Sep 11 – Renee Shaw – Director of Public Affairs and Moderator at KET

Today’s speaker, Renee Shaw, is the Director of Public Affairs and Moderator at KET, currently serving as host of KET’s weeknight public affairs program Kentucky Edition, the signature public policy discussion series Kentucky Tonight, and statewide election specials. Through the years, she has also been the force behind legislative and Kentucky Supreme Court coverage, the weekly interview series Connections, townhall-style forums, and multi-platform initiatives around critical issues facing Kentuckians.

As an award-winning journalist, Renee has earned three regional Emmy awards from the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. And in 2023 the academy inducted Renee into the Silver Circle Society, one of its highest honors that recognizes television professionals who have performed distinguished service for 25 years or more. She earned a national media award from Mental Health America for her decades-long focus on the issues of mental health and opioid addiction, and the Green Dot Award for her coverage of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. She has been honored by various state agencies for her work on criminal justice reform and socio-economic issues, and by the Kentucky Press Association for excellence in public affairs programming.

Recognizing her collective body of work, Renee was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2025, which called her “Kentucky’s leading TV news journalist.” A proud graduate of Western Kentucky University, she was inducted into its Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2023. Previously, she was named to the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

Among her numerous honors from education and civic organizations are Women Leading Kentucky’s Governor Martha Layne Collins Leadership Award, the state media award from the Kentucky Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, recognition as a “Kentucky Trailblazer” by the UK Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, Berea College’s Service Award, the Coretta Scott King Spirit of Ivy Award by Alpha Kappa Alpha, one of The Kentucky Gazette’s inaugural “50 Most Notable Women in Kentucky Politics,” and the Community Action Council’s “Unapologetic Woman of the Year.”

Renee is a 2007 graduate of Leadership Kentucky, a CASA of Lexington board member and longtime member of the Frankfort/Lexington Chapter of The Links, an international organization of women of color committed to volunteer service. She has served on the boards of the Kentucky Historical Society and the Lexington Minority Business Expo.

From rural Tennessee, Renee was an only child in a household where public broadcasting was part of not just the daily routine, but of her early education. “Mister Rogers and Sesame Street and Electric Company, those were my early teachers. My mother and I would watch and rehearse the alphabet. But I also learned about diversity and appreciating differences.” It was this early exposure to public broadcasting and educational television that led her to pursue that as a career. Renee has worked at KET since 1997.

KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, town hall, performance stage, history and science center, nature preserve, tour guide and more, providing trusted programming, lifelong learning opportunities and essential services used by more than two million people each week.