Nice Work Public Media is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded to serve as a complement to and additional programming source for public television stations in Michigan as well as to create and manage related outreach campaigns and to produce media content for print and the internet.
Functioning much the same way as a public television production department but freed from the infrastructure, competing priorities and bureaucracy of more established organizations, Nice Work Public Media can be more responsive and flexible in pursuing projects that meet its mission “to produce and distribute educational media content and to design and execute companion outreach projects focusing on subjects that include, but are not limited to, community cohesion, volunteerism, history, music, children, the sciences, social healing, media literacy, economic development and the arts.”
NWPM: Principal Players
Jay Nelson— Project Director, Nice Work Public Media
Jay has more than twelve years of senior level, non-profit management experience – first as head of production at Detroit Public Television and then as Station Manager for WFUM, the University of Michigan’s public TV station. During his more than twenty years in public broadcasting, Jay developed, created, managed and produced a number of successful, large-scale television productions and outreach campaigns and has found funding for a wide range of programs from documentaries to performance specials. In addition, series and stand-alone shows he created and executive produced have received numerous local, regional and national awards in addition to garnering favorable attention from critics and viewers alike.
Jay brings an entrepreneurial bent to the non-profit world as evidenced by his creating and co-executive producing the highly successful sports documentary Michigan Football Memories which took a unique approach to telling the story of the culture of Michigan football – going beyond the players, coaches and athletic directors to include the band, the fans, the fight song and the broadcasters.
Jimmy Rhoades—Outreach Director, Nice Work Public Media
Jimmy Rhoades is a founding partner of Nice Work Productions and its non-profit counterpart, Nice Work Public Media. During multiple visits in 1993, he conducted an ad hoc live review with his terminally ill father. Noting the impact of the exchange on both himself and his dad – as well as the desperate isolation of an aunt who died of what Dr. Bill Thomas would diagnose as "loneliness and a broken heart" in a nursing home – he originated the idea for The Legacies Project.
As a writer and host, Jimmy won three Emmy Awards for his work on Public Television. He was an originating Series Producer of Detroit Public Television’s multiple Emmy Award-winning arts and entertainment series Backstage Pass and has worked on a wide variety of television productions. In addition, Jimmy has experience implementing The Legacies Project in the field and has traveled around Michigan teaching digital video production to high school classes under the auspices of the Michigan Humanities Council
Heather L. Seipke, Ph.D.—Professor of Communication & Aging
U of M-Flint, Project Design and Evaluation, Nice Work Public Media
Dr. Heather Seipke has field and academic experience directly applicable to almost every phase of The Legacies Project. Heather is a certified gerontologist, and has conducted numerous oral histories with elderly women for research about women’s changing sense of self when transitioning from their homes to non-community dwellings. As a professor, she regularly interacts with the other population in the proposed project – students – with great success, having won multiple awards for excellence in teaching. Heather has a proven track record of culling data from oral histories for research applications, many of which have resulted in conference presentations and publication in scholarly journals and the press.
NWPM: Board of Directors
Board Chair
Aaron Dworkin, Founder and President, the Sphinx Organization, Detroit
Vice Chair
Gary Anderson, Founder & Producing Artistic Director, Plowshares Theater Detroit, MI
Treasurer
Terry Oprea, President & CEO, Mort Crim Communications, Inc.
Secretary
Jimmy Rhoades, Partner, Nice Work Productions
Other Members
Charles Burke
Matthew Krichbaum
Marsha Miro, Founder and Acting Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit
Jay Nelson, Partner, Nice Work Productions/Executive Director, Nice Work Public Media
Kevin Prihod, President & CEO, The New Detroit Science Center