PBS shutters DEI office

PBS is shuttering its Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office after President Trump last month issued executive orders aimed at curtailing DEI workplace initiatives.

“In order to best ensure we are in compliance with the President’s executive order around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion we have closed our DEI office,” the public broadcaster said in a statement shared with NPR via email.

“The staff members who served in that office are leaving PBS. We will continue to adhere to our mission and values. PBS will continue to reflect all of America and remain a welcoming place for everyone.”

A memo from PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger that was shared with NPR says that on the advice of PBS’ legal council, the DEI office was closed and DEI staffers Gina Leow and Cecilia Loving are leaving PBS.

During his first term, Trump tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to axe or drastically reduce funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is a funder of both PBS and NPR.

According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting website, more than 70% of its annual federal appropriation goes directly to more than 1,500 local public media stations. In fiscal year 2023, CPB says its funding constituted around 10% of the average public television station’s total revenue, and 6% of the average public radio station’s revenue.

NPR also has a diversity office and dedicated DEI employees. It has not responded to requests for comment about whether it is considering closing the office.

The Federal Communications Commission is currently investigating PBS, NPR and their member stations’ underwriting amid Trump Administration concerns that sponsorship messages may be in violation of federal law prohibiting noncommercial educational stations from broadcasting commercials.

In addition, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the chair of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), has requested that PBS CEO Paula Kerger and NPR CEO Katherine Maher testify at a hearing in March concerning public media’s funding and journalism practices.

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Correspondent Chloe Veltman and edited by Culture Editor Jennifer Vanasco and Managing Editors Vickie Walton-James and Gerald Holmes. Under NPR’s protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.