Sandra Sheppard

Sandra Sheppard is responsible for the development and production of children's and educational programming initiatives at Thirteen/WNET New York, the nation's flagship public television station. Ms. Sheppard is an award-winning producer and media executive with over 15 years of public television management experience.

Ms. Sheppard is currently spearheading the station's growth in the children's media through original programming and co-productions. She is the Executive Producer of Cyberchase, a groundbreaking animated adventure series and multimedia project, starring Christopher Lloyd and Gilbert Gottfried. Premiering as a daily strip in January 2002, Cyberchase is designed to engage millions of children, ages 8 to 11, in math and problem solving. Ms. Sheppard has been instrumental in raising significant funding for the series through a multi-million dollar co-production deal and through a National Science Foundation grant. Ms. Sheppard is also overseeing an "enhanced television" digital demonstration project that will be piloted in several markets nationwide, beginning in '02. She just won a local Emmy for the pilot episode.

Ms. Sheppard is developing a variety of other significant projects for children and families such as A History of US, based on the acclaimed Oxford University press series of books by Joy Hakim. A co-production of Kunhardt Productions and Thirteen/WNET, this 16-part series will excite young minds with the drama of American history. Ms. Sheppard is also overseeing ZOOM Local/National, an initiative to brand ZOOM locally through customized broadcast, Web content, outreach and promotion.

Ms. Sheppard has developed the Emmy award-winning What's Up? Series, which uses an MTV-style approach to profiling students and young employees enroute to careers in manufacturing, technology, and the environment. Ethical Choices presents teens with provocative hypothetical scenarios to explore important issues like bias awareness, social responsibility, and personal integrity.

Ms. Sheppard has expanded Thirteen's role as an innovative provider of quality professional development resources for teachers. She played a key role in Thirteen's successful National Teacher Training Institute for Math, Science and Technology (NTTI). Over the past six years, she served as the Executive Producer for a series of distance learning courses, which reached over 10,000 teachers annually.

Ms. Sheppard secured major grants to develop multi-media initiatives that promote reform in math, science, technology, and language arts education. These have included PBS Teacherline, Beyond the Canon, Standards in Action, Learning Science Through Inquiry, and The Internet in Action.

Ms. Sheppard and her team have also created compelling series and specials that focus attention on the important issues of the day, such as substance abuse and violence prevention. The Thinking Curriculum and School's in for Summer explore strategies for improving education in New York State.

Ms. Sheppard joined the station in 1984. In 1987, Ms. Sheppard became the Director of NET TELECON, a revenue-generating production and satellite department. Under her direction, NET TELECON expanded its client base and increased its revenues by 15% per year. She served as Director of Production for a PBS special entitled Mandela: Free At Last. For more than five years, she played a key role in the production of the United Negro College Fund Telethon and received an achievement award in 1990 for her continuing efforts. In 1991, Ms, Sheppard assumed the position as Director of Educational Productions in Thirteen's newly created division, the Educational Resources Center.

Prior to joining Thirteen/WNET, Ms. Sheppard worked in communications consulting. She received a B.A. from Duke University and is an active member of many advisory committees and professional associations. She lives in New York City with her husband and two young children.