Cindy Browne is executive director of a statewide broadcasting system that hasn’t been created yet. But it will be, she said, by “going slow to go fast.”

What that means, Browne said, is that Iowa Public Radio’s eventual success is hinged on taking time at the start-up level to focus on processes and understand the roles the IPR stations – WOI AM and FM at Iowa State University, WSUI-AM and KSUI-FM at the University of Iowa and KUNI-FM and KHKE-FM at the University of Northern Iowa – serve in their individual markets.

Browne was recruited for and appointed to her new position by the Iowa Board of Regents, which holds licenses for the three public radio systems in Iowa, effective Sept. 1. She has spent her entire professional career in public broadcasting, since 2000 as a Minnesota-based public broadcasting consultant. “I’ve got that in my bones,” said Browne, who was executive vice president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and one of three members of its executive team from 1998 to 1999. Browne, who has a bachelor’s degree in history and an M.B.A. in finance, both from the University of Minnesota, also had served as vice president for programming and then vice president and general manager at Twin Cities Public Television, where she worked from 1989 to 1998.

The Regents’ decision to merge the stations under the IPR umbrella was primarily based on a desire to improve public radio services throughout Iowa, specifically extending FM service to Western Iowa and other areas of the state with coverage gaps. Secondary objectives include improved efficiency; increased support from underwriting, major gifts and membership dollars; and decreased dependence upon tax dollars. Their decision was predicated on the realization that though each of the three broadcast systems is successful in its own right, each has probably reached its potential as an independent university station, one of the key findings in a comprehensive study completed by consultants Bornstein & Associates LLC.

Though some efficiencies may be gained through the creation of IPR, Browne expects them to be minimal at best. “That really isn’t the reason to do this,” she said. “It’s taking what is already a wonderful service and taking it to the next level and improving it. There may be some efficiencies identified in the consultant’s report, but the idea is not to get smaller. This is not a cutting scenario; it’s a growth scenario.”

Browne said her challenge in merging the three stations into one organization is twofold: preserving “the great work they are already doing,” while at the same “looking at the relationships between them through a new lens.”

“These stations are doing fine work; it’s not about a better way,” she said. “If these stations came together, what might they be able to do that they are unable to do now.”

Browne admitted to being “in awe” of what the stations have been able to accomplish with limited resources and skeleton staffs. “These aren’t huge organizations, and the amount of local programming is astonishing,” she said.

She’s also been impressed with the level of public support for the stations during their annual fund-raising campaigns. For example, WOI listeners donated $100,000 in a single day, the second most successful day of fundraising in the station’s history. “Given the demands on people’s generosity, I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “People understand that day in and day out, in the short term and the long term, public radio is so important to the health of a community.”

As part of the “go slow to go fast” strategy, Browne also wants to make it comfortable for the stakeholders at each of the three local stations to embrace change, something Bornstein & Associates warned could initially be met with resistance. “Nevertheless,” the consultants said in their final report to the Regents, “while initial adverse reactions from staff and listeners should be anticipated, the Regents and universities should not be deterred from making changes that will help public radio make better use of its resources, improve its program quality and relevance, serve more listeners, and better position public radio for the future.”

“Change can be threatening,” Browne said. “We’re hard-wired to be very attracted to the status quo, but when change comes from an outside source, it is even harder to deal with what is threatening. It’s very natural.”

Her first three months on the job have been “about opening the top of my head and letting the stations fill it up,” she said. “These three organizations are trying to find their way and feel ownership. It doesn’t seem the ‘Iowa way’ to push. This is going to be a conversation.”