Deb Vinsel

Deb Vinsel is a longtime community media leader, nonprofit executive, trainer, and field mentor whose work has spanned station operations, vocational media education, consulting, national service, and organizational leadership. Her early path included studio operations management at Waycross Community Media, where she worked in training, production, facility operations, and volunteer management. She later managed a community media facility through the North Orange County Regional Occupational Program in California, teaching video production and developing curriculum for students across four school districts.

Through her consulting work, Deb supported community media operations, facility design, executive search, and board and staff development. She went on to lead Thurston Community Media in Olympia, Washington for more than three decades, guiding the organization through local service, municipal partnerships, staff leadership, strategic planning, resource development, and board development.

Deb's influence also reached beyond Olympia. She coordinated the Hometown Video Awards and served as Interim Executive Director of the Alliance for Community Media during a national leadership transition, managing operations and conference planning at a moment when the organization needed steadiness and continuity. In 1999, she received the ACM's Sue Miller Buske Leadership Award. Her contribution belongs to the leadership generation that kept community media grounded while mentoring others who would carry the work forward.