National Radio Project and Making Contact Celebrate 10 years!

Our Guest Speakers and Honorees

Makani Themba-Nixon - Keynote Address
Executive Director of The Praxis Project. Previously director of the Transnational Racial Justice Initiative (TRJI) and the Grass Roots Innovative Policy Program (GRIPP), a staffer for the California State Legislature and media director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Los Angeles. At the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems, she served three years as director of its Center for Media and Policy Analysis. Makani has published numerous articles and case studies on race, media, policy advocacy and public health, is co-author of "Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention," and is a contributor to "We the Media, State of the Race: Creating Our 21st Century" and many other edited book projects. Her latest book is "Making Policy, Making Change."

Norman Solomon - Guest Speaker, Co-Founder of National Radio Project/Making Contact
Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. Nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. The latest collection of his columns won the 1999 George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. Norman has authored ten books, including "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media and The Power of Babble." His most recent book, co-authored with foreign correspondent Reese Erlich, is "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You."

David Barsamian - Guest Speaker, National Producer and Co-Founder of National Radio Project/Making Contact
Founder and director of Alternative Radio. His interviews and articles appear in The Progressive, The Nation, Z and other journals and magazines. David is author of numerous books with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eqbal Ahmad, and Edward Said. His series of books with Chomsky, America's leading dissident, have sold in the hundreds of thousands and have been translated into many languages. His latest books are "Propaganda & the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky" and "The Decline & Fall of Public Broadcasting."

Peggy Law - Honoree, NRP’s Founders’ Award
Activist, organizer, visionary, founding director of National Radio Project and Making Contact. Peggy is an organizational consultant, a Board Member of thee Institute for Public Accuracy and a member of the MediaWorks Executive Committee. Peggy has also had a career as a mental health professional.

Dan Turner - Honoree, Volunteer Appreciation Award
Six years ago, a social-justice activist friend of Dan's suggested he contact National Radio Project. After hearing Making Contact and meeting the staff, he was so impressed that he decided to volunteer his time doing administrative work - doing things that free us up to work on the issues. He's been with us ever since! Dan enjoys interacting with NRP staff, helping out in many different ways, and being informed and educated in the variety of critical issues that we explore.

Pat McSweeney - Honoree, Donor-Ally Award
Pat McSweeney lives in Massachusetts and is a retired teacher, anti-militarism activist, and in her words, "... an outraged citizen... I used to be a trusting citizen...now i feel betrayed by my two most important institutions, my church and my government." Pat is involved in the School of the Americas Watch, Pax Christi, Call to Action, and she makes change globally by acting very locally with Citizens for an Informed Community in Bridgewater, MA.

KPFA’s Apprenticeship Program - Honoree, Organizational Ally Award
The KPFA First Voice Apprenticeship is an intensive 18-month Affirmative Action training program that brings primarily women and people of color into the field of radio. The program is intended to remedy discrimination and create equality for those who have been underrepresented in media. Founded in 1949 by Lewis Hill, a pacifist, poet, and journalist, KPFA was the first community supported radio station in the USA.