Mary Shedden

B.S. Journalism, 1990

Senior Managing Director of Content, WUSF Public Media
Edward R. Murrow Award Winner
Journalism Innovator and Advocate

Hall of Fame 2026

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Mary Shedden is the Senior Managing Director of Content at WUSF Public Media in Tampa. She’s responsible for editorial vision, multi-platform storytelling strategy and brand management. Shedden joined WUSF in 2013, jumping to public radio from her newspaper reporting career. She was News Director for a decade, overseeing WUSF’s broadcast and online newsroom.

A local journalism advocate, she led public media collaboratives across Florida, such as a statewide voter guide, and the creation of Your Florida – a project connecting state government to the real lives of Floridians.  Shedden also led the creation of WUSF newsletters, a daily podcast and a daily talk show broadcast live on radio and on YouTube.

Before joining WUSF, Shedden spent 17 years at The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com, Florida Today and The Gainesville Sun. She covered stories from the case of the killer of five Gainesville college students, to an investigation on retired pro athletes living with brain damage and chronic pain. Like many UF journalism students, her first newspaper gig was the Independent Florida Alligator.

WUSF honors under her leadership include the 2025 National Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence, and the 2016 National Murrow for a statewide collaborative called Health News Florida. In 2025, Florida Public Media honored Shedden with the Janeth Ryder Award for Innovation.

She has served on the Board of Directors for the Public Media Journalists Association, and the Florida Society of News Editors. She also advises Journeys in Journalism, a K-12 program in Pinellas County Schools. Shedden is a member of the UFCJC Journalism Advisory Board, where she has mentored many UF students as they launched their journalism careers.