Mary Bitterman (pictured, top), chair of the PBS board of directors, addressed the future of public broadcasting at the inaugural James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism on Thursday, Nov. 10.

The series honors James L. Loper (pictured, bottom), a respected industry executive who served as executive director of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and as president and general manager of Los Angeles public television station KCET. Loper has served on the USC Annenberg faculty since 1999 and started the School’s Program for the Study of Public Broadcasting.

As a leader in public broadcasting and public policy, Bitterman provided unique insights into an industry facing many challenges. A former director of the Voice of America, she has also led San Francisco’s KQED and the Hawaii Public Broadcasting Authority. She currently is president of The Bernard Osher Foundation and is a former president and CEO of the James Irvine Foundation.

The Loper Lecture is made possible through the generous support of the H. Russell Smith Foundation. A former president and board chair of Avery Dennis Corporation, Mr. Smith is a leading Los Angeles philanthropist whose work has been devoted education, health care and the arts. He is a former board chair of Pomona College, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and KCET.