WPLN’s News Director Emily Siner has been named as a recipient of the Nashville Business Journal’s 2022 class of 40 Under 40 Award.
The Nashville Business Journal recognizes leaders making an impact on the business community and showing the way for others, all before their 40th birthdays. The winners will be featured in a special print publication and recognized at an event hosted by the NBJ.
As news director, Siner has overseen the rapid growth of an ambitious local newsroom. In the past year alone, WPLN News hired 14 journalists and now is a newsroom of 25. Her work on shaping the newsroom’s coverage, as well as refining the station’s policies and processes to support its diverse staff, has helped make WPLN News a leader in local journalism.
“From the beginning, Emily stood out as a catalyst for bold thinking — podcasts, community relationships, staff recruitment and wellness,” says Anita Bugg, Vice President of Content at Nashville Public Radio who hired Siner. “She’s a remarkable person and a true public media visionary.”
The WPLN newsroom will continue to grow in 2022. Its flagship daily show, This Is Nashville, launches soon and will elevate the ongoing work of the reporter corps.
“Every thriving organization needs energetic, thoughtful and empathetic leadership,” says Steve Swenson, President & CEO at Nashville Public Radio. “Emily excels in every aspect of leading a team, and her work in creating This Is Nashville has been critical in discovering the best people to lead the show and crafting the content direction.”
Siner has been with WPLN’s parent company Nashville Public Radio since 2014, first as a reporter and then as an editor. She was the executive editor on the Peabody Award-winning podcast The Promise. Work that she edited has also won a national Edward R. Murrow award, and she has won three regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for her own reporting.
“I know how lucky I am to work at an organization that intentionally invests in local journalism. That’s how I was able to grow, and it’s why I’m able to help others grow,” Siner says. “This award feels like a validation of the community’s strong support of the station, which is really the backbone to all of it.”
Outside of work, Siner is one of the organizers of a grassroots Jewish community in East Nashville, plays fiddle and is writing a dystopian young adult novel.
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