Former General Manager and Executive Producer
Washington, D.C.
JJ Yore is an award-winning journalist with a rare capacity to conceive, build, and re-imagine media organizations.
He was one of the creators of the Marketplace public radio programs, known for delivering complex business information in an accessible yet intelligent way. Under his leadership, Marketplace won the two most prestigious accolades in media, the duPont-Columbia and Peabody awards. He also created The Savvy Traveler radio show, whose hosts included famed open-water swimmer Diana Nyad.
Later, JJ transformed the local NPR station in his hometown of Washington, DC, increasing revenue 70 percent, doubling its journalism capacity, increasing the diversity of its staff and audience, and launching the program 1A, successor to the iconic Diane Rehm Show. JJ serves on the board of the Cambridge Artificial Intelligencer, a new non-profit designed as a living laboratory for how AI can reinvent local journalism.
Since leaving full-time work, JJ has helped maintain Rock Creek Park with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and mentored a DC public high school student for the non-profit organization College Bound. He also has spent many happy days in locations ranging from the mid-Atlantic, to the western US, to Spain and New Zealand cycling, mountain biking, and snowboarding – a devotion developed while spending time in his 20s as a ski-bum in Aspen, Colorado.
JJ met award-winning producer Mary Beth Kirchner when they were both starting new shows for public radio, a shared passion that resulted in marriage and a son who now works in wealth management in Palo Alto.
DCI Fellow: Mary Beth Kirchner
