MIAMI – Meredith Hector has been named program director for the Knight Foundation community of Bradenton, Fla.

She will assume the role this month while keeping her current duties as assistant to Mike Maidenberg, the foundation’s vice president/communities program.

“We’re pleased that the vibrant community of Bradenton and Manatee County will have a Knight Foundation representative who will get to know the community and its narrative,” Maidenberg said. “Meredith has been a stalwart member of the communities program. I’m confident she’ll do a terrific job in Bradenton.”

Hector will work with Knight’s Bradenton Community Advisory Committee and search for opportunities that lead to transformational grants, Maidenberg added.

Hector said she looks forward to immersing herself in all the key issues in Bradenton and Manatee County, and to building a network that will help the foundation devise a strong grant-making strategy.

Knight Foundation’s first grant to the Bradenton community was in 1974.  Since then, the foundation has made 103 grants totaling nearly $5.5 million.

Hector joined the foundation in February 2002. She was promoted to assistant to the vice president in December 2006.

Before joining the foundation, she was a coordinator for the McNair Graduate Opportunity Program at the University of New Hampshire. Prior to that, Hector was the assistant to the program director for the Minority Opportunity through School Transformation Program at the University of Massachusetts.

She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from the University of Massachusetts.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of Bradenton  and 25 other U.S. communities. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change.