Metro Connection host and staff

Metro Connection is produced by WAMU 88.5 News and also features the stories, commentaries, and expertise of local contributors whose passion and knowledge offer fresh perspectives on living, working, and playing in and around the nation's capital.

Rebecca Sheir

Host Rebecca Sheir joined WAMU 88.5 in 2009 as a news anchor, host and reporter. She became the host of Metro Connection in August 2010.

She comes to the nation's capital by way of Alaska, where she traveled amongst the moose and mountains as the host of "AK," the award-winning show on the Alaska Public Radio Network. While in the Last Frontier, she also did reporting for NPR member station KTOO in Juneau.

Rebecca's radio stories have won numerous awards – including the Third Coast International Audio Festival Directors' Choice Award – and have aired on public radio venues and programs, including All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Marketplace, The Splendid Table, Latino USA, Only a Game, Here & Now, Interfaith Voices, Voice of America, Chicago Public Radio, New Hampshire Public Radio and Iowa Public Radio. She has taught her original radio essay/commentary course, "Radio Voices," at the University of Iowa and University of Alaska Anchorage.

Rebecca received her BA from Columbia University in New York City, where she also worked in Off-Broadway theater production: first with Stephen Sondheim's Young Playwrights Inc., then with Naked Angels Theatre Company. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Iowa.

Tara Boyle

Managing Producer Tara Boyle joined WAMU 88.5 in July 2005 as a producer for The Kojo Nnamdi Show. She became the managing producer of Metro Connection in April 2011.

Tara began her career in public radio at WBUR in Boston, where she worked as a producer and senior writer for Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. Since then, her work has received awards from the Associated Press, the James Beard Foundation, and American Women in Radio and Television, among others.

She has also worked as a reporter for The Boston Globe, where she covered crime, politics and education.

Tara got her master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University and bachelor’s degrees in French and journalism from Boston University.