Broadcast Journalist
Passion, ethics and impact have driven Beth Konrad’s career in journalism and communication for more than 40 years.
Her passion for the profession began by accident. As a child in the 1950s, college women were often encouraged to pursue elementary education. Konrad took a communication course at Indiana State University and interviewed Nancy Dickerson, White House reporter and host of “The Washington Cloak Room.” Inspired, Konrad immediately changed majors, started working for the college radio station and became a stringer for the Associated Press.
Konrad has been a reporter, anchor, news director, editorialist, business owner, corporate executive and college professor. She champions for Freedom of Information and the Society of Professional Journalists.
She has worked with ABC Radio in Detroit and Chicago, NBC radio in San Francisco, and as news director of the all-news radio station in Detroit, WCAR-AM. Moving to television in 1979, she became director of public affairs and editorials at WDIV-TV and later vice president PBS-WTVS, Channel 56 in Detroit.
Konrad took her experience into the classroom after earning her master’s in communications from Wayne State University in 2001. She taught and served as journalism program director at Loyola University-Chicago for many years. In 2016, she came back to Detroit and became an adjunct and professor of practice at Wayne State University. She joined the university’s alumni board of directors.
Konrad is the principal of Konrad Communications, LLC, a communications consulting firm that works pro bono with non-profit organizations. She is co-chair of Wayne State University’s proposed Midtown Media Center and president of SPJ’s Detroit Chapter.
Konrad has received three Emmys, the National Headliner Award, the Society of Professional Journalists Distinguished Service Award, numerous AP, UPI and Detroit Press Club awards. She maintains her greatest awards are her children, Samantha and Abigail, granddaughter August Ruth and husband, Frank Wilberding.