Most of us think about public media as something we hear in the car, watch at home, or stream on our phones. But for Nico Leone, President and CEO of KERA, public media is also something deeply physical: a room where people gather, a conversation that lowers the temperature, and a trusted institution that is accessible to the community it serves.
On the Learning From Leaders podcast, Leone joins host Lili Clark to talk about KERA’s next chapter, including its new headquarters, expanding partnerships, the evolving landscape of local journalism, and what it means to lead with humility in a time of constant change.
Throughout the conversation, Leone returns to a central theme: trust. In a changing media landscape, he views trust as KERA’s most valuable asset and something that must be earned every day through consistency, transparency, and service.
Key Takeaways
- KERA’s new headquarters is designed as a community gathering place, not just a media facility.
- Public media can help people have fact-based, civil conversations in a polarized environment.
- Local journalism must serve both the broader North Texas region and the distinct communities within it.
- Leone’s leadership style is rooted in humility, transparency, authenticity, and extending trust early.
- Strong civic institutions help communities feel informed, connected, and welcomed.
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Building a Front Door for North Texas
KERA is in the middle of a major milestone: building a new headquarters for public media in North Texas. But Leone is quick to make one thing clear. The point of the building is not simply to house KERA.
“I don’t think there’d be a point in doing a building if it was just for us,” he says.
Instead, Leone describes the new space as a front door for the community. The first floor is envisioned as a public-facing gathering place, with a 300-person venue wired for live broadcast and recording, community rooms, and podcast studios where people from across North Texas can tell their own stories.
That vision speaks to one of KERA’s most important roles: convening. Leone sees public media as a place where people can come together to discuss the issues shaping the region, experience arts and culture, and engage with trusted journalism in person.
In a time when so many interactions happen through screens and social feeds, the idea feels almost old-fashioned, in the best way.
“Throwing our doors open is probably the single best thing we can do for our future.”
Nico Leone
President & CEO, KERA
Creating Space for Civil Conversation
That focus on trust also shapes how Leone thinks about journalism.
He acknowledges that the media environment is not getting easier. Audiences are more polarized. The competition for attention is louder. Misinformation is harder to detect. And public media itself can be politicized by others, even when its work remains grounded in facts.
KERA’s response, Leone says, is not to shout louder.
“You’ll never hear us yelling,” he says. “You’ll never hear us shouting at people. You’ll never hear us telling people what to think.”
Instead, the goal is to hold the center: to stay fact-based, civil, and focused on conversations that matter. That tone may be quieter than much of today’s media landscape, but Leone believes there is still a deep audience need for reasonable conversations that bring people together rather than tear them apart.
Connecting North Texas Through Local Journalism
For KERA, that work is also becoming more local, more regional, and more connected.
North Texas is growing quickly, and Leone notes that many people moving into the region do not carry the same historical distinctions between Dallas, Fort Worth, Denton, and surrounding communities. KERA has to serve the region as a whole while also meeting people where they are.
That means using broadcast to provide a broader North Texas perspective while using digital platforms, partnerships, and acquisitions to serve more specific local needs.
One example is KERA’s acquisition of the Denton Record-Chronicle. Leone explains that Denton has always been an important part of KERA’s coverage area, but the organization did not have a strong presence there. The acquisition was a way to sustain local reporting in Denton County while helping KERA’s broader coverage of North Texas become more complete.
He also points to the Texas Newsroom, a collaboration among NPR stations across the state, as a model for how public media organizations can share resources and tell Texas stories in an authentic voice.
When public media connects neighborhood-level reporting with broader context, Leone says, it can help audiences better understand the forces shaping their lives and communities.
Creating Platforms for People to Grow
His leadership philosophy was shaped in part by difficult professional experiences, including being laid off from his first two jobs after graduate school. Those moments influenced how he wanted to lead and how he wanted others to experience change.
Then came February 2020, when Leone arrived in Dallas to lead KERA just weeks before COVID-19 changed everything.
He remembers how little a person knows three weeks into a new role. Yet suddenly, he was helping guide an organization through a global crisis. That experience forced him to rely on his leadership team, listen carefully, and lead with humility.
He says the moment taught him that leaders do not always need to have every answer. In fact, he often feels more effective when he begins with openness, vulnerability, and the recognition that others may be smarter or better equipped in certain areas.
That same mindset shapes how KERA approaches partnerships and acquisitions. Leone says the organizations that have joined KERA were not aggressively pursued; they came looking for a different way to sustain their work. That has allowed KERA to welcome them in with care, respect their existing identities, and look for points of connection rather than forcing full integration.
Stewarding Something Larger
For Leone, the goal is not to build something around himself. It is to steward an institution with a long and meaningful history.
He speaks with admiration about the people who shaped KERA before him, from Ralph Rogers to Bob Wilson and other trailblazers. His hope is that his time as CEO will be remembered not as a singular personal chapter, but as part of a larger story of building a thriving, beloved institution that serves North Texas deeply.
That sense of stewardship also comes through in one of the most personal moments of the episode. When asked for one word to describe Dallas, Leone chooses “welcoming.”
It is a simple answer, but it fits the conversation. KERA’s new building, its journalism, its arts programming, and its leadership philosophy all point toward the same idea: helping people feel connected to something larger than themselves.
For Southwestern Medical Foundation, this conversation connects directly to the importance of trusted civic institutions. While KERA serves through journalism, public media, education, and culture, the Foundation advances progress through academic medicine, research, education, and health care excellence.
Although their work takes different forms, both organizations are part of a broader ecosystem of institutions that enrich civic life and help North Texas flourish.
Leone’s leadership reminds us that healthy communities are built not only through innovation, but through belonging. They need places where facts matter, where people can gather, where expertise is valued, and where leaders understand that service is a long-term commitment.
In that way, KERA’s story is not only a media story. It is a North Texas story.
FAQs
Who is Nico Leone?
Nico Leone is President & CEO of KERA, the nonprofit public media organization serving North Texas through PBS, NPR, journalism, music, arts, and education.
What does KERA do?
KERA provides public television, radio, local journalism, digital content, arts programming, educational resources, and community-centered storytelling for North Texas.
Why is trust important in public media?
Trust helps audiences rely on public media for factual information, civil conversation, and local storytelling, especially during times of polarization and misinformation.
What leadership lessons does Nico Leone share?
He emphasizes humility, transparency, authenticity, listening, and extending trust early when leading organizations through change.
How does this episode connect to Southwestern Medical Foundation?
The episode highlights the role of trusted civic institutions, a value shared by Southwestern Medical Foundation as it advances health, research, education, and progress in North Texas.
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