Keri Stokstad

Keri Stokstad is a community media executive known for building, stabilizing, and modernizing local media organizations at pivotal moments of growth and change. Across more than three decades, she has led start-ups, restructures, facility builds, governance transitions, technology upgrades, and public-facing media strategies for organizations that needed both practical leadership and a clear civic purpose.

Her career began at PATV in Iowa City in the late 1980s, where a volunteer role introduced her to the power of public access television and community storytelling. That experience grew into leadership work across very different markets, from leading start-ups in Klamath Falls and the Puget Sound to PortMedia in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and later repositioning work at TV Santa Barbara, Pasadena Media, the City of Santa Monica, and Midpen Media Center. At Pasadena Media she oversaw the construction and opening of a new all-digital studio facility; at Midpen she led modernization of programming systems, physical space, and community engagement. Across her leadership roles, the organizations she served earned regional and national recognition, including Telly Awards, ACM regional and national honors, including an Overall Excellence in Government Access award for Santa Monica.

Keri’s leadership extended beyond operations to governance. She served for 14 years in regional and national leadership with the Alliance for Community Media, including service on the ACM Northwest and Western Region Board of Directors, the ACM National Board of Directors, and as ACM national board chair during the period when the organization hired its first president. In 2011, while leading The Santa Barbara Channels, she received the ACM's Sue Miller Buske Leadership Award.

Keri’s strongest work has been helping community media organizations become more durable, useful, and visible. Her career reflects the work organizations need most when the path forward is not simple: strengthening operations, developing staff, clarifying governance, modernizing systems, and connecting media work to public purpose. Her contribution to community media has never been limited to channels, equipment, or programming. It has been about building the conditions that allow for local voices, public information, and civic storytelling.