Deborah A. Cowan

Deborah is a retired media industry C-suite executive, an accomplished for-profit and non-profit financial leader and an experienced board member. She brings over 35 years of financial leadership experience in media and business. She retired from NPR as its Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer and previously was Senior Vice President of Finance at Urban One (formerly Radio One), where she oversaw the financial operations, accounting processes, internal controls, financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, treasury operations, and planning and analysis for both organizations. She also has extensive experience in strategic planning and risk management. Prior to Urban One, she had a progressive career at IBM and began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand) in its audit practice. Deborah is a Certified Public Accountant and earned a BBA in Accounting from Howard University and an MBA in both Finance and International Business from Columbia Business School. She is currently a director on the boards of Consumer Reports and Nature Forward, and has previously served on the boards of several non-profits. She has served on the executive committees and chaired several committees during her board service. Deborah is a native and resident of the District of Columbia.