• Producers

David Wheeler
Executive Producer

David Wheeler has produced career-related television programming since 1998 as Executive Producer for the nationally syndicated program CareerTV and its companion website, CareerTV.net. David brings this experience to NJN as Executive Producer of NJ Works. Most recently, he was a consultant to The Employment Channel in the production of NJ Works, New York City Works and Connecticut Work Net. David has 25 years of television and media experience working in various management positions at Time Warner, Westinghouse Broadcasting, Storer Broadcasting and The Weather Channel. He began his career in television production at WKPC-TV, the PBS station in Louisville Kentucky, now part of KET (Kentucky Educational Television).

John Barra
Series Producer

John’s new assignment as series producer for NJ WORKS is a welcome addition to the production team. He has been a producer/director in the Media Productions department at NJN Public Television since 1992. Most recently John's wide range of producing credits include NJN’s Emmy Award winning series, Classroom Close-Up, NJ ; Tomorrow’s Classrooms Today, and the pilot for New Jersey, Inc., which became an Emmy-nominated weekly NJN business series.

John has worked in Los Angeles as an Associate Producer/Casting Associate for MTV’s The Real World and Fox After Breakfast, in Philadelphia for CN8: The Comcast Network and in New York City as a Senior Producer for the Macy’s Satellite Network.

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 & 2006 New York Emmy for Classroom Close-up, NJ and has twenty-four nominations under his belt. He currently serves as a member of NATAS Board of Governors, is currently Treasurer and has produced the local Emmy telecast for the past five years.

John 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 an Adjunct Professor in the School of Communications.

Janet McGuire
Producer/Director

Janet McGuire has worked at NJN since 1989, joining the Production and Original Programming Department in 1990 where she currently is a Producer/Director. She has worked on a wide variety of projects at NJN. For three years, she co-produced “NJ Live”, a nightly viewer call-in talk show, as well as producing and directing numerous studio and field productions. For the past six years, she has been directing the nightly NJN News show along with working on numerous NJN local productions.

Chad Christopher
Production Assistant

Chad is a 2005 graduate of The College of New Jersey where he earned a B.A. in Communications. Before becoming production assistant for NJ Works, Chad worked for WJRZ Oldies 100 and 105.7 The Hawk. During his collegiate career, Chad was a reporter for the TCNJ television show Instant Entertainment, interned with WTSR 91.3, the TCNJ radio station, and was a sports correspondent for TCNJ’s newspaper, The Signal. Chad, one day, hopes to become a television writer.

Chad was born and raised in New Jersey and currently is resident of Ocean County.

Jamie Manganelli
Production Intern

Jamie Manganelli is a graduate of The College of New Jersey. At The College he studied Communications with a concentration in film and video production. He was also involved in drama, as a member of TCNJ’s All College Theatre and Alpha Psi Omega Theatre Honor Society. While at The College he wrote, produced, and directed several short plays, one of which he adapted into a short film. Working in television has been a goal of Jamie’s for several years and he is happy to be a part of the NJ WORKS team.