Elizabeth Gordon Sachs, President and Founder

Elizabeth Sachs is President, Founder and CEO of the Children’s Radio Foundation (CRF). Trained as a clinical psychologist, Ms. Sachs spent time in Appalachia where she received training, designed programs and wrote grants to support families living in poverty. She then moved to London where in 1983, she conducted research on Depression in Women at the University of London and served in the research division of Amnesty International. Returning to the US, in 1989 she created the Greening of Detroit, an urban reforestation initiative for which she has received numerous awards, and researched issues impacting children living in urban poverty. In 1997 she moved with her Museum Director husband and family to New York where, in 2005 she created the Children’s Radio Foundation. In 2008 she spent an academic year in Oxford England where she co-founded its UK branch.

Charlotte Bannister-Parker

The Revd Charlotte Bannister-Parker is the Bishop of Oxford’s Adviser for Overseas Programmes and Associate Priest at the University Church, St Mary the Virgin. She is also the UK Chair of the Children’s Radio Foundation, Trustee of The International Interfaith Centre and an Associate Faculty Member of the Theology Department at Oxford University.

She has a BA in Politics, Anthropology & Russian Studies from Durham University (1984), an MA in Development Communications for the Centre for Overseas Research and Development, Durham University (1992) and another BA in Contextual Theology, North Thames Ministerial Training Course, London (2004).

Charlotte has worked extensively in South Asia including her research work for her masters, which took place in the Himalayas working with ActionAid Nepal. On return to England she became an Associate Producer for North South Production making documentaries for international NGO and Channel Four and then on to working for Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) and Central TV. She co-founded the charity Learning for Life which funds schools and education projects in India and Pakistan. She founded the annual inter-faith “Friendship Walk” in Oxford and the annual seminar “One Earth, Many Faiths”. In 2008 she her husband and four boys lived in Kimberley, South Africa where Charlotte helped develop with the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman on HIV/Aids educational projects. She remains regular visitors monitoring and support some of the programmes in the region.

Charles C. Bergman, Chair Nominations Committee

Charles C. Bergman is Chairman and CEO of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. He sits on many cultural boards here and abroad and serves as an advisor to wealthy families on their corporate social responsibility.

Edmund J. Burns

Ed Burns is an attorney practicing law in New York City since 1967. A New York native, Ed and his firm specialize in matters regarding Corporation Law, Commercial Law, Probate Law, Real Estate Law, as well as Trials and Appeals Law. Mr. Burns has been a very active participant in the many professional activities available in legal practice such as: The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York State, and American Bar Association, the Board of Directors, Council for Public Interest Law and others. Mr. Burns graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles A.B. 1964, L.L.B. Fordham University 1967.

B. Thomas Henry, Chair Development Committee

Tom is a senior development officer at Williams College, where he is responsible for major gift fundraising. Formerly, Tom held management positions in the Internet services and financial software industries. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Tom currently serves on the advisory boards of Village Health Works (Burundi) and Families for Depression Awareness.

Castleigh Winston Johnson

Castleigh Winston Johnson graduated from Penn State University in 2003 with a BS in Management and International Business. While at Penn State, he was Bunton Waller Fellow and a member of the varsity soccer team. Following his undergraduate studies, he has worked as a financial advisor for New England Financial and as a project manager for Tyco International. In 2008, he obtained an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University, where he was a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management fellow and the recipient of a JP Morgan graduate scholarship. He currently serves as a Bank Examiner for the Federal Reserve of New York.

Suzanne Karotkin

Suzanne Karotkin is the founder of SK Loves, a blog that scours the world for inspired gift ideas. Formerly, Suzanne held fashion editorial positions at W, T, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Instyle. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she earned a BA in Communication with a minor in Fine Arts. Suzanne serves on the board of the Children’s Radio Foundation as well as The Meyer Levy Charitable Foundation.

Monica Menell-Kinberg, Ph. D

Monica Menell-Kinberg has worked in television editing, writing for publication, and has directed film festivals covering topics such as, ”The Latina in Film”, “Transformations: Women and Change in South Africa”, and “Transformations: Women and Change in the Middle East”. Publications include “Eva Peron: The Making of a Myth”, presented at the Latin American Center conference at U.C.L.A in 1995, and “Evita: From Elitelore to Folklore,” Journal of Latin American Lore, 1981.

Monica received her B.A. in History from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, her M.A. in History from U.C.L.A., and her Ph. D in Comparative and International Education from U.C.L.A.

Monica has served on the following boards and committees: The Women’s Leadership Board, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government; The African Century Leadership Committee: Economic Empowerment for the Women of South Africa; American Friends of the Royal Court Theatre, London; Bard College Exchange Program for South African Graduate Students; Aviva House, Los Angeles: Residence for Homeless and Troubled Adolescent Girls; Literacy Partnership for Greater Los Angeles; LINC (Literacy, Inc., New York) and; Ubuntu Education Fund.

Pamela Michaelcheck

Ms. Michaelcheck is a distinguished philanthropist and volunteer. Ms. Michaelcheck serves as the Honory Chairman of the Board of the Southhampton Fresh Air Home, a residential summer camp in Southhampton, NY for handicapped inner city children aged 8-16. She also serves as a board member of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Foundation. Ms. Michaelcheck has devoted significant volunteer and philanthropic energy to organizations including The Family Opera Initiative, the Jane Comfort Dance Company, Prep for Prep, Teach for America, the PEN American Center, and the International Honors Program. Ms. Michaelcheck has an A.B in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College.

Bill Siemering, President of Developing Radio Partners

Bill has been a leader in U.S. public radio management, local and national program development, and fundraising for more than thirty years. His professional tenure includes fourteen years of experience in international media development in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

A founding member of the National Public Radio Board of Directors and author of the network’s original mission and goals, Bill led the development of All Things Considered as NPR’s first Director of Programming. He served for nine years as Vice President and Radio Station Manager of WHYY Inc. in Philadelphia, where he developed a five-year plan for the station’s growth, secured a $1 million development grant, and applied it to surpass all of the plan’s objectives. Under his leadership, Fresh Air with Terry Gross gained a nationwide audience. From 1987-92, he was executive producer of a national weekly documentary series, Soundprint, which earned over 25 national and international awards.

Bill began his international work in 1993 by assisting community radio stations in South Africa’s townships for the Open Society Foundation for South Africa and as a 1993 recipient of a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He returned to South Africa in 1995 as a Knight International Journalism Fellow. From 1996-97, he served as president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Center for Journalists, a leading print and broadcast journalism training program.

Starting in 1993, Bill served for ten years as a senior radio advisor for the Open Society Institute (OSI), which funds civil society initiatives in more than fifty countries and is among the world’s largest private foundations. His work with OSI took him to, among other countries, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldova, and Mongolia and included assessing media news and information programming, management and technical needs, journalism and management training and mentoring.

Developing Radio Partners, founded in 2003, grew out of Bill’s recognition that the development of community radio is most effective when it encompasses a sector-wide approach, building on-going relationships with the stations and in participatory collaboration with local citizens, station managers, and stakeholders. Developing Radio Partners is committed to building vibrant communities through the development of independent media with a focus on radio and the most advanced SMS text messaging.

Bill Siemering received the NPR Lifetime Achievement Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and has received honorary doctorates from State University of New York at Buffalo and Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania. In 2010 he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

Ken Stern

Mr. Stern is a leading media and broadcasting consultant and the former CEO of National Public Radio (NPR), an international producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. During his tenure, NPR doubled its audience in seven years to 26 million weekly listeners, increased the amount of news, talk, entertainment, and music content generated and distributed, and achieved financial stability. Mr. Stern has also served as a Senior Advisor to the Director of the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, the umbrella organization overseeing American worldwide broadcasting operations including Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Voice of America and Radio and TV Marti where he was responsible for policy, affiliate relations, external affairs, business development, engineering, and research.

Charlie Warren

Charlie Warren is a research associate at an international affairs think tank in New York City. He focuses on energy and climate change issues and specializes in African politics. His academic research interests include ethnicity, the political economy of development, resource politics, and media in sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, he conducted research for Ergo, a geopolitical intelligence and emerging markets consultancy. Charlie’s work and internship experience also include the Council on Foreign Relations Africa Program and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Nairobi, where he helped to implement USAID and DFID capacity building programs for Kenyan political parties. In addition to extensive travel in East Africa, Charlie's written work has been published by the Royal African Society's African Arguments and ISN's Security Watch. He is a member of the African Studies Association and the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Charlie is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bowdoin College and speaks Swahili.

Jean Witmer

Ms. Witmer is a graduate of Wesleyan University. Currently, Ms. Witmer sits on the board of the Hudson Webber Foundation in Detroit, Michigan. Formerly, Ms. Witmer served as president of the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich and as the nominating chair of Miss Porter’s School. She and her husband Rick support Teach for America of Connecticut, Citiyear Detroit and The Garden Conservancy.

Charlotte Bannister-Parker

The Revd Charlotte Bannister-Parker is the Bishop of Oxford’s Adviser for Overseas Programmes and Associate Priest at the University Church, St Mary the Virgin. She is also the UK Chair of the Children’s Radio Foundation, Trustee of The International Interfaith Centre and an Associate Faculty Member of the Theology Department at Oxford University.

She has a BA in Politics, Anthropology & Russian Studies from Durham University (1984), an MA in Development Communications for the Centre for Overseas Research and Development, Durham University (1992) and another BA in Contextual Theology, North Thames Ministerial Training Course, London (2004).

Charlotte has worked extensively in South Asia including her research work for her masters, which took place in the Himalayas working with ActionAid Nepal. On return to England she became an Associate Producer for North South Production making documentaries for international NGO and Channel Four and then on to working for Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) and Central TV. She co-founded the charity Learning for Life which funds schools and education projects in India and Pakistan. She founded the annual inter-faith “Friendship Walk” in Oxford and the annual seminar “One Earth, Many Faiths”. In 2008 she her husband and four boys lived in Kimberley, South Africa where Charlotte helped develop with the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman on HIV/Aids educational projects. She remains regular visitors monitoring and support some of the programmes in the region.

Sam Bonham

Sam studied undergraduate Human Geography at the University of Bristol. Since graduating in 2008 he has held roles in radio production and strategy. He presents a new music show on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Somerset, produces at Amazing Radio and is establishing himself as a writer for radio. He works for Digital Radio UK, specialising in the technical development required for a UK digital radio switchover. He is currently seconded to Radioplayer - ‘the new online audio player for radio in the UK’. Sam has written for news, music, sport and environmental publications, including The Guardian and The Ecologist Magazine. Sam will soon be launching a website documenting the oral histories of his grandparents.

Lucy Hannah

Lucy Hannah has worked as a radio producer in both factual programmes and drama in the UK for the past twenty years. More recently, she’s specialised in drama for social change in areas of conflict and post-conflict. These projects have included setting up sustainable radio projects with local dramatists in: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, southern Sudan and Sri Lanka. In 2009 she set up the UK’s first online audio soap opera created and written by young ex-offenders (www.outofthegate.co.uk). Lucy has a Churchill Fellowship (2011) to ask: can audio help to change the lives of young people? She’s currently Programme Manager, Culture, for the Commonwealth Foundation. She’s a trustee of Peacebuilding UK, whose mission is to support and build local capacities for peace in the Russian Federation, predominantly in the North Caucasus region, and Dialogue Productions, which brings the best international plays to the UK.

Edward Mortimer

Edward Mortimer is Senior Vice-President and Chief Programme Officer at the Salzburg Global Seminar. From 1998 to 2006 he served as chief speechwriter and (from 2001) as director of communications to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He has spent much of his career as a journalist, first with The Times of London, where he developed an expertise in Middle East affairs, and later with The Financial Times, where from 1987 to 1998 he was the main commentator and columnist on foreign affairs.

Mr. Mortimer has also served as a fellow and/or faculty at several institutions, including Oxford University (where he is a Fellow of All Souls College), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and (as Honorary Professor) the University of Warwick. He has also served on the governing bodies of several non-governmental organizations, including Chatham House, the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, the John Stuart Mill Institute, and Minority Rights Group International.

Mr. Mortimer received an M.A. in modern history from Oxford University. His writings include: "People, Nation, State: The Meaning of Ethnicity and Nationalism" (co-edited with R. Fine 1999), "The World that FDR Built" (1989), "Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam" (1982)

Elizabeth Gordon Sachs, President and Founder

Elizabeth Sachs is President, Founder and CEO of the Children’s Radio Foundation (CRF). Trained as a clinical psychologist, Ms. Sachs spent time in Appalachia where she received training, designed programs and wrote grants to support families living in poverty. She then moved to London where in 1983, she conducted research on Depression in Women at the University of London and served in the research division of Amnesty International. Returning to the US, in 1989 she created the Greening of Detroit, an urban reforestation initiative for which she has received numerous awards, and researched issues impacting children living in urban poverty. In 1997 she moved with her Museum Director husband and family to New York where, in 2005 she created the Children’s Radio Foundation. In 2008 she spent an academic year in Oxford England where she co-founded its UK branch.

Simon Weil

Simon Weil is an Attorney specializing in Charity Law. He has worked for the London law firm Bircham Dyson Bell since 1978, and has been a partner since 1983. He is currently head of the firm's Individuals Group, specializing in charities, tax planning, investment property for charities and the resolution of potentially contentious issues arising out of wills, trusts and co-ownership of property for charities and private clients. Simon is a member of the Charity Law Association and the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Practitioners, and he sits on the advisory board of the European Association for Planning Giving. Simon has helped to pioneer the development of real property investment pooling schemes for charities and advised in the creation of the Absolute Return Trust for Charities, the first common investment fund of hedge funds.

Dr. Thomas L. Benson

Dr. Thomas L. Benson is the Executive Director of the World Leadership Corps, an international service-learning organization affiliated with the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford. Tom is an educator with broad experience in academic leadership and international education. He was a founder and the first chairman of the ASIANetwork, a North American consortium of liberal arts institutions. Currently he serves as the founding chairman of the Africa Network, and is also a board member of the Myanmar Foundation and the Japan ICU Foundation. Dr. Benson was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County for 15 years and the first director of its Interdisciplinary Studies and General Honors programs. He is the President Emeritus of Green Mountain College, an innovative, environmentally oriented liberal arts college in Vermont. Dr. Benson has published papers in the fields of international education, the humanities, ethics, and public policy, and he holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and The Johns Hopkins University.

Deirdre Cossman

Deirdre Cossman is a librarian, writer and television producer. She currently works as a consultant at Bickel & Brewer, a boutique litigation firm, in their New York office and also serves as the Assistant Director of the Bickel & Brewer Latino Institute for Human Rights at NYU Law School which is part of the Bickel & Brewer Foundation. Previous to joining Bickel & Brewer in early 2008, she spent several years working on writing and editing projects at Random House and promoted a new public library marketing tool in libraries across the country. She serves as an associate board member of The Bone Marrow Foundation and is the author of Museums of New York City, a guide to the city's museums and historic homes.

Kim Andrew Elliott

Mr. Elliott is an audience research analyst in the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau. From 1995 to 2002, he was producer and host of Communications World, a popular weekly Voice of America program about electronic media and international broadcasting.

Suki Fredericks

Ms. Fredericks is a paintings conservator who is currently involved in The Children's Initiative in Vietnam and Ethiopia and the Selamta Children's Home project of the Human Capital Foundation in Addis Ababa. She participated in the Children's Radio Foundation's first fact-finding trip to South Africa in April 2006.

Barbara Ganley

Ms. Ganley is the Director of The Project for Integrated Expression at Middlebury College. She writes on implementing new media and social software into literature and writing classrooms. Ms. Ganley's special interests include digital storytelling as a means of academic discourse and integrated web technologies as vehicles for expression, community-building, and student-centered learning.

Peggy Elliott Goldwyn

Ms. Goldwyn founded the Samuel Goldwyn Childcare Center of the Motion Picture and Television Fund and served as Chairperson of the Advisory Board until 2005. She is past President of the Beverly Hills, California Board of Education, a member of the Board of Americans for UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund) and LA's Best, an after-school program for children 5-14 in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Bonnie Strauss Gould

Ms. Strauss has had a distinguished career in television journalism and documentary film, and her work has helped initiate legislative and community change. She worked as a reporter and producer at ABC in the 1970s. Following that position, she received an Emmy Award for her investigative journalism work at CBS. In the 1980s, she worked as a special correspondent for Good Morning America and then began contributing reports to Evening News with Peter Jennings and Nightline. In the 1990s, Ms. Strauss received a Gold Cine award for her first documentary about women living in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Currently, Ms. Strauss travels the world researching stories while continuing to develop thought-provoking work for HBO and Showtime.

Joan Grubin

Ms. Grubin is a practicing visual artist in New York City. She exhibits her work widely, and is an active participant in the New York arts community. Previously, Joan enjoyed a career as a documentary film editor, working primarily on films for Public Television. She currently serves on the board of the newly formed Vermont College of the Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont, and has served on the Board of Trustees at the Brearley School.

Eva Haller

Eva is a recognized social, educational, and environmental philanthropist in the United States and across the globe.

A Masters Degree in social work from Hunter College in New York City served as the springboard for a long and distinguished career in social issues research, family and child therapy, and consulting work.

Eva works actively to promote peace and social policies that effectively deal with today's global challenges. She is a trustee of the University of California at Santa Barbara Foundation, the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, the Creative Vision Foundation, and Sing for Hope. Eva serves as board chair of Free the Children USA, an organization dedicated to eradicating child poverty, exploitation, and the use of child soldiers. Her extensive board work also includes the Jane Goodall Institute and Women for Women International.

She has received numerous awards from her native country of Hungary, as well as humanitarian awards in the United States and throughout the world.

Grethe Barrett Holby

Ms. Holby currently serves as the Founder & Executive Artistic Director of Family Opera Initiative, an initiative begun under her leadership at American Opera Projects, and now a program of Ardea Arts, Inc. Ms. Holby also founded American Opera Projects, a company dedicated to developing new American Opera. She recently completed a Rockefeller Residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy, and currently serves on the Board of MATA, a New York City-based company dedicated to performing the work of young composers.

Lee W. Huebner

Mr. Huebner has been the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University since the summer of 2006. He came to GWU from Northwestern University, where he had served since 1994 as Professor of Communication Studies and Journalism. Mr. Huebner also served as Publisher and CEO of the Paris-based International Herald Tribune for fourteen years. He has been a board member for media companies in Hong Kong and East Africa and is a consultant for the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development.

Ellen Hume

Ms. Hume is the research director of MIT's new Center for Future Civic Media (C4FCM) which develops new techniques and technologies to promote and enhance civic engagement in local communities.Ms. Hume is founding director of the Center on Media and Society at University of Massachusetts Boston and of the New England Ethnic Newswire (www.ethnicnewz.org).

James A. Kelly

Mr. Kelly has a long history of leading education-based organizations. At Widmeyer Communications, Mr. Kelly provides strategic communications expertise to clients facing organizational and communications challenges. Mr. Kelly was president and chief executive officer of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which he founded. Kelly serves as senior advisor to the Asia Society and the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. He is on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Educational Leadership and the Board of Overseers of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a former program officer at the Ford Foundation and was on the faculty at the Teachers College, Columbia University.

Pamela J. Larson

Ms. Larson has directed the National Academy of Social Insurance since it began operations in 1987. She has worked closely with the Academy's members, board, and staff to develop research and education programs on Social Security and Medicare, long-term care and leadership development. Prior to her work at the Academy, Ms. Larson was the Director of Membership Services for the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. She has taught Medicare policy at Florida State University and written articles on related topics.

Dr. Jordan D. Metzl

Dr. Metzl is a nationally recognized sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery, America's premier sports medical hospital. He is the co-founder of The Sports Medicine Institute for Young Adults, a center designed to treat and prevent sports injuries in youth athletes. Dr. Metzl lectures and has published numerous articles about children and sports medicine in addition to his 2002 book entitled The Young Athlete: A Sports Doctor's Complete Guide for Parents. Dr. Metzl has completed Sports Medicine Fellowships at Vanderbilt University and Harvard University. He is a former contributor for CBS National News and has provided commentary on CBS News, NBC News, and the New York Times.

The Reverend Canon Anne Mallonee

The Reverend Canon Anne Mallonee has served as the Vicar of the Trinity (Episcopal) Church, Wall Street, since 2004. Prior to that, her ministry included the Cathedral Church of St. Mark in Minneapolis, and the Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford. As Vicar, Reverend Mallonee is responsible for day-to-day congressional life. For three centuries, Trinity has been a catalyst for transformational change from starting schools in New York in the 18th century to fighting apartheid in South Africa in the 20th century. The Trinity Grants Program has long supported work in the Global South and is committed to the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2000.

Jonathan C. Rich

Mr. Rich has worked with international organizations for almost eight years. As the Director of Strategic Communications for Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation, Mr. Rich advised the Executive Office of then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on his U.S. outreach efforts, as well as advising and assisting the offices of numerous other senior UN officials. Mr. Rich founded his own communications, media relations and advocacy consulting firm, JCR Communications, Inc. His clients include UNICEF, UNAIDS, WaterAid, the International Women's Health Coalition and other UN agencies, international NGOs and international foundations. Mr. Rich is also a partner in A&R Global Consulting, an economic development consulting business working with clients on investment opportunities and projects in China, Eastern Europe and other emerging economies.

Jeff Rosenberg

Mr. Rosenberg is a leading international radio expert and the former director of NPR Worldwide, which coordinated the distribution and rebroadcast of NPR around the world. Mr. Rosenberg was a senior producer in the News Division of NPR for 30 years and helped to develop the news-magazine program, All Things Considered. He is a member of the Indo-US Sub-commission's media advisory committee, working with All India Radio. Mr. Rosenberg was the Senior Pool Producer for all U.S. radio networks on trips of the President overseas.

Dr. Alan R. Ruby

Mr. Ruby has been a Senior Fellow for International Education at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania since 2005. Prior to that position, Mr. Ruby was the Senior Vice President of Programs at The Atlantic Philanthropies where he oversaw the Disadvantaged Children and Youth Program, the Ageing Program, and the Health of Populations Program. Mr. Ruby was the Director of the Human Development Sector for the East Asia Region of the World Bank, and he served for six years as deputy secretary in the Australian Department of Employment, Education, Training, and Youth Affairs.

Alexander Sachs

Mr. Sachs is a design and development entrepreneur with strong project management, marketing, technology, web design, architectural design and operations experience. He is active in hotel development projects in New York and New Jersey, as well as philanthropic endeavors in the arts, environment and humanities.

Arthur G. Sachs

Mr. Sachs spent many years as a financial executive in the magazine publishing industry, and is currently a Financial Services Representative with the MetLife Financial Group of New York. He served 12 years as the president of the board of directors of the Bloomingdale School of Music, a community music school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and has served as a clerk of the finance committee and treasurer of the Farm and Wilderness Foundation, a Quaker-based nonprofit organization in Plymouth, Vermont.

Bill Siemering

Mr. Siemering is the President of Developing Radio Partners, which helps to bring information to those people who need it most - in developing countries and in rural areas. He is a founding member of the National Public Radio Board of Directors and author of the network's original mission and goals. He developed "All Things Considered" as NPR's first Director of Programming. Mr. Siemering began working internationally in radio by assisting community radio stations in South Africa's townships as a 1993 recipient of a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Mr. Siemering served as president of the International Center for Journalists and also served a senior radio advisor for the Open Society Institute.

Dr. Spencer Wells

Dr. Wells is a geneticist and anthropologist, an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, and director of the Society's Genographic Project. His fascination with the past has led him to the furthest reaches of the globe in search of human populations who hold the history of humankind in their DNA.

Edmund J. Burns

Ed Burns is an attorney practicing law in New York City since 1967. A New York native, Ed and his firm specialize in matters regarding Corporation Law, Commercial Law, Probate Law, Real Estate Law, as well as Trials and Appeals Law. Mr. Burns has been a very active participant in the many professional activities available in legal practice such as: The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York State, and American Bar Association, the Board of Directors, Council for Public Interest Law and others. Mr. Burns graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles A.B. 1964, L.L.B. Fordham University 1967.

Rosemary A. Burns

Rosemary A. Burns is a CPA and co-founder of Lafond, Hagan, Burns &smp; Associates (LHB), a firm offering financial, regulatory and consulting services to the financial service industry.

Elizabeth Gordon Sachs, President and Founder

Elizabeth Sachs is President, Founder and CEO of the Children’s Radio Foundation (CRF). Trained as a clinical psychologist, Ms. Sachs spent time in Appalachia where she received training, designed programs and wrote grants to support families living in poverty. She then moved to London where in 1983, she conducted research on Depression in Women at the University of London and served in the research division of Amnesty International. Returning to the US, in 1989 she created the Greening of Detroit, an urban reforestation initiative for which she has received numerous awards, and researched issues impacting children living in urban poverty. In 1997 she moved with her Museum Director husband and family to New York where, in 2005 she created the Children’s Radio Foundation. In 2008 she spent an academic year in Oxford England where she co-founded its UK branch.

Dr. Mike Rahfaldt

Mike is a radio producer, journalist, trainer, and academic specializing in youth media and education, popular music, and arts journalism. Originally from the US, he has been living and working in Cape Town for eight years.

Before joining the Children's Radio Foundation as Programme Director, Mike taught radio production and social anthropology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) from 2001-2007. He was responsible for designing the new radio curriculum for UCT's Centre for Film and Media Studies, and also developed a series of media production and digital storytelling projects.

Mike has been involved in a wide range of youth radio projects, including collaborative productions with prisoners, asylum seekers, primary and high school students, and other children and young adults. As a journalist, he has also contributed to "The World," a Public Radio International, BBC World Service, and WGBH co-production.

Mike received his PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan in 2007. His research investigates the radio listening habits of young people in South Africa.

Nina Callaghan

Nina is the Assistant Director at CRF. She administers the South African board and local partnerships, is a youth media trainer for local projects, and is executive producer for the foundation's weekly radio show, The Radio Workshop. Before this she spent eight years as a television journalist and sub-editor, with a focus on health, the environment and children's issues. After graduating with a BA from the University of Cape Town in 1996, she went on to perform and devise theatre with a company. Much of their work was around training youth in drama and using theatre to link divided communities. She completed a Higher Diploma in Library and Information Science, and worked at a public library as a children's librarian. She focussed on improving children's access to information, teaching research skills and reader guidance.

Nina is particularly interested in storytelling, finding the hidden narrative that lives in our inner worlds. She is inspired by the resilience and vulnerability of children and the strong personal visions many young South African's have about their future.

Njogu George Githuma

Njogu George Githuma is a youth facilitator with experience working with young people around issues of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, climate change, and a series of participatory media projects. George is currently finishing his BA at Moi University in Nairobi, specializing in Communications. George was a lead facilitator in CRF and UNICEF's World Cup in My Village initiative, implementing a training strategy and youth media production program in Western Province, Zambia. In addition, George has worked as a facilitator on a series of UNICEF programs, including the Children's Climate Forum in Copenhagen, the Zambia Children's Climate Conference, and the 30th Anniversary of UNICEF's Alma-Ata Declaration.

Clémence Petit-Perrot

Clémence Petit-Perrot is the Curriculum Director of the Children’s Radio Foundation, a media trainer and consultant, and a multimedia journalist. Fluent in French and English, Clémence has conducted radio, video, and photography workshops with young people across Africa, and has served as the lead facilitator on a number of CRF trainings. She has ten years of radio journalism experience with Radio France Internationale (RFI) and from 2008 to 2011, was the Southern Africa correspondent for RFI Africa service. Clémence has extensive experience in audiovisual and multimedia production. She worked for three years for the South African company Doxa Productions where she was in charge of researching and producing a series of educational DVD- ROMS about South African contemporary history. She also has collaborated with different French and pan-African newspapers, magazines, press agencies and TV channels. Clemence received the diplome de l’Insitut d’Etudes Politiques (Science-Po) at l’Université de Toulouse and a post-graduate degree in Journalism at the IUT de Journalisme de Bordeaux.

Yumna Martin

Yumna Martin is the Program Director at the Children’s Radio Foundation. She facilitates training workshops, co-produces a weekly children’s radio show on national radio in South Africa, manages a series of CRF country-based projects, and assists with curricular development. Yumna's career as a journalist, trainer, and curricular developer started as a Production and Project Assistant for Youth Diggz A'Live, a branch off of Workers World Media, and as a Associate Producer for Yenza, the Apartheid Memory Project. In 2006 Yumna entered the commercial media industry and worked as a magazine Features Writer for three years before moving to UK. While living in London she worked as an Online News Editor for Ctrl.Alt.Shift, a youth branch of the international poverty alleviation organization Christian Aid, and as a New Media Communications Officer for London's first children's hospice, Richard House. Yumna also teaches radio production at the University of Cape Town.

Joan Legalamitlwa

Joan Legalamitlwa is a South African Project Director at the Children's Radio Foundation. She is a former director of the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival and has been involved in the organizing of various other local film events including the International Public Television Conference (INPUT); the North West Film Festival; the Tri-Continental Film Festival and the Cape Town World Cinema Festival. Joan has served on the Apollo Film Festival Documentary Jury in 2006; the First Appearance Jury of the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) 2009, International Jury of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival 2011 and the Short Film Jury at the 2011 Cape Winelands Film Festival. She has worked as film and video curator at the Stevenson gallery and now occasionally works as an independent curator.

Maddie Callis

Maddie Callis fulfills the role of International Operations Coordinator for the Children's Radio Foundation. Based in New York, she helps streamline processes and ensure communications. After graduating from Rhodes College in 2010 with Bachelors of Arts in Latin American Studies and Spanish, Maddie moved to New York City and joined the CRF team. Maddie helped start a radio station at her high school in Columbia, Missouri and relaunch Rhodes Radio in Memphis, Tennessee. CRF allows her to pursue her passions while working. While studying and living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Maddie honed her Spanish skills and developed a love for Latin America. As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, she will pursue graduate studies in Brazil in 2014. She serves as a Committee Chair for Rhodes College Alumni Group of New York City.

Kaitlin Parker

Kaitlin first interned with CRF in Cape Town while she was working on her MA in journalism from the University of Southern California Annenberg School. With CRF's production team, she conducted interviews, edited audio and wrote scripts for CRF's weekly show, the Radio Workshop. Following her graduation from USC, Kaitlin spent a summer interning for NPR's Morning Edition at their West Coast offices. Now she's made the move to New York to assist CRF President Beth Sachs and help with special projects. Kaitlin has a BA in English from Davidson College.