Independent, listener-supported media is more essential now than ever. At a time when corporate consolidation, political intimidation, racial hierarchies, misinformation, and censorship threaten public discourse, Pacifica’s five stations must remain places where people can speak truth, challenge power, nurture culture, and build community.
I bring to this role decades of experience as an economist, educator, author, journalist, commentator, and organizational leader. As a progressive Black feminist economist, I have spent my career examining inequality, racial justice, labor, poverty, public policy, and the ways economic power shapes people’s lives. As a former CNN commentator and syndicated columnist, I understand the importance of media access, message discipline, fairness, accuracy, and courageous speech. As a former president of Bennett College, I have managed complex institutions, worked with boards, raised money, navigated conflict, defended mission, and led through challenge. Those experiences taught me that leadership requires vision, discipline, accountability, transparency, and the willingness to listen deeply, especially when people disagree.
Pacifica is not simply a radio network. It is a democratic experiment. Its stations—WPFW, KPFA, KPFK, KPFT, and WBAI—belong to the listeners, staff, programmers, volunteers, and communities who sustain them. Pacifica’s mission is rooted in peace, justice, anti-racism, cultural expression, labor rights, free speech, and community accountability. As Chair, I would work to honor that mission while helping the Board operate with greater clarity, civility, efficiency, and strategic focus.
My vision is for a Pacifica that is financially stronger, more transparent, more inclusive, and more relevant to younger and more diverse audiences without abandoning its historic base. We must strengthen local oversight, respect staff and programmers, widen participation, improve governance, and support programming that informs, educates, challenges, heals, and organizes. We must also be more intentional about fundraising, technology, digital distribution, archives, audience development, and partnerships with social justice organizations, artists, scholars, students, and community leaders.
I am part of the Pacifica Mission Coalition because I believe Pacifica must remain faithful to its founding values while becoming more effective in the present moment. The Pacifica Mission Coalition’s values are reflected here: democratic governance, fiscal responsibility, anti-racist and anti-war programming, protection of local station voices, and a renewed commitment to Pacifica’s founding purpose in a changing media landscape. More information about the coalition is available at https://www.pacificamissioncoalition.com/.
I do not seek this position for title or status. I seek it because Pacifica matters. Independent media matters. Listener-sponsored radio matters. At its best, Pacifica gives voice to people and movements that commercial media too often ignore, distort, or exclude.
As Chair, I would bring experience, discipline, progressive values, institutional knowledge, and a commitment to respectful, accountable governance. I would work to build bridges across differences, center the mission, and help Pacifica move from crisis management toward renewal. Our airwaves should not simply fill time. They should lift every voice, tell hard truths, cultivate imagination, and serve the people who make Pacifica possible.