WUWM is excited to welcome Becky Grandone as our vice president of operations. Grandone. Becky comes to us from UWM where she served as the chief of staff for the associate vice chancellor of enrollment management.
She has seven years of business and leadership roles in UWM's Divisions of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs. She has worked with teams to build systems, develop culture, and reorganize departments through partnerships in HR, budget, finance, and campus services.
She spoke with WUWM general manager, David Lee, to introduce herself and explain what she’s excited about to work on at WUWM.
The following are excerpts from that interview, some portions edited, paraphrased or consolidated for clarity.
David: Hey, I'm David Lee, general manager at WUWM. And I'm here with Becky Grandone, our new vice president of operations. Welcome, Becky.
Becky: Thanks, David. I'm glad to be here.
David: So, we like to do these little welcome talks to get our listeners to know the fine folks working at WUWM. So, why don't you tell us about yourself and what you're here to do?
Becky: I have been a proud member of the Milwaukee community for about 15 years. I have been invited and am excited to work at WUWM to lead your HR, finance, budget, and operations at the station. I am very happy to bring all of these pieces of my work together in this space. I've been in Milwaukee for a long time, and I love living in this city. I'm glad to be here. I'm a mother of two teenage boys, and I like to cook and be outside. I also love engaging in Milwaukee by going to arts events, eating the incredible food here, and checking out music occasionally.
David: I love that you say that that you were invited to join us. It's almost like we hand scrolled an invite with an RSVP.
Becky: You did. That's what I got.
David: It is true, and also the wax stamp to close the envelope. So, I think one thing you didn't share is where did we send this invite to? Where did you come from?
Becky: Well, before working here, I spent the last seven years working at UWM. I was in several different roles while working there, but I acted as a business generalist in enrollment management and student affairs. I loved working there with students and some great engaged partners, and I will be here soon. I was a very internal staff-facing person and got to work with our teams, helping them grow and figure out how to build their systems and their organizations.
David: What made you accept the invitation to join our merry band of storytellers?
Becky: This role is a really cool culmination of almost all the work I've done over the course of my career since I left college. So, I've worked primarily in nonprofits. I've worked in the arts. I've worked in public media before for a little bit, mostly for educational organizations, doing business generalist work. So, this is really just a cool opportunity for me to lead with you and with the rest of the WUWM staff.
David: What's one thing that has surprised you about your team specifically and the team generally?
Becky: The thing about the people is that I’m just getting to know them, but it's very clear that they're the organization's inner workings. They're doing these behind-the-scenes jobs that nobody gets to see very often — deicing the antennas. Planning how the day-to-day schedule of shows and all the information that's coming across the airwaves that people hear, those things are happening and oh, paying all the bills.
David: Yeah. Small things.
Becky: But just critical things. And so, I am excited to work with a group of people who are so engaged and excited to work here. And that's such a good thing. So far, the team as a whole is a fun team. There's a lot of joy in this storytelling that you're doing. I'm just sitting in some of the reporting and planning meetings, the fun conversations that occur here, and the things that I know I'm going to learn about Milwaukee that I don't know. I'm very excited about it.
David: What's one thing you are excited about the upcoming year at the station?
Becky: Well, the day after the Iowa caucus, I might fail to note that it's an election year, so I'm excited to see the inner workings of a newsroom during this kind of year. I know it will be complicated, and there will be many things happening and many people flowing through here, but that seems very exciting to me. But from a personal standpoint, much of my work and my team are behind the scenes, and we have a lot of exciting work to help create some new foundations as we look into the future and where we're going. So I'm excited to do all that work.
David: We are so excited to have you and so excited that you RSVP’d yes to the engraved invitation to join our merry band of storytellers. And it's going to be a great year. Thank you so much.
Becky: Thank you so much, David.
