Kathleen Pavelko

Kathleen Pavelko is president and CEO of WITF.

Our representative democracy in America is supported by constitutional provisions, institutions and fairly conceived and implemented processes.

The constitutional provisions include the right to vote and freedom of the press. The institutions include three co-equal branches of government and a free press. The processes include a census and redistricting.

Each of these “democratic support systems” has been threatened at one time or another, but today, technology and political polarization have turned the decennial census and redistricting into weapons threatening our democracy.

That is why I’ve joined Draw The Lines PA—to be part of the effort to return fairness to a process essential to our democracy.

After nearly two decades of leading WITF, Kathleen A. Pavelko is retiring as President and CEO at the end of 2018. During Pavelko's tenure, WITF's journalism has been awarded 13 national Edward R. Murrow Awards and the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton for Multimedia Excellence.