lit a candle 4h agoNever watched KET but doubling viewers to two million a week in public broadcasting is no small thing.
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Shae Hopkins was the executive director and chief executive of Kentucky Educational Television, the statewide public broadcaster known as KET. She spent 40 years at the network, starting as a temporary employee on pledge production, and led it for more than 17 years. Hopkins joined KET in 1986. She spent…
Shae Hopkins was the executive director and chief executive of Kentucky Educational Television, the statewide public broadcaster known as KET. She spent 40 years at the network, starting as a temporary employee on pledge production, and led it for more than 17 years.
Hopkins joined KET in 1986. She spent ten years leading its private fundraising, served as founding president of the Commonwealth Fund for KET and later became deputy director of programming, production and education, before being named to lead the network. She often said it was her good fortune to have been mentored by KET's founder, Len Press. When she announced her retirement she described serving everyone who values and relies on KET every day as an immense privilege, and spoke of the friendships she had made with colleagues, viewers, supporters, board members and volunteers over four decades.
Under her leadership, use of KET's programs and services doubled to more than two million viewers and users each week. The network opened production studios in Louisville and at the state Capitol in Frankfort and expanded its Kentucky series, documentaries and biographies, alongside its long running coverage of state government. KET won 40 regional Emmy Awards during her tenure. She also guided the network through periods of political pressure on public broadcasting.
Nationally she was a prominent advocate for public media. She served on the PBS Board of Directors from 2013 to 2019 and again from 2022, and in 2011 the US secretary of education appointed her a founding director of the Digital Promise board. Her honours included the National Advocacy Award from America's Public Television Stations and, in 2025, the Daniel K. Miller Station Leadership Award, PBS's highest honour for station leaders.
Hopkins was the daughter of former US Representative Larry J. Hopkins and Carolyn Pennebaker Hopkins. She had three children, Hannah, Haley and Ross, and five grandchildren, and her longtime companion was Bud McSpadden. In August 2026 she announced she would retire at the end of the year. She died on 29 October 2026, aged 69, after a battle with cancer. KET said she was admired and beloved throughout the public broadcasting system and that her loss would be felt for many years.
Biography adapted from Lexington Herald-Leader, LEX18, The Lane Report, WUKY, Kentucky Today and KET statements.
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