Staff and Board

Staff Bios

Maggie Avener - Technical and Training Organizer
Maggie got her start with community radio at the age of 5, helping her father with his show on WERU in mid-coast Maine. In high school, she became a program host and all-around volunteer with WERU. Since leaving Maine, she has become increasingly more excited about the technical aspects of radio. Maggie first became involved with Prometheus in 2006 as an Intern, and facilitated radio workshops at the Prometheus barnraising in Greenville, SC. She has also worked on radio projects with the Asian Community Development Corporation in Boston's Chinatown, the Grassroots Radio Conference, the Seattle Girls School, and Seattle's Collective of Collectives.
 Maggie is a licensed extra class ham radio operator and an SBE Certified Broadcast Radio Engineer.

Danielle Chynoweth - Director of Development and Planning
Danielle has 20 years of experience in community media and building grassroots social justice organizations. She co-founded the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center and led its purchase and conversion of the downtown post office building into a Community Media and Arts Center, home to Radio Free Urbana 104.5 LPFM.  

From 2001-2008, she served as a City Council Member and then as Mayor Pro Tem for Urbana, Illinois. During that time she served on the Telecommunications and Public Access TV commissions and instigated public wireless, broadband, and arts programs. 

She founded the Broadband Access Committee which facilitated the successful application process for $22.5 million in Broadband Technology and Opportunities Program funds for Champaign-Urbana. As Vice President of OJC Technologies, she assisted dozens of educational and non-profit organizations in strategic planning and communications.  She co-founded of CU Citizens for Peace and Justice, a grassroots, multi-racial civil rights organization. Danielle has presented on independent media and arts at the National Conference for Media Reform, Allied Media Conference, Midwest Social Forum, Creative Media Workshops in Thailand and Burma, and as part of the School for Designing a Society in Italy and Evergreen State College. She holds a Masters degree in Political Science from the New School for Social Research.


Brandy Doyle - Digital Arts Service Corps VISTA in Regulatory Policy
Brandy is a PhD student of anthropology at Cornell University where her research is focused on the struggle to license community radio in Guatemala. Prior to this, Brandy served as communications director at a medical research non-profit organization for four years, and she has coordinated publications for several other non-profit organizations. Brandy's involvement in media activism began as a reporter for WMNF Community Radio in Tampa, Florida in 2003. She received her BA in anthropology and literature from New College of Florida in 2001.

Cory Fischer-Hoffman - Campaign Director
Cory received a BA from Evergreen State College in the Political Economy of the U.S. Welfare System, Latin American Studies, and Community and Welfare Rights Organizing. She worked as an independent journalist in Venezuela and in other parts of Latin America before entering a Master's program in Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas. While in Kansas, she helped found Lawrence Fair Food and organized with the Student Farmworker Alliance. Cory is passionate about drawing stronger connections between local community radio and struggles for economic justice and self-determination.  


Vanessa Graber - Community Radio Coordinator
Vanessa is a bilingual (English/Spanish) communications specialist with over 10 years media experience. She got her start in radio at WIUP-FM, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s (IUP) college station hosting a variety of music shows. It was there she started the first Spanish language radio program in Indiana County. While in college, Vanessa also worked as a general assignment reporter and weekend news anchor for WDAD 1450AM. After earning a BS in Communications Media from IUP, Vanessa returned to her native Philadelphia to work for commercial stations WUSL Power 99 FM and WJJZ 106.1 FM in public affairs and promotions. 

She went on to earn a Master of Arts in Adult Education and Communications Technology from IUP in 2004 where she was a Graduate Scholar. That same year, Vanessa attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a Roy H. Park Doctoral Fellow in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. As a Park Fellow Vanessa conducted research on international communications development and served as an instructor of media production courses. While in North Carolina, Vanessa also served as a producer at the community radio station, WCOM in Carrboro and at news station WCHL. 

Vanessa has studied journalism and communications in Costa Rica, the US Virgin Islands, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. Most recently, Vanessa served as Development and Communications Director at a Hispanic non-profit organization in Camden, NJ where she worked on an array of political and social issues that affect Latinos.  Vanessa also skates for the Penn Jersey SheDevils Roller Derby team in Philadelphia and creates her own line of locally sold hair accessories.

Andalusia Knoll - Community Station Organizer
Andalusia got her start in the radio world at the age of 7, hosting radio dramas at the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC. Over the past ten years she has been involved with community radio, filling roles such as producer, DJ, host, news editor, administrator, and program coordinator. She co-founded the bi-weekly news program Rustbelt Radio and has worked as a radio and television producer on the internationally syndicated programs, Free Speech Radio News, Democracy Now!, and the South America TV network teleSUR. 

Andalusia has taught AV News courses at Temple University, and serves on the Board of Managers of West Philadelphia’s community station WPEB 88.1 FM. Through her radio work she hopes to expose the racism and abuses inherent in the Prison Industrial Complex, support communities fighting displacement and struggling for self-determination, and broadcast international hiphop. Andalusia has visited and draws inspiration from radio stations around the globe, including the youth led Wayna Tambo in El Alto, Bolivia, Indymedia in Occupied Palestine, and Radio Conciencia in Immokalee, Florida. When she’s not doing anything related to radio, Andalusia enjoys riding her bicycle, teaching others how to repair and maintain their bicycles, eating popcorn, and making people rock it on the dance floor.



Anthony Mazza - Administrative Director
Anthony received his BAS in sociology from Temple University in 2000. He joined Prometheus as a volunteer in the Fall of 2002, joining the staff in 2003 as Administrative Director. In the following years, he took on the primary responsibility of ensuring a sustainable future for the organization. This has included working with the Board of Directors, office administration, and managing of Prometheus's finances.

Ian Smith - Digital Arts Service Corps VISTA in Development and Communications
Ian received his BA in anthropology from Temple University in 2008. Before teaming up with Prometheus he spent a year at the School District of Philadelphia teaching Spanish in grades K-6.

Pete Tridish – Director of Electromagnetism
A member of the founding collective of Radio Mutiny, 91.3 FM in Philadelphia, Pete is also a co-founder of the Prometheus Radio Project. In 1997, he was an organizer for Radio Mutiny, a the station that broadcasted in open defiance of the FCC’s unfair rules prohibiting low power community broadcasting. Pete has been an organizer of “radio barnraisings” in 11 communities around the United States, in which an entire radio station is built by hundreds of volunteers in three days.

Pete actively participated in the rulemaking that led up to the adoption of LPFM, and in the lawsuit of Prometheus vs. the FCC, which prevented a major round of media ownership consolidation in the United States. Pete has helped to build a number of low power radio stations and has provided advice to hundreds. He has done radio trainings in Guatemala, Colombia, Nepal, Tanzania, Jordan and other countries. He has been interviewed for dozens of periodicals, news shows, and documentaries and has spoken at colleges and conferences across the country. He contributed to articles in the books, News Incorporated and Be the Media. Pete holds a BA in Appropriate Technology from Antioch College, and he is an SBE certified Broadcast Radio Engineer. 

Board members

Nan Rubin, Chair
Nan has been involved with public broadcasting production, media management, and non-profit development for more than twenty years. She has built two community-based public radio stations, and has been involved with producing and distributing national public radio programming. She also has extensive background in all aspects of station management, fundraising, policy development, and technical operations. Nan's advice has been instrumental in growing Prometheus’s organizational capacity and efficacy.

Chuck Tarver, Co-Chair
Chuck is Professor Emeritus in the Communication Department at University of Delaware where he taught Radio Programming and Production. He is former Station Manager of WVUD 91.3, the University of Delaware’s full power community radio station.

Cheryl Leanza, Treasurer
Cheryl is a pioneer of community media, fighting for media justice in Washington, DC. She helped to establish low power radio during her tenure as a public interest lawyer at the Media Access Project, and worked with Andy Schwartzmann to represent Prometheus in our historic lawsuit vs. the FCC. Cheryl continues to advise Prometheus on legal matters and is formerly the managing director of the Office of Communications at the United Church of Christ.

Sakura Saunders, Secretary
Sakura is a media activist that has been involved with community radio for the past seven years. She served as program director and office coordinator of KDVS, a 9,200 watt college/community radio station in Davis, CA. In addition, she also helped start KDRT-LP, a low power radio station also serving Davis, CA. Sakura formerly worked at CorpWatch.org, an investigative journalism website that investigates corporate malfeasance. Sakura's radio work has appeared on Democracy Now! and Sprouts Radio, and her writing has been published on CorpWatch.org and in the San Francisco Bay Area publication, Fault Lines, for which she is also a volunteer editor. Sakura is passionately involved in mining issues as they relate to human rights and is the editor of the website protestbarrick.net.

Jeanette Foreman
Jeanette is a Public Policy Consultant and media and social justice policy "edu-actionist." She works with WRFG-FM 89.3 Community Radio in Atlanta.

Mike Shay
Mike is a longtime community organizer and member of the South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development. He is a founder WRYR-LP, where he is the Vice President and Project Manager.