Professional Bio

Sandra Sheppard is responsible for the development and production of children’s and educational programming initiatives at Thirteen. She is an award-winning producer and media executive with over 20 years of public television management experience.

Ms. Sheppard is spearheading the station’s growth in children’s media through original programming and co-productions. In addition to her role on Cyberchase, she worked with Mel Stuart and POV on The Hobart Shakespeareans, an award-winning PBS documentary about a teacher who motivates his mostly immigrant students toward outstanding scholastic achievement.

She has several significant projects for children and families in development, including Artopia, an arts education series for 5- to 8-year-olds, and Nate the Great, a daily series for PBS based on the acclaimed books by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. Also in the pipeline is Mission America, a role-playing computer game on American history.


Ms. Sheppard is overseeing a new partnership with HIT Entertainment, a leading provider of quality children’s entertainment, that includes co-production, station representation and new project development. She is executive producer of Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, a new CGI series that introduces children to music and dance, slated to debut on PBS Kids in 2009. She is also managing the representation of Barney, Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends, and Wishbone on PBS KIDS.


The projects for which Ms. Sheppard served as executive producer includes Planet H2O, a two-part special that introduced 9- to13-year-olds to the complex issues surrounding the world’s water supply. Freedom: A History of US, the eight-part PBS series based on the acclaimed Oxford University Press books by Joy Hakim, captivates young minds with the drama of American history. In the Mix: The New Normal is a three-part PBS special that explores how teens reacted to and dealt with the impact of September 11th. The Emmy Award-winning What’s Up? series uses an MTV-style approach to profile students and young employees en route to careers in manufacturing, technology, and the environment. Ethical Choices presents teens with provocative hypothetical scenarios to explore important issues like bias awareness, social responsibility, and personal integrity. She also produced ZOOM Local/National, an initiative to brand ZOOM locally through customized broadcast, Web content, outreach, and promotion.


Ms. Sheppard has expanded Thirteen’s role as an innovative provider of quality professional development resources for teachers. She played a key role in creating Thirteen's successful National Teacher Training Institute. Over the past six years, she served as the Executive Producer for a series of distance-learning courses, which reached over 10,000 teachers annually.


Ms. Sheppard secured major grants to develop multi-media initiatives that promote reform in STEM and language arts education. These included PBS Teacherline, The Expanding Canon, Standards in Action, Learning Science Through Inquiry, Insights into Algebra, Teaching Multicultural Literature, and The Internet in Action.


Ms. Sheppard and her team also created compelling series and specials that focus attention on the important issues such as substance abuse and violence prevention. The Thinking Curriculum and School’s In for Summer explore strategies for improving education in New York State.


Ms. Sheppard joined Thirteen in 1984. In 1987, she became the Director of NET TELECON, a revenue-generating production and satellite department. Under her direction, NET TELECON expanded its client base and increased its revenues by 15% per year. She was Director of Production for the PBS special Mandela: Free At Last. For more than five years, she played a key role in the production of the United Negro College Fund Telethon and received an achievement award in 1990 for her continuing efforts. In 1991, Ms, Sheppard assumed the position of Director of Educational Productions in Thirteen's newly created division, the Educational Resources Center.


Prior to joining Thirteen, Ms. Sheppard worked in communications consulting. She received a B.A. from Duke University and is an active member of many advisory committees and professional associations.

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