John Barra

John is a senior producer/director in the Media Productions department at NJN Public Television since 1992. Media Productions is the client services production arm, producing broadcast & non-broadcast projects for state, corporate, network and non-profit organizations.

John's wide range of producing credits includes the areas of entertainment, business, environmental studies, science & technology, wildlife management and state government reassessment. Projects encompass videoconferences, public service announcements, live town meetings and network shows and educational, training videos.

Highlighted projects include the annual Lincoln-Douglas Debates; a weekly jobs program, NJ Works (on air for 10 seasons); a 9-time Emmy Award winning educational magazine series, Classroom Close-Up, NJ (in it's 16th successful season); the local game show, The Rutgers Academic Challenge (on air for 6 years); and the pilots for New Jersey, Inc., an Emmy-nominated weekly NJN business series and is the Executive Producer of the current food series, NJ EATS.

He has produced the CINE Golden Eagle winning Attorney General’s Office campaign, “Be Powerful, Be Heard” a series of voting PSA’s with Michael Douglas, Jason Alexander, Billy Baldwin, Queen Latifah and others. In addition, he has also won a few Axiem Awards, Communicator Awards, Aurora Awards and two prestigious Telly Awards.

NJN Public Television broadcasts include: Phone Producer for New Jersey Live!, Health Call with Karen Hasby, two nightly call-in talk shows; a Feature Producer for Discover New Jersey; and an on-air fundraiser for over fifteen years.

John has also held the position of Acting Manager of Media Productions from February-July of 1996. He is also responsible for bringing Bloopy’s Buddies, a national APS program to NJN to produce 26 programs, airing on 180 stations nationwide.

A member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) since 1993, he is also the recipient of the 1999, 2002 & 2003 Mid-Atlantic Emmy and the 2002, 2003 & 2005 New York Emmy for Classroom Close-up, NJ and has over thirty nominations under his belt. He currently serves on the Board of Governors, and has produced the local Emmy telecast for the past ten years.

John, raised in Roselle Park, NJ, is a magna cum laude graduate from Trenton State College, now The College of New Jersey, where he received the Communications Award of the Year in 1992. He is currently a student mentor and Adjunct Professor in the School of Communication Studies. He has dual residency in both West Hollywood, California and Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.