Welcome to KALW’s Audio Academy Class of 2019

By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio

It’s a new academic year, and that means KALW‘s Audio Academy has a new class! We just got started with a two-day orientation last week, during which we made introductions and shared stories about ourselves, discussed our station’s mission along with the history of the Academy and support we’ve received from ACE, and gave primers on the fundamentals of audio journalism that we’ll be building upon for the next nine months. With all that, we still found time to squeeze in an outdoor dance party with more than 20 participants!

We wanted to give you a chance to meet the incoming fellows. Let’s do it, with some very oversimplified three-point biographies:

JoAnn DeLuna
– Was based for a long time in New York City and moved out to the Bay Area for this opportunity
– Worked in journalism for nine years, primarily as a business writer
– Would love to work for Latino USA

 

Lance Gardner
– Grew up in the Bay Area, lived in Berkeley and Oakland, and moved to Palo Alto
– Is an in-demand actor leading performances for groups like Berkeley Rep
– Picked up the audio bug, taught himself how to engineer, and produced a series of stories about street buskers for Crosscurrents

Pria Mahadevan
– Received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Brazil and speaks four languages
– Lived in Santa Barbara, but moved to the Bay Area to be part of the Audio Academy
– Is interested in Brazilian stories, is learning ASL, and is interested in doing stories about the deaf community

Maggie McKay
– Is originally from the Midwest
– Taught herself how to make radio and records cab driver stories
– Is interested in finding ways to talk about big issues in San Francisco with kids

 

Kevin McLean
– Is a scientist who has done postdoc research at Davis and Stanford, studying mammals in trees
– Received Fulbright and National Geographic scholarships
– Has volunteered at a public radio station in Connecticut

 

 

Porfirio Rangel
– Graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in broadcast communications

– Worked a lot in radio in college, and has done some work with KGO

– Makes a show called The Peep Show, in which he talks about pop culture

Lisa Wang
– Worked for Google
– Studied with one of KALW’s former editors
– Has taken three different podcasting classes in the last year

 

Alyia Yates
– Attended and graduated from Mills College, because she wanted to take radio from former KALW news director Holly Kernan there
– Cobbled together a major combining theater and media
– Listens to Crosscurrents every day

Welcome to the Audio Academy class of 2019! We can’t wait to hear the stories you make.