Shae Hopkins, who rose from a temporary pledge production job to the top post at Kentucky Educational Television, has died. Public television leaders are remembering the 40-year KET veteran, who had planned to retire at the end of this year after nearly 17 years leading the network.
Hopkins began in pledge production, then led private fundraising for 10 years, served as founding president of the Commonwealth Fund for KET, and became Deputy Director of Programming, Production and Education before taking the network’s top job. As executive director, she launched The Kentucky Channel, expanded local productions, and oversaw production studios in the Kentucky Capitol and the Louisville Production Center. KET says weekly use of its programs and services more than doubled to over two million viewers and users during her tenure.
She credited KET founder Len Press as her mentor.
Nationally, Hopkins served on the PBS Board of Directors since 2022 and for two terms from 2013 to 2019. She chaired the Organization of State Broadcast Executives and the National Educational Telecommunications Association, and in 2011 the US Secretary of Education appointed her a founding director of the Digital Promise Board. She received the 2025 Daniel K. Miller Station Leadership Award, which PBS describes as its highest honor.
America’s Public Television Stations President and CEO Kate Riley called Hopkins “an extraordinary leader of Kentucky’s only statewide media network” and an inspirational mentor to many in the public media system, adding that her “dedication and passion for serving the people of Kentucky made an impact on everyone who met her.”
APTS presented Hopkins with its 2011 National Advocacy Award for advancing public television’s legislative goals.
Riley added, “We are immensely grateful for Shae’s longstanding commitment to our public media system. She will be greatly missed, but her legacy of service will continue long into the future. We extend our deepest sympathies to Shae’s family, friends, and colleagues.”
