Bill Gardner is a recent addition to the PBS Programming team, where he oversees historical, cultural, current and world events, natural history and science programming from development through broadcast. Before joining PBS he was executive producer at Discovery Studios, where he oversaw development of projects in the reality, lifestyle and CGI-based science genres. He also oversaw national productions including Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl and served as show runner on Science Channel’s Human Nature with Dan Riskin. Prior to moving to Discovery Bill spent over a decade in the independent production world, working as director, producer, writer and show runner on shows for multiple networks, including Digging for the Truth on the History Channel, Treasure Quest and Solving History with Olly Steeds on Discovery, CNN Presents and several episodes of Explorer for National Geographic Television.  He has produced shows in over 30 countries, including spending 2 months in Iraq embedded with US Special Forces investigating the looting of the Baghdad museum. Before getting into TV Bill earned a Masters Degree in cultural anthropology, worked as a university instructor in Arkansas and lectured study abroad students in Marrakech, Morocco. He speaks excellent Arabic.