allegheny Front will focus reporting on climate change throughout 2014.
Other Fun Facts: Kathy lives next toFrick Park, a 561-acre wooded slice of nature in the City of Pittsburgh. You can frequently find her hiking there with her husband, Josh, and kids, Olivia and Adam, and 2 dogs. She also leads her daughter’s Girl Scout troop, and oversees the care and feeding of her family’s seven pet chickens.
The Allegheny Front radio program is named after an escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains, east of Pittsburgh.
More Places to Find Kathy on the Web:
