Susan Schardt

executive director, Association of Independents in Radio

The Association of Independents Radio’s Executive Director Sue Schardt is a respected radio veteran and award-winning producer whose path has taken her through public, commercial, community, and international media. She founded SchardtMEDIA Strategies 1998 to focus on independent, ideas-driven projects and worked extensively with the networks and leading stations and producers across the country. She assumed leadership of the AIR, a growing, 760-member organization in September 2007. AIR marked its 20th anniversary last September with the launch of Makers Quest 2.0 (MQ2), a new, producer driven initiative funded by CPB. The MQ2 funded projects underway this summer are designed to fuel public media’s digital revolution. Schardt also serves as a director of the DI Committee of the NPR board, sits on the board of the World Sound Foundation and is an Artistic Advisor to NPR’s From the Top. She is a long-time volunteer music DJ on free-form radio station WMBR in Cambridge, MA.