Dr. Jerold Gruebel, (B.A., University of Pittsburgh; M.S., University of Illinois; Ph.D., The Ohio State University) is president and CEO of Network Knowledge, a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, and is the community licensee of public television stations WSEC/PBS Springfield, WQEC/PBS Quincy and WMEC/PBS Macomb, and it owns and operates a dedicated interactive video teleconferencing network. 

Dr. Gruebel has served five years as the elected President of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council (IPBC), which is comprised of the 23 CPB-qualified public television and radio stations in Illinois.  Dr. Gruebel was also the President of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Cooperative (PBCI), an organization established to obtain statewide underwriting in support of Illinois public broadcasting.  Prior to founding Network Knowledge, Dr. Gruebel was assistant director of IHETS (the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System), a statewide network of video, voice and data networks connecting some 150 sites, including all 77 of Indiana's colleges and universities, with headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Dr. Gruebel has published more than a dozen articles and book reviews, and he has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The Ohio State University, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and the University of Illinois at Springfield.  He serves on the board of directors of Chaddock School in Quincy, Illinois; the board of trustees of Downtown Springfield, Inc. (DSI); and the board of directors of the Springfield Rotary Downtown Club.  He has been on the board of directors of the Chatham Area Chamber of Commerce and the United Way.

He has two grown daughters, one in Washington, DC and one in Durham, N.C., and two granddaughters.  His wife is a second grade teacher in the Springfield public schools.