New Titles: Vice President, Diversity in News and Operations

Organization: National Public Radio

Job held by: Keith Woods

Why the job was created: When National Public Radio director of diversity management, Walt Swanston, retired last year, NPR’s new president, Vivian Schiller, began to reimagine the role, broadening it to include not only recruiting employees but also the overseeing the radio programs’ journalistic content. “Keith himself is a journalist, and it’s important that we are reporting on diverse America, that both our reporters and the people we depend on as sources reflect the diversity of the country,” she says.

How the organization was able to create the role in tough times: National Public Radio, which runs on an annual budget of about $160-million, laid off workers in 2008 and cut some employee benefits last year. It is still running a budget deficit but seeing improvements in its fund raising, says Ms. Schiller. However, she says, Mr. Woods’s job was created more out of mission needs than economic opportunity. The public, she says, looks to NPR to live up to ideals of diversity in its hiring, listenership, and content. Ms. Schiller says, “We have a responsibility to do better than everyone else and to show the way.”

Duties: Mr. Woods, who will join the organization in February, will report directly to Ms. Schiller and work closely with NPR’s senior news managers to help broaden its coverage and audience. He will offer coaching and training to staff members at the organization’s headquarters in Washington as well as its member stations nationwide, focusing on editorial content, employee recruitment, and ways to foster a diversity-friendly environment.

Background of the new director: Mr. Woods, 51, is dean of faculty at the nonprofit Poynter Institute, in St. Petersburg, Fla., which trains journalists. He previously spent 16 years as a reporter and editor at The Times-Picayune, in New Orleans. He is the co-editor of The Authentic Voice: the Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity. He holds a master’s degree in social work from Tulane University.—Heather Joslyn