Maria Cabrera-Baukus

Master's degree: University of Massachusetts
Bachelor's degree: University of Puerto Rico

Maria Cabrera-Baukus possesses a wealth of television experience. Since 1988, she has capably integrated that experience as a key part of her teaching in the College of Communications.

In her years at Penn State, Cabrera-Baukus has established a strong interest in linking student projects to community organizations as a way of bringing "real world" experiences to the classroom. She teaches television production, production management and broadcast management. The productions by students in her upper-level courses air locally on CNET. She also co-produces "Watch It!" a program that highlights the work of students and airs on WPSX-TV (Channel 3) for Penn State Public Broadcasting.

Since 2003, she has involved her television production classes in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Her students conduct videotaped oral histories with veterans from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq. Those interviews are then edited and archived at the Library of Congress, the Pennsylvania Military Museum and in Pattee Library's Special Collections on campus.

Prior to teaching at Penn State, Cabrera-Baukus worked for several years at WGBH-TV in Boston, where she produced community affairs programming for local and national broadcast. Her television experience includes: production assistant, traffic manager, assistant director, director, associate producer and producer for numerous public television programs. In her last year at WGBH, she researched and produced a documentary film that won a New England Emmy Award.