Staff

Ellin O'Leary, Chief Content Officer/President

Ellin O'Leary founded Youth Radio along with a group of Bay Area high school students, based on her work as an award-winning journalist. Ms. O'Leary originally worked in youth media in 1979, as the startup producer for Youth News in Berkeley. Previously, she was a reporter covering the White House, Capitol Hill, and foreign affairs for Pacifica Radio in Washington, D.C., where she also co-founded the Pacifica National Network, serving community stations around the country with a daily news feed. Ms. O'Leary also worked as a reporter for National Public Radio, based in San Francisco; as News Director for KPFK in Los Angeles; as News Director for Inner City Broadcasting/KRE-KBLX in the Bay Area. Later, she worked as News Director launching the all-news format at KQED-FM, and as a producer at KQED TV.

Jacinda Abcarian, Executive Director:

Jacinda Abcarian is a graduate of Youth Radio's class of 1993. She moved from a student and peer teacher to an award winning reporter and producer. She has worked as a reporter for WRFG-FM in Atlanta and as a journalism fellow at NPR in Washington, DC. Awards include a Golden Reel from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for Accidental Shooting, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton Award, for her producer role in the series, Emails from Kosovo. Jacinda has been active in initiatives promoting prevention of tobacco-use and gun violence among youth. Jacinda earned a BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley and completed Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management at Harvard Business School. She is also a member of the City of Oakland's Cultural Arts Commission. 

Rebecca Martin, Senior Producer:

Rebecca Martin leads our national network which includes Youth Radio bureaus in D.C., Los Angeles and Atlanta, and youth correspondents who represent the diversity of the American landscape, coming from both urban and rural parts of the country. Before coming to Youth Radio in 1998, she was a producer for Public Radio International's "The World," working with correspondents around the globe including Africa, Europe and Latin America, and producing special series from Northern Ireland and Cuba. She was also a producer at National Public Radio, working with reporters and newsmagazine hosts on interviews and field production. Rebecca also worked at CNN in the Special Reports unit, contributing to documentaries on Native Americans, Generation X and the O.J. Simpson murder trial. In college, Rebecca was news director at KALX radio at the University of California Berkeley.

Elisabeth "Lissa" Soep, Senior Producer and Education Director:

Elisabeth Soep holds a PhD in education from Stanford University. She serves as both our Education Director and as a Senior Producer in the newsroom. Elisabeth Soep also collaborates with other staff and youth to develop, document, and evaluate learning experiences at Youth Radio. She writes and lectures about youth culture, language, and learning for popular and academic audiences and has taught at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education and at San Francisco State University. Elisabeth Soep's many publications in the field of youth media and community-based education include the University of Pennsylvania Press book, ‘Youthscapes: The Popular, The National, The Global," and articles in The teachers College Record, The International Handbook of Research on Arts Education, and most recently, The Harvard Educational Review.

Nishat Kurwa, News Director:

Nishat Kurwa is the News Director at Youth Radio, managing converged media production for Youth Radio's broadcast and online outlets, and working closely with the Chief Content Officer on strategic planning. Most recently, Nishat led the team that launched the company's music hub, AllDayPlay.fm, bringing the San Francisco Bay Area's most popular mix DJs to streaming radio and podcasting. Nishat's past reporting for Youth Radio's International Desk included coverage of girls returning to school in Kabul after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, young South Indian villagers rebuilding after the Asian tsunami, and Cape Town youth entering college a decade after the end of apartheid. In the commercial radio sphere, Nishat worked as the producer of the hip hop public affairs show "Street Knowledge with Davey D" on KMEL FM, and is also a news producer at KCBS Radio in San Francisco. In 2004, she was named a Salzburg Seminar Fellow.

Tuere Anderson , Director of Health Services:

Tuere Anderson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in California with over 10 years of experience in social work. Throughout her career Tuere has worked with multiple populations including HIV+ youth, homeless seniors, people with developmental disabilities and mental illness, and people in the criminal justice system. In addition to clinical positions, Tuere has experience as a grant writer, program evaluator, and was the Media/Outreach Coordinator for California Prison Focus where she hosted a weekly radio show focusing on issues of incarceration in addition to being a member of the Board of Directors.

Erik Sakamoto, Director of Youth Programs:

Erik Sakamoto leads our Youth Development and Training Programs at Youth Radio. He brings 9 years of experience from his work in East Bay community based non-profits focused on juvenile justice, youth development, youth activism, and technology education. He has worked in the classroom, in after-school programs, residential facilities, and detention centers. Central to his work, past and present, is the cultivation of youth leaders to bring about change in Oakland. He is a graduate of UCLA with a degree in Psychology.

Jane Barker, Accounting Manager

Originally from England, Jane Barker comes to Youth Radio after working as Bookkeeper and Business Manager for a number of different non-profits in the Bay Area â€" including a memorable stint at Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, where she is now the Treasurer of the Board of Directors. Even in her spare time, Jane Barker works with numbers, assisting with Timing & Scoring for one of the Open Road Racing Organizations and competing in many accuracy-based car rallies. She is pursuing a side career in landscape photography as well.

Clarissa Doutherd, bookkeeper:

Clarissa “if it don’t make dollars it don’t make sense” Doutherd has worked and volunteered for several non-profits in the bay area including The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Bay Area Women Against Rape and Free Battered Women. She is currently pursuing a degree in Accounting at City College of San Francisco. She is the proud mother of a toddler and lives in Oakland.

Ben Frost, Music and Web Radio Commissioner:

Ben Frost is a graduate of Youth Radio's Fall class of 1995. He currently teaches our music production, sound design, and podcasting classes, as well as managing, and developing talent for, Youth Radio's Web Radio streams. He holds a B.A. in Politics from U.C. Santa Cruz, and spent a year abroad in Paris where he attended the Sorbonne University. His music production credits include work for various artists in the Bay Area, as well as producing music for plays performed in local venues and the Hip-Hop Theater Festival. During his 3 years working for Berkeley Sound Artists, Ben designed sound for documentaries, independent films, ads, and video games.

Charlie Foster, Science Producer:

Charlie Foster produces stories about science, technology and the environment for our newsroom and trains youth how to cover those topics in our development programs. Before joining Youth Radio in February 2009, he covered Silicon Valley for Forbes Magazine and freelanced for NPR, KQED and The New York Times Magazine. He has worked as an intern for NPR’s Science Desk and KQED’s Quest science series, and as a reporter and news editor for the public radio station WLIU in Southampton, N.Y. Charlie has also taught high school biology and written for documentary films. He majored in biology at Gettysburg College and received his master’s degree from U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he coordinated the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism and won an award for political reporting.

Matther Holt, Case Manager:

Matthew Holt obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from San Francisco State University and is currently a Case Manager here at Youth Radio. Matthew’s familial background has left him with extensive experience with youth in the foster care system as his family has been  fostering children for over ten years. Matthew has worked closely with youth diagnosed with behavioral and mental disorders as an Inclusion Facilitator for Aspira Net and co-facilitated a children’s group at Bessie Coleman Court, a transitional housing facility for battered women and their children.

Patrick Johnson, Youth Media Education Manager:

A graduate of Youth Radio's class of 1998, Patrick Johnson went directly to Howard University in Washington DC where he gained a BA in Broadcast Journalism and a Minor in Sports Administration. Patrick Johnson has experience working in television production at the Hip Hop Zone, television programming at WHUT (PBS affiliate), in radio through WHBC-830 AM and in print journalism through his position as sports editor for Contra Costa College's newspaper, The Advocate as well as a freelance reporter for the District Chronicle. He has traveled to Switzerland to study hip hop culture among Swiss youth. Patrick Johnson currently serves as Youth Radio's Youth Media Education Manager.

Dione Lien, College-Readiness Coordinator:

Dione joined Youth Radio in 2005 as an AmeriCorps member, providing academic and career support to Youth Radio participants. She currently helps with the coordination of new AmeriCorps members, and continues to work with students in individual meetings and group workshops. When she is not at Youth Radio, Dione enjoys spending time with friends and family.

Belia Mayeno Saavedra, Community Action Program Coordinator:

Belia Mayeno Saavedra leads Youth Radio's Community Action Project, a program designed specifically for Oakland youth who have had encounters with the criminal justice system or who are struggling to stay in school. Her position combines both of her professional passions- youth development and media production. Her work as part of Youth Radio’s production team has garnered a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television, an Ed Bradley Scholarship and Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio and Television news Directors Association, a Silver Reel from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and a Columbia University Alfred duPont Silver Baton for Excellence in Journalism. Her youth-development experience includes anti-sexual assault education and rape crisis counseling with young women in San Francisco's Mission District, and facilitating creative writing workshops for incarcerated teens and homeless QLGBT young people in New York City. She is a graduate of the City University of New York's Hunter College with a degree in English.

Maeven McGovern , Community Health Education Manager:

Maeven McGovern completed Youth Radio in 2000. After graduating from Berkeley High in 2003, she went to study community art and performance theory in UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures Department. Maeven brings ten years of Dating Violence prevention experience to her current position as Community Health Education Manager, as well as having an extensive youth development background. She is currently responsible for the on the ground engagement and implementation of Youth Radio’s Boss of Me (BOM) teen dating violence primary prevention social messaging campaign, which includes training the Peer Health Advocacy interns in pertinent community health advocacy and education, community health issues, as well as supervising media content production and outreach.

Brandon McFarland, Music Production Instructor / Reporter:

Since he joined Youth Radio in 2003, at the age of 17, Brandon has helped plan national youth media conferences, and has participated in iGrid 2005, the groundbreaking international conference designed to accelerate the use of multi-10Gb technology to advance scientific research. His commentaries about "Sagging" and "Spanking" aired on NPR's All Things Considered, and have sparked much audience feedback.

Brett Myers, National Network Field Producer

Brett Myers is a producer for our National Network which includes Youth Radio bureaus in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., as well as our collaborating partners throughout the country. Before coming to Youth Radio in July of 2006, Brett worked both as an independent producer and with three other Peabody Award winning radio institutions including, Sound Portraits Productions, StoryCorps, and The Kitchen Sisters. He received a BFA in Photography & Imaging from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and was named one of the top 25 photographers under the age of 25 by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Summer Sewell, Producer, BOM Los Angeles Coordinator:

Summer graduated from SFSU with a B.A. in journalism and began working at Youth Radio Oakland as the local-programming radio producer and newsroom intern supervisor. After relocating to Los Angeles, after spending five years in San Francisco, she is now the coordinator of the Boss Of Me campaign for the L.A. area. The youth-rooted BOM campaign allows her to continue her enjoyment of creating radio and web content with high school students. Summer is a freelance journalist and producer for KPFK’s “Beneath the Surface.”

Denise Tejada, Production Assistant:

Since joining Youth Radio's class of 2003, At age 15, Denise has moved from student to video/broadcasting peer teacher to a production assistant in our news department. Her video feature, Mission District Diversity, won the My City Now Future Filmmaker Contest as part of KQED's Education Network. Denise was also part of a group of young reporters who covered the 2008 Republican National Convention. She is also a 2009 Gracie award recipient for best correspondent/ reporter. She is currently attending Berkeley City College.

Wilmer Tejada, Online Associate Producer:

A graduate of Youth Radio's class of 2003, Wilmer Tejada moved from a student to web intern and peer teacher. Currently, Wilmer Tejada updates our website, creates scripts and images, and teaches advanced online skills to our web interns. Mr. Tejada is also an accomplished photographer-his photos of San Francisco's Mission District have been showcased in Washington, D.C. at the National Geographic Society. Wilmer Tejada is a student at Berkeley City College.

Surmiche “ Memi” Vaughn, Facilities Manager:

Memi graduated from Youth Radio’s core class in 2000. She has worked cross department as an intern engineering content and assisting the administrative department with various task for Youth Radio. Memi was officially hired at Youth Radio in 2005 as Office Manager. She has always had a passion for the administrative field and has received her A.A. degree at University of Phoenix in Healthcare Administration. She is currently the Facilities Manager of Youth Radio where she manages maintenance projects throughout the building and assists the artist in residence on the décor of Youth Radio.