Council Members
The WAMU Community Council consists of up to 21 individuals living within the coverage area of WAMU 88.5 who are contributing members and who wish to preserve, promote, and strengthen the public radio service provided by WAMU 88.5.
The composition of the Council reflects the diversity of WAMU 88.5's listening public. Members serve three-year staggered terms. The nominating committee of the Community Council nominates and the full Council votes to recommend candidates to fill vacancies. The appointments are made by station management. The station’s legal advisor, Peter Tannenwald, serves as an ex-officio member of the Council.
Officers
The members of the Community Council choose a Chair and a Vice-Chair. The Chair convenes and presides over all Council meetings. The Vice Chair presides in the absence of the Chair. Kenneth E. Barnes, Sr. serves as the current Chair of the WAMU Community Council and Dale Clayton Morrison is the Vice-Chair.
Please join us in welcoming the five newest members of the WAMU 88.5 Community Council.
Louis Bransford
Dr. Louis Bransford is retired telecommunications executive who until 2004 served as President and CEO of ESATEL Communications, Inc., which was acquired by Pan American Satellite Corporation in 2004 and subsequently merged with Intelsat Corporation in 2005. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the Public Service Telecommunications Corporation (PSTC).
Mary Briggs
Mary Briggs has been a member of the staff of the Cultural Affairs Division of Arlington County, Virginia since 1989, serving in various capacities including visual arts facility director, curator and public art project manager. She is currently Director of Cultural Development, a position that includes responsibility for all culturally diverse visual and performing arts and folklore programs within the County.
Laura Chambers
Laura Chambers is the Chief Operating Officer for Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank focused on utilizing the experience of the growing aging community to help solve society’s greater social problems. She has had over 20 years of front-line advocacy experience.
Maria Gomez
Maria Gomez is the President and CEO of Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care. She founded the organization to build better futures through health care, education and social services that embrace our culturally diverse community. Mary’s Center now serves more than 15,000 individuals and families from across the D.C. metropolitan area, establishing a full complement of programs to focus on holistic family needs.
Manuel (Manny) Hidalgo
Manny Hidalgo has served as Executive Director of the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) in Washington, D.C. since May 2005. LEDC is a 501©3 nonprofit corporation founded in 1991 with a mission to improve the wealth-building capacity of low to moderate income Latinos and other underserved communities in the Washington Metropolitan Area.
Continuing Members of the WAMU 88.5 Community Council:
Kenneth E. Barnes, Sr., Chair
Founder & CEO, ROOT, Inc. (Reaching Out to Others Together) an organization he founded in honor of his son. Under Mr. Barnes' leadership, ROOT has launched "Guns Aside" a campaign to reduce gun violence and homicides in the District of Columbia. In addition to his work at ROOT, and with Parents of Murdered Children, Mr. Barnes serves on the Board of the District of Columbia's Main Street initiative.
Dale Clayton Morrison, Vice Chair
Artist, Potter and Community Activist. Ms. Morrison served with the Peace Corps in West Africa and taught school in El Paso, Texas and in Washington DC. She has been active in the PTA and other school related activities in Montgomery County and served as president of her neighborhood association.
Chuck Bean
Executive Director of the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington. The mission of the Roundtable is to build the strength, influence, and visibility of the nonprofit sector in Greater Washington, D.C. Mr. Bean formerly managed the Community Capacity Fund for Washington Grantmakers.
Elizabeth Downes
Executive Director, Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington, a nonprofit membership organization representing 85 independent schools in the greater Washington, D.C., area. Ms. Downes is a former Chair of the WAMU Community Council.
Jorge Figueredo
President of TPI Business Services, a division of TPI Group, Inc. Mr. Figueredo is a member of the Board of Directors and the former Executive Director and Chief Development Officer of Security One Bank in Falls Church, Virginia. He formerly served as the Executive Director of the Hispanic Committee of Virginia, and as a Commissioner of the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Murray Horwitz
Director and COO of the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Horwitz was Vice President of Cultural Programming for NPR. He is the recipient of three Peabody awards and a Gold Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Lee Kirstein
Member of the Legacy Committee of the National Gallery of Art and a Patron of the National Gallery. Ms. Kirstein served as Co-Chair of the Committee to Build and Plan the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in College Park. She has been a volunteer and supporter of WAMU 88.5 for many years and is a recipient of the station's outstanding volunteer award.
Patricia Matthews
Executive Director of the Northern Virginia Health Foundation. Before joining the foundation, Ms. Mathews formerly served as Kaiser Permanente's first Executive Director for Community Relations in the Mid-Atlantic Region and as consultant to major health philanthropic organizations.
Nancy Sanger Pallesen
Founder and CEO of the Arlington Free Clinic, an organization that is in its 12th year of providing free health care to the low -income residents of Arlington County in Virginia. Ms. Pallesen was recognized for her work with an Arlington Community Hero Award and in 2004, she received a Woman of Vision Award from the Arlington Commission on the Status of Women.
Mark Sachs
Organizational development consultant and executive coach. Before forming his own public broadcasting consulting firm, Mark Sachs &Associates, he worked for NPR as Manager of Station Relations and then went on to CPB where he directed their Management Consulting Service.
Daniel Sheehy
Director and Curator, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Dr. Sheehy is a distinguished ethnomusicologist and the former Director of Folk and Traditional Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kathleen Sheekey
Public interest advocate and former President and CEO of the Advocacy Institute, a Washington, D.C.,-based non-profit that works to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of social justice leaders worldwide. Ms. Sheekey is a Board member of Playing for Peace, an organization that promotes conflict resolution through sports in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Palestine.
Kathryn S. Smith
Ms. Smith is a historian whose books, lectures, public projects, and advocacy have focused on the history of Washington and its diverse communities. Having recently stepped down as the founding executive director of Cultural Tourism DC, she has returned to writing and an active role as board member of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
Amy Truesdell
Senior Emergency Management Specialist, Dewberry & Davis LLC. Ms. Truesdell directs emergency management and disaster services projects at the federal, state, and local levels. She serves as a volunteer with the Fairfax County Disaster Action Team of the American Red Cross and the Alexandria Office on Women.
Peter Tannenwald, Ex Officio Member
Communications Attorney and Partner, Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC. Mr. Tannenwald has been practicing law in the District of Columbia for more than 35 years. He has served as an invaluable advisor to WAMU 88.5 on communications issues for many years.
Alexander D. Wilson
Director for Academic Development at Wilson Senior High School in the District of Columbia. Mr. Wilson worked with WAMU 88.5 in organizing the station's Youth Voices Project. He serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Youth Center.
Victoria Zuckerman
Ms. Zuckerman is the Board Secretary for the Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, an environmental group dedicated to preserving the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. She is a member of the Board of the Oxford Museum and has been a docent at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History for eleven years.
