In the short amount of time that the MQ2 gates were open, we received nominations for 234 individuals from virtually every region in the United States and from seven countries. Of these nominees, our talent committee selected 30 to submit proposals, and in February 2009, we announced those chosen to receive funding for their projects. Here is a list of the finalists and grantees.

 

Jenny Asarnow [Grantee]
Seattle, WA 

2009 MQ2 grantee Jenny Asarnow is an assistant producer for KUOW and a program coordinator and host for Hollow Earth Radio. She is also the producer of a series of documentaries about public spaces in Seattle.

 

 

 

 

Jacob Brancasi [Grantee]
New Orleans, LA

2009 MQ2 grantee Jacob Brancasi is a radio documentarian who co-created, with Heather Booth, a sound-map of New Orleans, Open Sound New Orleans. He is also a violinist and an editor at an advertising agency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyi Howell [Grantee]
Los Angeles, CA

2009 MQ2 grantee Anyi Howell is a public radio reporter for programs such as "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." He performs comedy as King Anyi Howell and is a Youth Radio alum. 

 

 

 

 

 

Anita Johnson [Grantee]
Antelope, CA

2009 MQ2 grantee Anita Johnson is a former Youth Radio reporter and is currently a sound engineer-producer at KPFA. She is also currently producing a documentary film with Freedom Archives, a San Francisco-based organization that restores and archives audiotapes from the late-'60s to the mid-'90s that chronicle the progressive history of national and international solidarity movements.

 

 

 

 

Queena Kim [Grantee]
Los Angeles, CA
2009

MQ2 grantee Queena Kim is a producer for KPCC's Off-Ramp. She formerly produced KPCC's experimental show "Pacific Drift" and was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

 

 

 

 

Kara Oehler [Grantee]
Somerville, MA

2009 MQ2 grantee Kara Oehler is an award-winning producer for programs including "Weekend America" and "Hearing Voices," among others. Her recent project, One Thing, was produced for traditional radio and redefined as a multi-channel, radio-transmitted sound installation for free103point9.

 

 

 

Lu Olkowski [Grantee]
Brooklyn, NY

2009 MQ2 grantee Lu Olkowski is a contributing producer for "Radio Lab," Studio 360, "This American Life," and "Weekend America." She was previously a creative director for Nickelodeon.

 

 

 

Shea Shackelford [Grantee]
Washington, DC 

2009 MQ2 grantee Shea Shackelford has produced for "Day to Day" and "Weekend America." He is a co-creator of the Big Shed podcast; a regular producer-in-residence at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies; and a youth media coordinator at the Latin American Youth Center's Art + Media House.

 

 

 

Rose Bianchini
Ontario, Canada

Rose Bianchini has worked as a TV and radio producer, a crisis counselor, media educator, director and writer. In addition to producing radio for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she is currently working on an on-line gaming project for children, and an animated series.

 

 

 

Philip Blackburn
St. Paul, MN

Philip Blackburn has been the Senior Program Director for the American Composers Forum since 1991 where he runs the Innova Recordings label, producing CDs and regular podcasts and programming five Live365 radio stations.

 

 

 

 

 

Kabir Carter
New York, NY

Kabir Carter is a sound artist, freelance reporter, and WNYC Radio's assistant archivist. He is also the co-producer of WNYC's Transition, an online audio project. He completed an MFA in Music/Sound at Bard College in 2008.

 

 

 

Julie Drizin
Silver Spring, MD

Julie Drizin was one of the creators of "Democracy Now!"; she was a senior producer of "Justice Talking"; and through J-Lab she managed the citizen media start-up program New Voices and helped launch the New Media Women Entrepreneurs initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex Gallafent
Boston, MA

Alex Gallafent is a producer for The World. He is also a blogger, an actor, and a sound designer and composer for theater.

 

 

 

 

Tim Halbur
Los Angeles, CA

Tim Halbur is an independent journalist and producer specializing in digital storytelling. He began his career in public radio reporting on arts and culture for KQED and NPR. Tim is currently managing editor of Planetizen: The Planning and Development Network, where his projects range from urban development investigations to audio tours produced for major institutions and museums across the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scotty Iseri
Chicago, IL

Scotty Iseri is a producer, sound designer and musician who serves as web guru for the live weekly webcast and public radio program Smart City Radio.

 

 

 

 

Josh Jackson
New York, NY

 

Josh Jackson is a special projects producer at WBGO-Newark, where he is the station's blogger-in-chief and producer of Living with Music. He also produces and hosts "Live at the Village Vanguard" for WBGO and NPR Music.

 

 

 

 

 

Tania Ketenjian
San Francisco, CA

Tania Ketenjian developed BIRTH (2007) and BORN (2008) in collaboration with Ahri Golden; together they created cross-platform distribution for these public radio documentaries about the practices and perceptions of birth in America. Tania currently hosts and produces a half-hour weekly program on the arts called "Sight Unseen," which airs on KALX.

 

 

 

Tom Lopez
Fort Edward, NY

Tom Lopez is president of the ZBS Foundation. He is a veteran serial entertainment creator/producer and a former sound man/recordist for Yoko Ono and Captain Beefheart, among others.

 

 

 

 

Pejk Malinovski
New York, NY

Pejk Malinovski is a writer and an award-winning producer for BBC, WNYC, Falling Tree Productions, and the Poetry Foundation. He is a graduate of the Danish Authors School and the Goldsmiths College MA in Radio programme.

 

 

Kenny Malone
Miami, FL

Kenny Malone is in charge of new media outreach and is also assistant producer for WLRN's new program "Under the Sun." He has produced content for "Marketplace Money," Scott Simon's "Weekend Edition Saturday," and The New York Times.

 

 

 

Paul McCarthy
Providence, RI

Paul McCarthy is a producer for Radio Open Source, where he is developing a new curated-conversation program for public radio syndication, utilizing new voice-to-web and cell phone technologies. Previously, he created and produced the "Not Your Classroom" series on WRNI-AM and the "Inside Out" series on BSR-FM.

 

 

 

 

Brendan Newnam
Los Angeles, CA

Brendan Newnam is a Public Insight analyst for American Public Media's national shows and the co-creator and host of the online show The Dinner Party Download.

 

 

 

Ben Rubin
New York, NY

Ben Rubin is a media artist whose major public artworks include San Jose Semaphore for the city of San Jose, California, Four Stories for the Minneapolis Public Library, and Moveable Type, a public art installation commissioned for the lobby of the New York Times building. He has taught at New York University and Yale School of Art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laura Starecheski
Bronx, NY

Laura Starecheski has produced for WNYC's "Radio Lab," WBEZ's "Chicago Matters," the Brooklyn Historical Society, and Curtis Fox Productions. She is a professor of sound production at CUNY's Borough of Manhattan Community College and a guest lecturer at Columbia University, Wellesley College and the New School.

 

 

 

 

Nick van der Kolk
Boston, MA

Nick van der Kolk created and produces the NPR-affiliated podcast "Love & Radio," and he is a founding member of "The New Factographers," an urban documentation collective. He is also a volunteer DJ at WZBC and co-director of the Megapolis Audio Art Festival.

 

 

 

 

Gregory Warner
New York, NY
Gregory Warner is a correspondent for Radio Lab. He was previously an employee at North Country Public Radio; a contributor to PBS/POV's "Borders"; and a prison policy advocate. He has received fellowships from Johns Hopkins SAIS and from the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism.

 

 

 

 

Veralyn Williams
New York, NY

Veralyn Williams is currently working on documenting her first visit to her homeland of Sierra Leone with support from Atlantic Public Media's Open Studio Project. She has held internships at WNYC and Black Enterprise Magazine, and she has worked for Bronx Net TV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trent Wolbe
Brooklyn, NY

Trent Wolbe is a DJ on freeform radio station WFMU specializing in live cross country remote broadcasts using IP technology. He is a former music/web producer for PRI's "Fair Game" and currently produces the Engadget podcast.

 

 

 

 

Jamie York
New York, NY

Jamie York is an associate producer for On the Media. Previously he worked as a collaborating producer for the Kitchen Sisters' "Sonic Memorial Project" and a tutor for WNYC's "Radio Rookies."