• Nomination Statement
• Candidate Questionnaire

Over the past three years as a staff representative to the KPFA Local Station Board, I served on the Pacifica National Board of Directors for two years, I traveled to the other four Pacifica network stations, and I have served on a number of different committees on both the national and local level. Those committees have discussed issues pertaining to programming, network affiliates, local outreach, governance and the hiring of a new KPFA General Manager. I have learned a great deal about how our network operates over the past three years.

I would like to continue the work of bringing staff issues to the table at the board level. I would like to spend a lot more time on initiatives that bring our local community into the station as stakeholders of this great media outlet. I would like to see KPFA partner with organizations throughout both the KPFA and KFCF listening areas. Each time we affiliate with a network of organizations in a particular region, we can plan town hall forums that can address how KPFA can better serve the constituents of those organizations and the local listeners in that particular region.

I believe that our training programs are the way to continue bringing a diverse cross section of volunteers that provide content for programming, support for administrative functions, and people power during our pledge drives. More resources should be devoted to ensuring that all departments benefit from the support of our First Voice Apprenticeship graduates, our news trainees, and independent producers, whether collective-based or not, who obtain production, administrative and team-building skills that are useful to all of our departments within the station.

I also believe we should find ways to work on projects interdepartmentally as staff members. Days throughout the year should be designated for staff members to work on volunteer projects in our community, meet and greet listeners at KPFA sponsored events, and even a day long company gathering that includes both food and games, which might help to bring together groups of people at the station - paid and unpaid - that might not even know each other.

As an African American male, and as the youngest person to serve on our local board, and one of the youngest to serve on our national board, I believe my experiences will continue to bring a seldom-heard dimension to a number of discussions we have at the board level. I hope that my participation can continue to erode at that notion, and help with the continued changes in programming and structure within our network.

I am open to any feedback and suggestions you all may have. I hope to continue to serve you as an elected staff member to the KPFA Local Station Board.

1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board?

As a graduate of the apprenticeship program, I believe that I can continue to serve on the Local Station Boards with the philosophy of First Voices in mind. Programs that work to bring the stories of underrepresented groups to the table, like the apprenticeship program, will continue to bring groups that are traditionally overlooked to the table.

2. How do you envision the Local Station Board working with the Pacifica Foundation, KPFA and the community?

Our model of governance provides for participation from every level imaginable within the organization, but doesn't look at how to integrate input effectively. KPFA should look at holding four town hall meetings in four different locations in the listening area each year. Each town hall should identify a goal for each town hall and structure it so community members from that area can give suggestions pertaining to that goal. At the end of each year, our station could evaluate what was and wasn't effective in attaining that goal. This town hall model must be supported by the station and cannot just be an initiative of the Local Station Board. The town hall is a way to meet a bylaws requirement as well as bring a particular program to an area each year, like our annual Fresno edition of Sunday Salon, and our pretty regular broadcasts of Flashpoints and La Onda Bajita from New College in San Francisco and Santa Rosa.

3. How could the station better serve its listeners?

KPFA could do a better job of station promotion. We sponsor at least 30 to 40 events in any given year. If each station staff member, paid or unpaid, agreed to attend one event per year, we'd have 3 staff members minimally at each event, which would be more than enough to cover a table for two hours. We could have more "team huddles" as a staff to share information. Many of the great ideas we have for our programming could be shared interdepartmentally. This would help us all grow as producers and improve the overall station sound.

4. Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in underrepresented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening audience?

Diversity in public radio should begin with its programming. We need to seriously audit our programming and look at effective ways to produce programming that appeals to a diverse audience. KPFA should sponsor events that reach the communities we want to reach.

5. What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel KPFA should solicit?

KPFA should look at seeking grants from philanthropic groups that also share elements of the Pacifica Foundation mission statement. We must ensure that the funding solicited does not have requirements that are inconsistent with our founding mission. KPFA's First Voice Apprenticeship Program and the KPFA News Department are examples of departments that have sought foundation support from organizations with a vision very similar to that of Pacifica.

6. Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board.

I have worked for KPFA radio for the past five years. Two of those years I volunteered as a First Voice Apprentice and a substitute public affairs host/producer and music department programmer. I bring a great deal of experience to the table as the station's traffic coordinator and former administrative assistant who has worked very closely with our 60 paid staff members and over 200 unpaid music and public affairs programmers at the station. I also spent 7 years serving as a volunteer on three different nonprofit boards of directors. I have also served as program staff at four different nonprofits in San Francisco that focus on issues such from youth advocacy and youth development to racial justice and civil liberties. I am also a Bay Area native.

7. Do you anticipate missing any Local Station Board meetings due to family or job related problems or inadequate transportation?

I do not anticipate missing any LSB meetings. I attended over 90 percent of the meetings during my first term.

8. On which Local Station Board committees* are you interested in actively serving. If you are a current Local Station Board member, on which committees do you currently serve?

I would like to serve on the programming and outreach committees. I am also an elected member to the general manager hiring committee.