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ETV Endowment Founding Executive Director Elaine T. Freeman
Set to Retire After 31 Years of Service
Coby C. Hennecy Named Interim Executive Director

For Immediate Release
November 14, 2008

Columbia, SC… Dr. Caroline Whitson, president of the ETV Endowment Board of Trustees, has announced that the organization’s founding executive director, Elaine T. Freeman, will be retiring from that post on Dec. 31 after 31 years of service. The non-profit organization was founded in Spartanburg in 1977 to support the educational mission of South Carolina ETV and ETV Radio. The existence of the Endowment has allowed ETV to become a national leader on the public broadcasting scene.

Under Freeman's leadership, the ETV Endowment has been the steward of $72 million of membership contributions and $121 million in grants and gifts from individuals, foundations, corporations and federal granting agencies, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Coby C. Hennecy, CPA, the Endowment's financial officer and assistant director, has been named the interim executive director. Hennecy holds a Master of Accountancy and was an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining the ETV Endowment in 1999. She is actively involved in her community, serving on the Board of Directors for the Spartanburg Institute of Managerial Accountants, the City of Spartanburg's Investment Oversight Committee and Audit Committee, as well as the Finance Committee of the Girl Scouts of South Carolina – Mountains to Midlands. A graduate of the Leadership Spartanburg program, Hennecy regularly volunteers with Junior Achievement.

Whitson praised Freeman's years of hard work at the ETV Endowment, but noted that the Endowment was well-positioned for the future with Hennecy as the interim executive director.

"For everyone who loves ETV, the years of commitment Elaine Freeman has devoted to building support for the network through the ETV Endowment represent an immeasurable gift," said Whitson. "Her energy, creativity, gentle guidance, and personal grace have served the people of our state through support for educational services, arts programming, global perspectives, national connections, and South Carolina history and culture.

"While it is hard to imagine the ETV Endowment without her daily presence, those of us on the board feel fortunate to have Coby Hennecy, who is ready and able to step into the interim appointment to shepherd the transition to a new generation of leadership for the ETV Endowment."

Freeman will continue her decades-long work in the philanthropic sector, currently serving as a trustee of Presbyterian College, Brookgreen Gardens and the Spartanburg Day School. John Rainey, chairman of South Carolina Educational Communications, Inc., announced that after December, Freeman will serve as a consultant to that organization, the production affiliate of the ETV Endowment, also dedicated to the programming of ETV.

The ETV Endowment and South Carolina Educational Communications Boards are engaged in strategic planning at this time. They will conduct an executive search for the position at the conclusion of the planning effort.

South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

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For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.

Elaine T. Freeman

Coby C. Hennecy