Southern Indiana Business Report
VINCENNES — The Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations board of directors has elected Nichole Carie as its new president. Carie is the director of operations for Vincennes University’s public broadcast stations: Vincennes PBS; WVUT-TV; and The Blazer 91.1, WVUB-FM. She also serves as the general manager for Vincennes PBS.
She will head a consortium of 17 public radio and television stations that reaches 95% of Indiana’s population each week. More than 2.5 million Hoosiers watch, listen to or read IPBS programming weekly.
According to IPBS Executive Director Mark Newman, “Nichole is the right person at the right time to serve as our board president. She brings a wealth of public media knowledge and specific leadership experience within IPBS as a past board vice president and secretary/treasurer. At IPBS, we are committed to education and being a trustworthy news and information resource for all Hoosiers. Nichole assumes the board president’s role at an exciting time for our organization as we continue to drive our statewide news collaborative forward and expand our role in remote learning for K-12 students, adult learners, and workforce training.”
Carie held the role of secretary/treasurer from 2015 to 2019 and she was the 2019-2021 vice president. She joined IPBS in 2014 after being promoted to general manager at VU.
“I am thrilled to lead this amazing group of public broadcasters from across our great state of Indiana,” Carie said. “The enormous effort that each station works towards to support and promote its local community is why I love being a part of public broadcasting. Coming together within IPBS, we only grow that effort through sharing resources, thought, and ingenuity. A few of our cornerstone initiatives include our award-winning statewide news programming through IPB News, as well as our latest IPBS mission of providing datacasting technology to the state’s public K-12 schools to assist with remote learning. Our mission-driven existence is what makes IPBS a great resource for each of our communities throughout the state.”
With Carie at the helm, VU’s TV and radio stations have grown by leaps and bounds. The 30-minute live television newscast “Newscenter” added dual student anchors and sharpened its on-air look by updating graphics and acquiring a new vibrant, modern set in 2020. Membership to the Vincennes PBS offerings was recently added. It grants access to donating members to PBS Passport and allows them to watch all of their favorite shows online. WVUB has been honored with multiple state awards, including several Indiana Broadcasters Association awards for best radio news coverage, Best COVID-19 Initiatives in 2021, and Cardinal Service Awards in 2017, 2018 and 2021 along with being named Station of the Year by the IBA over many years.
“I am proud of the stations’ continued service to the local community as we strive for success, both on-air and in the community,” Carie said. “We have a deep commitment to our local area and are working to help promote and implement improvements, especially in the non-profit sector.”
Carie’s impressive career began as a student in VU’s broadcasting program. She graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a bachelor’s degree in radio and television production and a minor in sociology. As a college student, she started working at Evansville’s WEVV-TV in the news department with stints as a newsroom assistant, producer and on-air reporter.
She returned to Vincennes in 1999 and worked briefly in radio news for the Original Company. She was a stay-at-home-mom before she resumed her career with VU Broadcasting in 2008, serving as a news reporter and producer, hosting “22 Magazine,” acting as executive producer for “Newscenter 22,” and anchoring radio news on WVUB. In 2010, Carie joined the academic side of the department by working as an adjunct faculty. She also assisted in writing the curriculum to create the broadcast journalism track within the Broadcasting program. She was promoted to director of operations for WVUT-TV and WVUB-FM in July 2014.
More about VU
VU is state-supported with campuses in Vincennes and Jasper, the Aviation Technology Center and American Sign Language program in Indianapolis, Early College Career and Technical Education Centers, and additional sites such as the Gene Haas Training and Education Center in Lebanon, the Logistics Training and Education Center in Plainfield, and the Gibson County Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics in Fort Branch. VU offers online degrees and classes to students who need access to college courses and flexibility through its distance education. A leader in dual-credit and career and technical education statewide, VU also offers instruction at military sites throughout the nation. In addition to offering a wide range of associate degree and certificate programs, VU also offers bachelor’s degree programs in technology, homeland security, nursing, health care services administration, secondary education programs in mathematics and science, and special education/elementary education. VU enrolls students from throughout Indiana, 35 other states, and 21 other countries. Tuition and fees are the lowest among Indiana campuses with residence halls. VU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Founded in 1801 by William Henry Harrison during his time as territorial governor, VU is Indiana’s first college.