I am Perri Kathryn “Mama PK” McCary, and I bring to Pacifica more than forty years of experience as a mediator, educator, journalist, storyteller, community engagement strategist, and peacebuilder. My work has always lived at the intersection of truth-telling, bridge-building, public accountability, and community transformation.
I am running because Pacifica needs leadership that understands both mission and repair. We cannot simply talk about independent media, democracy, diversity, and justice; we must practice them in how we govern, how we listen, how we make decisions, and how we treat one another.
From 2018 through 2024, I helped strengthen Community Advisory Board work within Pacifica, especially at KPFT, by creating spaces where listeners, programmers, volunteers, board members, and community organizations could speak honestly about what community radio must become. I facilitated town halls, listening sessions, participatory research, and intergenerational dialogue designed to move us from complaint to clarity, and from conflict to constructive action. The work produced reports, matrices, and recommendations focused on access, equity, diversity, outreach, programming, education, transparency, and public accountability.
In 2019, I facilitated the KPFT Community Town Hall in Houston, which brought together a diverse, intergenerational group to examine the future of community radio. The guiding principle was “Building Bridges, Not Walls.” That phrase still reflects the vision I bring: Pacifica must become a place where differences are not weaponized, where community voice is not treated as a threat, and where our stations are rooted in the needs, stories, struggles, and brilliance of the people we serve.
My experience also includes work with Pacifica Fightback, where I facilitated online workshops and conversations around governance, mission, collaboration, and organizational sustainability. These spaces helped people name concerns, identify shared values, and think strategically about how to protect and strengthen Pacifica’s role as independent, community-powered media.
Beyond Pacifica, I am the founder of PK and Company and The Sankofa Initiative: Honoring Our Past, Shaping Our Future. I have mentored artists, students, activists, and emerging leaders for decades. I am also a founding member and former international trustee of the United Religions Initiative, where I worked in interfaith cooperation and global peacebuilding.
The skills I bring are facilitation, mediation, strategic planning, community engagement, conflict transformation, historical memory, and a deep commitment to ethical leadership. My vision is for a Pacifica that listens deeply, tells the truth, repairs harm, honors its elders and its young voices, and rebuilds trust through transparency and shared responsibility.
Pacifica’s future will not be secured by slogans. It will be secured by courage, discipline, accountability, and love for the mission. I am ready to help do that work.