WBEZ’s Cuddy joins Chicago Humanities Festival

Alison Cuddy

Alison Cuddy

Alison Cuddy, veteran arts and culture reporter at Chicago Public Media WBEZ FM 91.5 and former host of “Eight Forty-Eight,” has been named program director of the Chicago Humanities Festival.

Starting May 5, she will join the festival staff full-time, working closely with executive director Phillip Bahar and artistic director Matti Bunzl. Since 2009, Cuddy has served as a moderator for the organization’s events.

"In my role as moderator, I have experienced firsthand the creativity and professionalism of everyone at the Chicago Humanities Festival, and I'm thrilled to be joining such a talented group," she said in a statement Thursday. "I look forward to working with the team to create programs that enrich public discourse and inspire new and vital ways to convene around shared experiences, just as CHF as done so significantly over the last 25 years."

Saying he was “excited to have Alison join our team as we embark on our 25th anniversary this fall,” Bahar added: “Alison will bring a robust set of ideas to our programming. Her background as a journalist, her broad and deep knowledge of arts and culture, and her commitment to the civic life of Chicago will be a boon to the Festival and its audiences.”

A native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Concordia University, Cuddy moved to Chicago in 1999 and joined WBEZ in 2001. At the station, she helped launch the nationally syndicated “Odyssey” and served as senior producer of “Chicago Matters.” She hosted the flagship morning news magazine “Eight Forty-Eight" from 2007 to 2012.