Series Producers, Videographers and Editors

Born and raised in the western Maine town of Farmington, Chris has been producing cultural content on MPBN for the past eight years.  Before tackling Maine Experience, Chris served as executive producer for MPBN programs such as Home: The Story of Maine, Made in Maine, and True North.  He also served as producer on Flowing Past: The Kennebec and Dead Rivers, Road Diaries as well as a producer and announcer for MPBN’s coverage of the Maine Principals' Association's High School Basketball Tournament.  Before coming to work for MPBN, Chris produced morning and noon weekend news programs for WCSH-TV in Portland.

Laura has been involved in local and national television production for the better part of two decades.   She has a firm foundation working in historical programming beginning her professional career working on PBS’s nationally acclaimed series American Experience. Laura relishes the opportunity of working with older film footage, photos and other archival material but says the highlights of working on these productions are the testimonies and insights from the people she interviews. In 2001 she left her small native town of New York City to work on MPBN’s science series, Quest: Investigating Our World.  Her work has garnered many awards; most recently she is the recipient of the 2006 New England Emmy award for her work on Quest.

Tired of having good weather to shoot in all the time, producer Anita Clearfield left Los Angeles in the mid-'90s to move to Maine. Still living near LA -- Lewiston/Auburn, that is -- Anita soon grew to cherish snow days and working in flannel pajamas. Anita grew up in Denver and earned a B.F.A. in film at Syracuse University. Highlights of her years in Los Angeles included receiving an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker's grant to make a drama, "State of Mind;" producing a feature documentary, "Vacation Nicaragua," during the contra war; as well as editing, managing the production of and/or directing several music videos and long form music programs. She left the freelance life in 2001 to work for MPBN and currently occupies her first corporate cubicle since serving as production manager at the Disney Studios in the early '80's.

Heidi has been in the editing room since 1988, coming out occasionally to eat and sleep, although she's done both of those in an editing room as well. Heidi has worked on PBS shows such as NOVA and American Experience, as well as on National Geographic's Explorer series, the Discovery channel, and about a dozen independent film companies. She came to MPBN in 2001 to be series editor on the award-winning series Quest: Investigating Our World. She moved to Maine in 1982 and six years later bought a circa 1832 farmhouse, where she lives with her partner, 3 cats, 3 dogs, and a ghost.

Mike started working in television production in Maine in 1989, doing commercials for cable networks such as ESPN, Lifetime, CNN and others. In 1992, Mike moved to North Carolina and spent a couple of years producing news segments for broadcast networks CBS ad NBC. He returned to Maine in 1994 and began working for MPBN shortly thereafter as a videographer and editor on the award-winning series, Quest: Investigating Our World, where he got his first experience doing underwater camera work. Mike's work on Quest most recently won him an Emmy award in June 2006.

Barbara’s official title is Manager of Video Media Production, but she thinks executive producer best describes her job at MPBN. Barbara oversees production of MaineWatch and other public affairs programming, as well as MPBN shows like Made in Maine, Hometown Economies, and Starting a Business in Maine. As often as she can, she also produces Maine Experience segments. Before coming to MPBN, Barbara was in newsrooms churning out news and public affairs programs for both public and commercial television stations. That work led to a prestigious duPont-Columbia Award as executive producer of an investigative series on the Christian Civic League’s finances. She started out as a reporter and anchor and even did a stint as meteorologist for awhile, but producing is what Barbara says she loves the most. It never gets old and there’s always something to learn, and sometimes re-learn. That’s why she always looks forward to getting Maine Experience assignments.

In addition to producing segments for Maine Experience, Frank Ferrel is an Emmy Award winning series producer for the MPBN weekly magazine program, Made in Maine. Prior to coming to MPBN, Frank was an Associate Professor of Journalism at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., where he taught Media Studies and Television Production. From 1987 to 1998, he was a national news correspondent and producer for the broadcast services of the Christian Science Monitor, where he reported and produced stories world wide, for both radio and television news. During that time he also served as one of five Boston-based correspondents for World Monitor, the nightly national news programming for the Discovery Channel

Eric has worked in TV production since the mid 1970's while completing and retiring from his two other successful careers of 33 years as a public school teacher and 27 years in the military. Moving from New York to Maine in 1967, he has been involved with all aspects of Public Television in Maine from being an on-air announcer and audio technician to editing and directing such well remembered productions as So, You Think You Know Maine?, Exit 13, The MPBN Great TV Auction, True North, MaineWatch, Capitol Connection and annual coverage of the Maine Principals' Association High School Basketball Tournament.  Eric also augments his current studio coordinator duties at MPBN by producing segments for Made in Maine and Maine Experience.

Chad has been with MPBN since 1997 as a videographer and editor.  He has worked on all locally-produced shows since his arrival at MPBN, including Made in Maine, The Maine Art Museum Trail, Quest: Investigating Our World and Home: The Story of Maine.  His job takes him all over the state meeting interesting people and seeing just about everything imaginable.  Working on Maine Experience has proven to be a creative challenge in finding the visuals needed to tell the stories while at the same time serving as a fun way to learn about Maine.  He is especially proud of the shooting he did for the Seguin Island lighthouse segment, and feels fortunate to be a part of such a creative production team. 

Nick Woodward, Videographer

Caleb Crosby, Videographer

Daniel Lambert, Maine Experience Web Designer