Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing female leadership in radio broadcasting, has welcomed four new members to its Board of Directors: Becky Brenner, Dawn Krause, Maria Laing-Smith, and Leslie Scott.
MIW consists of top-level female radio professionals who use their experience, influence and resources to help other women in radio develop management and leadership skills.
Becky Brenner is a consulting partner at Albright & O’Malley & Brenner Consulting. She has over 45 years of experience in radio and is currently consulting country radio stations across the U.S. and Canada. For multiple years, Brenner has been named one of Radio Ink’s top PDs (all formats) in America and the #1 country programmer. In 2022, she was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame and received the 2010 MIW Radio Group’s “Achievement in Programming” Award.
Dawn Krause is VP of finance for Midwest Communications, Inc., which owns 80 radio stations. Krause has over 25 years of financial experience. Before joining Midwest, she held management positions at the Marshfield Clinic and senior accounting positions at Northcentral Technical College and Wipfli CPA accounting and consulting firm. She is an active member of the Media Financial Management Association.
Maria Laing-Smith is senior VP of Mr. Master, overseeing the company’s affiliate growth strategies and station and network partnerships. Under Laing-Smith, Mr. Master has amassed 8,500 affiliate partnerships and processes more than one million spots per week, making it the leader in software compliance and content distribution software. Laing-Smith was previously VP of business development at Mr. Master. During her nearly 20-year tenure at the company, Laing-Smith has spearheaded the creation of accountability standards for the terrestrial broadcast audio industry, co-founded Mr. Master’s AIM software and ushered in Mr. Master’s transition from a CD to a digital delivery service. Laing-Smith is also a member of the Alliance of Women in Media and has been elected vice-chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers since 2010 and recognized as one of Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women in Radio since 2020.
Leslie Scott is VP of digital audio content for Audacy. She has over 20 years of experience as a brand manager, digital marketing leader, on-air personality, and music curator at various radio brands, including KNDD-FM/Seattle (107.7 The End). Scott took on her newly-created role at Audacy in 2021 to focus on cultivating audio content, including digital playlist curation, podcasts, and special live events on Audacy’s digital platform. She advocates for women in radio, having mentored women in the industry and was selected as the inaugural MIW/Nielsen Programming Mentee in 2017.
MIW Board President Ruth Presslaff said, “The very impressive MIW Board just got even more impressive! We are so delighted to welcome Leslie, Maria, Dawn, and Becky and eager for their expertise to help grow and support our mentoring mission. Many thanks to Corinne Baldassano and Valerie Geller, who are cycling off the Board, for their years of work and wisdom.”
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