Jill Kaufman

After working in the public radio system for more than a dozen years, Jill Kaufman is now the news director at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts. She oversees newscasts, features, and series reporting. And when she finds the time, also reports on issues around western New England. Before coming to WFCR, Kaufman began the Global Resources Desk at  PRI’s The World, at WGBH in Boston. As the executive editor,  she commissioned American stories with international angles for the show; for stations, she provided international content to broaden local talk shows, reporter packages, and other news production.

Prior to her role at the Global Resources Desk, Kaufman was a reporter at WGBH’s Culture Desk from December 2001 to May 2003. She created nationally distributed feature reports for NPR and PRI programs, covering the arts, education, and New England history.

During the time leading up to the 2000 Presidential Primary, Kaufman hosted The Exchange, a statewide call-in talk show from New Hampshire Public Radio. During the South Carolina Primary, she hosted NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered. Kaufman has also been a newscaster for NPR’s Only a Game, and NPR’s Living on Earth.       

Kaufman has enjoyed a long and varied career in public radio.  In her nine years at WBUR-Boston, she hosted the local news magazine One Union Station. She produced The Connection with Christopher Lydon for six years. She was also a news anchor and news writer there.  In the early 90s, Kaufman was a host at folk station WUMB in Boston. She was also a print reporter for the Jamaica Plain Gazette, a bilingual newspaper. She began her journalism career in educational research, writing case studies about rural schools in New England. Kaufman received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emerson College and has done graduate work there in broadcast journalism. 

Check out news from WFCR's news staff at WFCR's local news room.