Former WBEZ host Alison Cuddy to program Chicago Humanities Festival

Alison Cuddy, a Chicago Humanities Festival staffer since 2014, has been named the festival’s artistic director.

Now the associated artistic director, she will begin her transition into the new title Aug. 1. Earlier, she was a producer, reporter and anchor at WBEZ-FM (91.5), where she hosted the morning series “Eight Forty-Eight.”

The festival announcement said her achievements include helping “conceptualize and implement CHF’s move into year-round programming” and bringing events to neighborhoods including Bridgeport, Pilsen, and Bronzeville.

Festival board chair Clark Hulse was quoted as saying, “We look forward to her leadership as CHF further enhances its presence both in Chicago and nationally.”

She succeeds Jonathan Elmer, who stepped down from the artistic director position at the end of June to return full time to Indiana University in Bloomington, where he is a professor of English and director of the College Arts and Humanities Institute.