Staff

Tina Pamintuan

CEO

Tina Lacdao Pamintuan has spent over 20 years in public media as a journalist, educator, and leader. As the CEO of St. Louis Public Radio, she helms the station’s fundraising, operations, programming, and editorial teams. This multifaceted role also includes being the liaison for the station’s FCC license holder, the University of Missouri, and the station’s advisory board, Friends of St. Louis Public Radio.

Before making the leap to Missouri, Pamintuan made her home in cities along the west and east coasts. In San Francisco, she was the general manager of KALW where she founded the nonprofit KALW Public Media and negotiated a long-anticipated legal agreement with the station’s license holder to operate the station independently from the city. Over a short tenure, she brought the station into labor and FCC compliance and led the station’s first professional rebranding and marketing efforts. She also programmed the station to attract a more diverse and younger listening audience, bringing more BIPOC voices to air both nationally and locally. As part of the station’s new eclectic music initiative, KALW also saw the opening of its first studio in the east bay under her leadership.

In New York, she created and directed the audio journalism program at The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY where she taught radio writing and reporting, news magazine production, audio documentary and oral history. She now enjoys hearing former students on-air reporting from stations across the country, launching their own investigative series and podcasts and producing and hosting for nationally syndicated programs.

In 2011, Pamintuan traveled to the Philippines on an International Center for Journalists’ fellowship to report on climate change and biofuel use in rural areas. In 2012, she produced an audio documentary on Occupy Wall Street hosted by Alex Chadwick. She’s a former Nieman Visiting Fellow and Scholar-in-Residence at the Tow Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. In 2015, she organized a seminar on Native American media and community radio for the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard. She was honored to receive the Philippine American Press Club’s 2019 Ocampo-Henry Memorial Award in Radio, but even more delighted when her mother, who always wanted to become a journalist, accepted the award on her behalf.

Pamintuan began her career at National Public Radio after graduating from Georgetown University where she studied philosophy and physics.

Maria Bradford

Director of Development

Maria is an experienced fundraiser who has worked with the Saint Louis Zoo, St. Louis Black Repertory Company and Grand Center, Inc. among others. Her great satisfaction in life has been to help people find creative ways to support the causes they care about. Before joining the staff at St. Louis Public Radio she worked at the St. Louis Community Foundation to help nonprofit organizations access funding opportunities. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and holds master’s degrees in business administration and arts administration from Southern Methodist University.

Melody Freeman

Director, Business Administration

As a long time employee of The University of Missouri-St. Louis, Melody joined St. Louis Public Radio in March of 2018 as a Financial Accountant/Analyst with the Finance and Administration team. Now, as Director of Business Administration Melody will continue to help oversee the business and fiscal functions of the station while working with the leadership team and staff to support the station’s mission. According to Melody, being able to work for an organization that she admires feels like “having my cake and eating it too, it is a pleasure!”

Whenever she can, Melody volunteers or serves on committees with her son’s school district and her neighborhood association. She is a member of the Chancellor’s Cultural Diversity Council (CCDC) and a former volunteer with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Her free time is spent enjoying time with family, reading a good book, listening to public radio programs, watching HGTV, and listening to music, especially the magnificent playlists prepared by her husband. Her enjoyment of the STLPR award winning podcast “We Live Here” has helped to grow her interest in podcasts and the wonderful stories and learning opportunities that come from them. Her family has also been involved in youth sports for many years with a particular passion for baseball. She has visited almost every youth sports park in the Metro St. Louis area and quite a few in other states. The easiest way to describe her family’s relationship with baseball is to Google, “If You Give a Boy a Baseball.” It pretty much sums up her life as a baseball mom.

Jess Luther

Chief of Staff

Jess Luther is the senior operations specialist in the Office of the General Manager. She spent the first six years of her tenure at the station working in finance and administration. Jess’ efforts are now focused on internal and board communications along with talent and culture initiatives, all of which provide the distinct satisfaction of having used one’s college degree (hers is in English from Truman State University). A St. Louis-area native, by her early 20s Jess had lived in Bridgeton, Ferguson, St. Charles, St. Peters, O’Fallon, Bellefontaine Neighbors, and Maplewood. She has been proudly relinquishing 1% of her income for almost a decade as a resident of St. Louis City proper.

Rufus Moore

Director, Sponsorship Sales

Prior to joining St. Louis Public Radio, Rufus Moore worked in business development and sales at several Fortune 500 companies and served in strategic positions at the National level. He has over 20+ years’ experience in sales, sales management, marketing, project management, and strategic planning. Notable is his former years as Regional Business Development for Clear Channel, where he secured major sponsorship and other partnering initiatives.

Rufus’ greatest strengths are his creativity, drive and leadership. He thrives on challenges, particularly those that expand the company’s reach and development of people.

Rufus serves on several boards as Chair and Co-Chair in his community. He has also been involved in volunteer work for the Y.E.S. Foundation, including heading up the NFL High School Player Development Football Camps in his community, with the F.B.I. citizens academy helping to foster and bridge relationships in the community.

Rufus and his wife live in Saint Louis. They have two adult sons and one teenage son. In his free time, Rufus likes to serve the youth sports community, in a mentor, and coach capacity.

Madalyn Painter

Director of Marketing & Digital Media

As the Director of Marketing & Digital Media for St. Louis Public Radio, Madalyn Painter works to move audiences to deeper levels of loyalty to our service to the community. She and her team provide targeted marketing, business intelligence, and visual design and support the station’s digital products and strategy.

Since joining KWMU in 2006, she has helped transform stlpublicradio.org into a regional news destination, with well over 500% growth in site visits.

Previously, she worked in communications and digital media for KETC/Channel 9 (Nine Network of Public Media). She started her career in marketing in 2000 as a copywriter and website designer. Her professional awards include four regional and one national Edward R. Murrow Award.

Her master’s degree in social work, from Saint Louis University, instilled values of collaboration, listening, and evidence-based practice — all surprisingly applicable to marketing. She’s also a proud former English major, with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and enjoys drawing and poetry.

She grew up in the forested Ozark mountains and still dreams about moss-covered boulders, cold Bull Creek, and the sound of spring peeper frogs. In the city, she delights in gardens — her own and any others into which she can wander.

Brian Heffernan

Interim News Director

Brian Heffernan is the digital editor and special projects editor at St. Louis Public Radio. Before coming to the newsroom in April 2018, Brian reported for a variety of publications including Al Jazeera America, St. Louis Magazine, Riverfront Times, San Francisco magazine and the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers in South Carolina. He also worked in St. Louis’ burgeoning startup and tech industry as a project manager and quality assurance specialist. A St. Louis native, Brian received both his master’s and bachelor’s degrees of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. When he’s not plunked down in front of a computer screen, Brian enjoys traveling, exploring the outdoors, cooking and playing the very adult, sophisticated game of wiffle ball.

Jonathan Ahl

Newscast Editor, Rolla Correspondent, Interim Managing Editor

Jonathan Ahl is the Newscast Editor for St. Louis Public Radio and also reports from the Rolla Bureau. Before coming to St. Louis Public Radio in November of 2018, Jonathan was the General Manager for Tri States Public Radio in Macomb, Illinois. He previously was the News Director at Iowa Public Radio and before that at WCBU in Peoria, Illinois. Jonathan has also held reporting positions in central Illinois for public radio stations.

Jonathan is originally from the Chicago area. He has a B.A. in Music Theory and Composition from Western Illinois University and an M.A. in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield. He is an avid long distance runner, semi-professional saxophonist and die-hard Chicago Cubs fan.

David Cazares

Health, Science and Arts & Culture Editor

David Cazares supervises coverage of the arts, health and science for St. Louis Public Radio. Before coming to Missouri, he worked as an editor, arts reporter and podcast host for Minnesota Public Radio. He has also worked for newspapers in Florida, Kentucky and Indiana.

Fred Ehrlich

Politics Editor

Fred Ehrlich was named politics editor at St. Louis Public Radio in January 2018. His editing experience includes long stints at the Belleville News-Democrat and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is a proud Badger having graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in journalism and political science. Fred grew up in New Jersey as a huge Yankees fan but after 28 years in the St. Louis area he has adopted the Cardinals as his National League team. He fondly hopes for a rematch of the 1964 World Series in the Best Baseball Town in America.

Lara Hamdan

Engagement Editor

Lara Hamdan joined St. Louis Public Radio as the news intern in 2017. A year later, she became a producer for St. Louis on the Air. A St. Louis native, Lara graduated with a degree in journalism from Webster University. She is a cat-mom to Sali and Sami, a lover of traveling, fluent in English and Arabic – and in eating falafel sandwiches and veggie burgers. She enjoys discovering new people and gems in the city throughout her work at St. Louis Public Radio.

Brian Moline

Editor

Brian Moline was named editor for the education and business/economic development beats in March, 2023. He came to St. Louis Public Radio after serving as the Morning Edition host and Managing Editor at Illinois Public Media in Urbana, Ill. His Missouri roots include graduating from Truman State University and marrying a native of Warrenton. He appreciates the passion of St. Louis baseball fans, despite being a lifelong backer of the Chicago Cubs.

Brian Muñoz

Photojournalist, Interim Digital Editor

Brian Munoz is a photojournalist and multimedia reporter at St. Louis Public Radio. Prior to joining the newsroom, he worked at USA TODAY as a visual storyteller and The Southern Illinoisan as a multimedia correspondent where he covered topics such as social justice, immigration and rural issues.

His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Arizona Republic and The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In addition, his work — both visual and written — has been recognized by several state and national organizations, including being named a 2019 ProPublica Emerging Reporter.

Munoz graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2019 with a degree in journalism and while in college, he was a proud member of the Marching Salukis as well as working at the Daily Egyptian — the university’s student newspaper. When he isn’t diving into a good story, you can find him binge-watching sports, creating content in the marching arts and exploring the world of food. You can follow his adventures on Instagram and Twitter at @BrianMMunoz.

Will Bauer

Metro East Reporter

Will Bauer is St. Louis Public Radio’s Metro East Reporter. Before moving to Belleville, Illinois, Bauer worked at Nebraska Public Media. At the state’s NPR and PBS member stations, he served as a general assignment reporter, covering politics, higher education, agriculture and other topics. He also produced the station’s talk show, Speaking of Nebraska.

The Minnesota native graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with degrees in journalism, broadcasting and sports communications in 2020. In college, he reported for the Omaha World-Herald’s breaking news and sports desks. In his spare time, Bauer enjoys playing golf and watching movies.

Bob Cronin

Copy Editor

A St. Louis native, Bob Cronin has degrees in political science and journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he later joined the School of Journalism faculty. He’s been an editor and writer at outlets including the Washington Post, Detroit Free Press and Orange County Register.

Chad Davis

General Assignment & Arts Reporter

Chad Davis is a 2016 graduate of Truman State University where he studied Public Communication and English. At Truman State, Chad served as the executive producer of the on-campus news station, TMN Television. In 2017, Chad joins the St. Louis Public Radio team as the fourth Race and Culture Diversity Fellow. Chad is a native of St. Louis and is a huge hip- hop, r&b, and pop music fan. He also enjoys graphic design, pop culture, film, and comedy.

Sarah Fentem

Health Reporter

Sarah Fentem reports on sickness and health as part of St. Louis Public Radio’s news team. She previously spent five years reporting for different NPR stations in Indiana.

A longtime NPR listener, she grew up hearing WQUB in Quincy, Illinois, which is now owned by STLPR. She lives in South St. Louis, and in her spare time likes to watch old sitcoms, meticulously clean and organize her home and go on outdoor adventures with her husband Elliot.

Jeremy Goodwin

Arts & Culture Senior Reporter

Jeremy D. Goodwin joined St. Louis Public Radio in spring of 2018 as a reporter covering arts & culture and co-host of the Cut & Paste podcast. He came to us from Boston and the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, where he covered the same beat as a full-time freelancer, contributing to The Boston Globe, WBUR 90.9 FM, The New York Times and NPR, plus lots of places that you probably haven’t heard of.

He’s also worked in publicity for the theater troupe Shakespeare & Company and Berkshire Museum. For a decade he joined some fellow Phish fans on the board of The Mockingbird Foundation, a charity that has raised over $1.5 million for music education causes and collectively written three books about the band. He’s also written an as-yet-unpublished novel about the physical power of language, haunted open mic nights with his experimental poetry and written and performed a comedic one-man-show that’s essentially a historical lecture about an event that never happened. He makes it a habit to take a major road trip of National Parks every couple of years.

Kate Grumke

Senior Environmental Reporter

Kate Grumke became St. Louis Public Radio’s education reporter in October, 2021. She grew up in St. Louis but spent more than five years covering politics and policy in Washington, D.C., most recently as a producer for the PBS NewsHour. Kate has covered two presidential elections and has reported from Cuba, El Salvador and Mexico. She won a 2019 National Murrow Award for her coverage of Oklahoma’s teacher walkout.

Kate graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and studied data journalism in Columbia University’s Lede Program. She is a huge fan of St. Louis’ food, architecture, museums and city parks.

Follow Kate on Twitter: @KGrumke

Andrea Henderson

Race, Identity, and Culture Reporter

Andrea Henderson joined St. Louis Public Radio in March 2019, where she covers race, identity and culture. Andrea comes to St. Louis Public Radio from NPR, where she reported for the race and culture podcast Code Switch and produced pieces for All Things Considered. Andrea’s passion for storytelling began at a weekly newspaper in her hometown of Houston, Texas, where she covered a wide variety of stories including hurricanes, transportation and Barack Obama’s 2009 Presidential Inauguration. Her art appreciation allowed her to cover arts and culture for the Houston African-American business publication, Empower Magazine. She also covered the arts for Syracuse’s Post-Standard and The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina.

Andrea graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and earned her master’s degree in arts journalism from Syracuse University. For three years, she served on the board of the Houston Alliance of Fashion and Beauty as the media chair, and she is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. When the proud Houstonian is not chasing a story, she enjoys catching up on her shows, getting lost in museums and swimming in tropical waters.

Follow her journey through St. Louis via Twitter and Instagram at @drebjournalist.

Sarah Kellogg

Statehouse Reporter

Marissanne Lewis-Thompson

Afternoon Newscaster

Marissanne Lewis-Thompson joined St. Louis Public Radio October 2017 as the afternoon newscaster and as a general assignment reporter. She previously spent time as a feature reporter at KRCU in Cape Girardeau, where she covered a wide variety of stories including historic floods, the Bootheel, education and homelessness. In May 2015, she graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in Convergence Journalism. She’s a proud Kansas City, Missouri native, where she grew up watching a ton of documentaries on PBS, which inspired her to tell stories. In her free time, she enjoys binge watching documentaries and anime. She may or may not have a problem.

Rachel Lippmann

Justice Correspondent

Rachel Lippmann covers courts, public safety and city politics for St. Louis Public Radio. (She jokingly refers to them as the “nothing ever happens beats.”) She joined the NPR affiliate in her hometown in 2008, after spending two years in Lansing covering the Michigan Capitol and various other state political shenanigans for NPR affiliates there. Though she’s a native St. Louisan, part of her heart definitely remains in the Mitten. (And no, she’s not going to tell you where she went to high school.)

Rachel has an undergraduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism, and a master’s in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield. When she’s not busy pursuing the latest scoop, you can find her mentoring her Big Brothers Big Sisters match, hitting the running and biking paths in south St. Louis, catching the latest sporting event on TV, playing with every dog she possibly can, or spending time with the great friends she’s met in more than nine years in this city.

Rachel’s on Twitter @rlippmann. Even with 240 characters, spellings are still phonetic.

Wayne Pratt

Morning Newscaster and Senior Correspondent

Wayne Pratt is a veteran journalist who has made stops at radio stations, wire services and websites throughout North America. He comes to St. Louis Public Radio from Indianapolis, where he was Assistant Managing Editor at www.insideindianabusiness.com. Wayne also launched a local news operation at NPR member station WBAA in West Lafayette, Indiana and spent time as a correspondent for a network of more than 800 stations. His career has included positions in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Toronto, Ontario and Phoenix, Arizona. Wayne grew up near Ottawa, Ontario and moved to the United States in the mid-90s on a dare. Soon after, he met his wife and has been in the U.S. ever since.

Jason Rosenbaum

Politics Correspondent

Since entering the world of professional journalism in the mid-2000s, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than 4 years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon. Since moving to St. Louis in 2010, his work has appeared in Missouri Lawyers Media, the St. Louis Business Journal and in the Riverfront Times’ music section. Rosenbaum lives in Richmond Heights with with his wife Lauren Todd, an engineering librarian at Washington University.

Eric Schmid

Economic Development Reporter

Eric Schmid covers Economic Development for St. Louis Public Radio. He’s primarily focused on examining policies and ideas to drive population and business growth throughout the St. Louis region.

He previously covered the Metro East writing about many topics in the Illinois counties adjacent to St. Louis, but regularly returns to stories about the environment, public policy, and the census and demographics.

Eric came to the station through Report for America in 2019 and was tasked to develop STLPR’s coverage east of the Mississippi. Before joining St. Louis Public Radio, Eric held internships at Fox News Channel, NPR-affiliate WSHU Public Radio and AccuWeather. He graduated from Stony Brook University in New York with a degree in Journalism in 2018.

Lacretia Wimbley

General Assignment Reporter

Elaine Cha

St. Louis on the Air Host/Producer

Elaine Cha came to St. Louis in 2014 via Los Angeles, where she produced in-person content for KPCC/Southern California Public Radio (SCPR). Once here, she continued her engagement-fueled, communities-focused work with nonprofit organizations including the Nine Network (now Nine PBS); the Ferguson Commission; Regional Arts Commission; Forward Through Ferguson; Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri; and Humans of St. Louis (book co-editor).

Elaine joined St. Louis Public Radio in November 2022 to serve as host/producer of “St. Louis on the Air,” STLPR’s flagship weekday show. An immigrant and repeat transplant, she continues learning more about the St. Louis region — her most permanent home to-date — through both her professional and personal pursuits. Elaine resides just outside the city in an intergenerational, bilingual household full of books, garlic, and LEGO.

Aaron Doerr

Audio Engineer

Aaron’s first glimpse into the world of audio production came during his high school band practices in the 90’s when they recorded themselves for reference and, later, for early social media websites - think Myspace and Napster. But as the oldest child with access to the family video camera it was actually in the late 80’s when Aaron first began playing with video production experimenting with perspective illusions, stop and start techniques and sound effects in homemade videos with siblings and friends. The fun he had as a kid got serious in college when a Practicum in Radio class at UMSL introduced him to the professional world of radio and audio production - right here at 90.7 KWMU.

“It really is exciting” he says talking about the energy of live radio “…it’s like an airplane taking off. You feel all this energy here [in the studio] with all these people running around and figuring things out and you’ve just done mic checks and you’re monitoring air control for the handoff and then you hit the button and give a big [here Aaron raises his hand and with a flourish points forward with a loud whooshing noise]… it’s just fun.” In 2001 Aaron changed his academic focus from art to audio and earned an audio engineering degree from Webster University. Having returned to KWMU to for an internship requirement his graduating year he was hired as part time production assistant in 2004.

A typical shift of St. Louis On The Air sees Aaron, usually working alongside an intern (full circle moment) positioning microphones, cueing the start of the show, balancing audio levels, playing music breaks, airing call-ins, and fading in theme music. And there really are a lot of people in the room: there’s two or three producers monitoring show content, social media engagement, potential podcast excerpts. There’s a call screener too and when the room gets noisy Aaron puts on a (very nice pair of) headphones and zeros in.
Post production duties include editing the show and recording re-takes for the re-air if necessary, recording and uploading promos for the next day’s show, and separating the program into segments for the podcast.
Show inside jokes include yelling “Hit the dump!” when anyone on the air says something that could be construed as vulgar, and “Cue [song name]” when anyone on the air mentions something (even remotely) related to a famous song.

Aaron teaches guitar and bass guitar full time from his home studio in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood of south St. Louis city where he also hosts jam sessions for his adult students, live streams improvisational music over NASA tv on twitch, and maintains a growing collection of audio equipment. His wife Amy earned her PhD in Psychology from UMSL in 2010 and their dog Tallis has an adorable instagram account.

Alex Heuer

St. Louis on the Air Executive Producer

Alex Heuer joined St. Louis Public Radio in 2012 and is the executive producer of St. Louis on the Air. Alex grew up in the St. Louis area. He began his public radio career as a student reporter at Tri States Public Radio in Macomb, Illinois and worked for a few years at Iowa Public Radio. Alex graduated summa cum laude from Western Illinois University with a degree in history and earned a teaching certificate in 6 - 12th grade social studies. In 2016, he earned a Master of Public Policy Administration with a focus in nonprofit organization management and leadership from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has won local and national awards for reporting and producing and his stories have been featured nationally on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Miya Norfleet

St. Louis on the Air Producer

Miya Norfleet is a lifelong St. Louisan with a love of storytelling and community engagement. Before joining St. Louis on the Air, Miya served as the founding Director of Digital Communication at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri and associate producer at Nine PBS. Notable projects include producing the weekly public affairs program “Stay Tuned” and two feature length documentaries, “Works in Progress” and “Gentlemen of Vision.” Miya is a proud graduate of Webster University with a bachelor’s degree in Video Production and spent five months at the Hua Hin/Cha-Am, Thailand campus.

In her free time, Miya is enjoying time with her niece and nephews, shopping for new houseplants, relearning how to roller skate, visiting museum exhibits, going to concerts and dining at local restaurants.

Danny Wicentowski

St. Louis on the Air Producer

Danny is no stranger to St. Louis. Since 2003, Danny has worked as a staff writer at the Riverfront Times. He’s won awards for narrative storytelling, features and investigative journalism. He also was a producer and host of “American Skyjacker: The Final Flight of Martin McNally.” Produced in 2020, the podcast achieved a top 20 spot on iTunes.

Emily Woodbury

St. Louis on the Air Senior Producer

Emily Woodbury joined the St. Louis on the Air team in July 2019. Prior to that, she worked at Iowa Public Radio as a producer for two daily, statewide talk programs. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science. She got her start in news radio by working at her college radio station as a news director. Emily enjoys playing roller derby, working with dogs, and playing games – both video and tabletop.

Cindy Collins

Afternoon Host/Announcer, Interim Operations Manager

Cindy Collins’ voice has been heard on St. Louis radio for over 20 years. Cindy also does free-lance voice-over work and is currently the Interim Operations Manager at STLPR. Raised in Affton, she now lives in the MetroEast with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs.

Greg Munteanu

Mid-Day Host

Greg Munteanu is the mid-day host at Saint Louis Public Radio. Greg obtained his degree in audio production from Webster University in Saint Louis, where he hosted a Grateful Dead themed show on The Galaxy, a student-run radio station. A loyal listener for many years, he has been involved with Saint Louis Public Radio as an intern and volunteer since 2010; you may have heard his name mentioned on Saint Louis on the Air, where he has helped with production and served as board operator. Greg cooks, teaches guitar, gardens, and records lots of music when he is not at the station’s helm.

Mike Schrand

Morning Host

Mike Schrand began his radio career at St. Louis Public Radio as an intern and volunteer from 1986 to 1988. Schrand worked on-air in various capacities until 1992. After a short stint in the corporate world, he returned as a weekend announcer in 1995, and in 1996 was hired full time. Schrand has served as Traffic Director, Assistant Program Director, Program Director, and Operations and Program Manager before moving into the Morning Host position. In his spare time he writes, sings, and plays bass in the local roots quartet Salt Of The Earth, and enjoys down time with his family.

Nick Acquisto

Announcer/Host

Nick Acquisto started at St. Louis Public Radio in May of 2019 as a weekend announcer. A St. Louis native, he served as Music Director at the St. Louis community radio station, KDHX for eight years and hosted and programmed the art-pop and new music show, The Space Parlour there for fifteen. The show often featured performances and interviews with local and national artists. He has a lifelong passion for public radio, music, current events and new media.

Nick has a degree in interactive digital media and a minor in audio production from Webster University. He and his wife, Emily, enjoy time with their three children, experiencing live music and travel.

Nick Garcia

Weekend Announcer

Nick Garcia is your weekend evening announcer on 90.7 FM. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Missouri St. Louis, Nick launched an internet radio station devoted to St. Louis music in the summer of 2012, and soon came to St. Louis Public Radio to host a show celebrating and interviewing various music makers in the region. Nick’s love for public radio began while listening to Car Talk when driving to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he worked during college.

He also currently works with an agency based in Nashville where he manages social media accounts for Live Nation clubs and theaters across the United States.

Nick is a native of North St. Louis County and enjoys playing guitar, taking photographs, seeing live comedy, and taking time to unplug in nature. He’s also a strong believer that one of the day’s important decisions is which vinyl record to play while making breakfast - when he’s not listening to Morning Edition, of course.

Rod Milam

Part-Time Announcer

Rod Milam is a broadcaster originally from University City, MO. He started in radio as an engineering student on KMNR in Rolla, MO. Eventually, he changed majors and started working at KDHX and KWMU in the early 90s on the air as an announcer. At KWMU he helped start the talk show “Cityscape/Talk of St. Louis” before it became “St. Louis on the Air”. He later, simultaneously, also worked in the news and sports departments as a reporter at KMOX in the late 90s. He did correspondent work for CBS Radio, CNN Radio, the AP, Radio France Internationale, and others while in St. Louis, and then moved to Tokyo, Japan and did freelance reporting while teaching English. After reporting for CBS and CNN during the 9/11 attacks, Rod eventually moved to New York City, but left media for several years upon arriving. After the 2008 financial crisis, he went back to media in the form of a videographer, video producer/director, voiceover artist, and documentarian based in New York City. He came back to St. Louis after more than a dozen years and has worked with the arts and culture channel HEC Media both in front of and behind the camera. He’s served as one of the producers of the local theatre review show “Two on the Aisle”, producer of the podcast “Talking with Authors”, and worked on Mid-American Emmy award winning video teams for the website Educate.Today. Now, while back at St. Louis Public Radio after 20+ years, he fills in hosting on the air when needed, be it during the early morning hours for Morning Edition, in the afternoon with All Things Considered, or at noon for St. Louis on the Air. He’s also brought some video productions for web distribution to St. Louis Pubic Radio for the Events and News departments.

Sheila Reed

Announcer/Host

Sheila Reed is one of the most popular, dynamic and long standing female radio personalities in the St. Louis region. Jazz music and news are her true passions, and her specialties. Among the other illustrious titles she carries are: Host, Emcee, Announcer, Broadcast Journalist. Producer, Voice-over Talent, Actress, Fashion Commentator and Mistress of Ceremonies for numerous entertainment events. “SheilasVoice” is the business side that represents her creativity and style.

Gracing us now as Announcer/Media Producer at STLPR/NPR, and after a long hiatus from national radio, she can also be heard behind–the-mic on THE ALL NEW MIX 99.5 FM…THE HEART AND SOUL OF ST. LOUIS. Listen to The Jazz Festival with Sheila Reed as host & producer every Sunday, noon-4p CST., for her cool and soothing voice. Her vibrant personality clearly comes through in every show, that’s filled with a savory blend of jazz and more. Stream the station live from anywhere in the world at www.mix995fm.com.

Sheila has many varied personal interest which include Healthcare, Interior & Fashion Design, Tennis & Swimming, Salsa Dancing, and being involved in the airline industry for over 30 years, Sheila became accustomed to Travel of all kinds…especially International and Exotic Travel. Sheila is a formal product of the University City School District and Alumni of St. Louis University and Washington University.

Eric Weathersby

Announcer

Dennis Bentley

Support Systems Administrator

From Cadiz, Kentucky, Dennis has been an avid radio-head since childhood. As a teenager, he used to hang out at a rural AM. station and used what he observed there to build a small, but fully functional radio station in his bedroom out of used and barely working electronics.

After completing an Associates in Applied Aerospace Science/Instructor of Technology Community College of the Air Force and a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Education from Wayland Baptist College, Dennis rose through the ranks of the United States Air Force. During his nine years of service, he taught electronics (starting at age 18) and communications and weather equipment, including radar, teletype, card punch, and crypto. He was stationed in Northern Japan for three years.

After the Air Force, Dennis spent over 25 years in corporate IT.

Dennis’ passion for both quality journalism and the ‘magic’ of radio never waned. After moving to the St. Louis area in 2006, he permanently set his car radios to 90.7 and no other station. He began working as St. Louis Public Radio’s Support Systems Administrator in 2017.

Mary Edwards

St. Louis Symphony Producer

Mary Edwards came to St. Louis Public Radio in 1974, just after finishing her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She has served the station in a number of capacities over the years.

From 1988-2014 she also taught an undergraduate class in radio production at Webster University. Mary was inducted into the St. Louis Media History Foundation Media Hall of Fame in April, 2017 and received the Gateway Media Literacy Partners’ Charles Klotzer Media Literacy Award in 2012. Mary retired from St. Louis Public Radio in 2018, but still serves the station as a St. Louis Symphony Producer.

Spencer Reed

Traffic Director

Spencer Reed has been Overlord of Traffic for KWMU since 2004. By "traffic" we mean radio announcements and shows on our air, not the delays of automobiles on highways. He is our resident comic, making holiday parties merry with his prank gifts. A half-Brit military brat, he serves southern Illinois as a soccer referee. He is the father of twins.

Maria Bradford

Director of Development

Maria is an experienced fundraiser who has worked with the Saint Louis Zoo, St. Louis Black Repertory Company and Grand Center, Inc. among others. Her great satisfaction in life has been to help people find creative ways to support the causes they care about. Before joining the staff at St. Louis Public Radio she worked at the St. Louis Community Foundation to help nonprofit organizations access funding opportunities. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and holds master’s degrees in business administration and arts administration from Southern Methodist University.

Rufus Moore

Director, Sponsorship Sales

Prior to joining St. Louis Public Radio, Rufus Moore worked in business development and sales at several Fortune 500 companies and served in strategic positions at the National level. He has over 20+ years’ experience in sales, sales management, marketing, project management, and strategic planning. Notable is his former years as Regional Business Development for Clear Channel, where he secured major sponsorship and other partnering initiatives.

Rufus’ greatest strengths are his creativity, drive and leadership. He thrives on challenges, particularly those that expand the company’s reach and development of people.

Rufus serves on several boards as Chair and Co-Chair in his community. He has also been involved in volunteer work for the Y.E.S. Foundation, including heading up the NFL High School Player Development Football Camps in his community, with the F.B.I. citizens academy helping to foster and bridge relationships in the community.

Rufus and his wife live in Saint Louis. They have two adult sons and one teenage son. In his free time, Rufus likes to serve the youth sports community, in a mentor, and coach capacity.

Jeff Bewley

Associate Development Director, Major Gifts

Jeff Bewley has been with St. Louis Public Radio since January 2010. He has been involved with major gift fundraising for over 23 years, working for a number of organizations in St. Louis: St. Louis University, the St. Louis Zoo, and St. Louis Science Center. He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville with an emphasis in non-profit management. He received his undergraduate degree in Art History from Webster University.

Sophie Broz

Special Events Coordinator

Sophie has been a KWMU listener for as long as she can remember. She fondly reminisces about listening to Car Talk every weekend growing up and becoming obsessed with Fresh Air and 1A in college.

Sophie joined St. Louis Public Radio as an intern in January 2018 and transitioned to a full time position that April. She loves that her role as Special Events Coordinator gives her the opportunity to play a role in the relationship between St. Louis Public Radio and the community we serve.

In her free time Sophie enjoys travelling, gardening, and practicing yoga.

Anisa Curtis

Development Coordinator, Membership

Anisa Curtis is the Development Coordinator, Membership at St. Louis Public Radio, originally joining STLPR in 2020 as the Guest Relations Specialist. She spent 10 years working in public service with law enforcement, the majority of those years as a 911 Dispatcher. She left dispatching to pursue a career which melds public service with Media Communications, her former area of study at Webster University. Anisa believes media has a responsibility to serve and represent the public, without influence from corporate money and capitalist agendas. Anisa is a St. Louis area native who avidly supports animal rescue and she believes empathy is the most important trait a person can possess.

Lisa Custalow

Senior Development Officer

When Lisa Custalow was little, she dreamed of having her own radio advice show on pet issues. Think Car Talk, but for cats and dogs. A dream undoubtedly spurred by the hours spent listening to NPR with her family. As an adult, Lisa prefers to work behind the scenes as the Senior Developer Officer, Membership at St. Louis Public Radio. She is excited to be part of an organization that is doing so much to connect the community, whether that be through news coverage, personal stories, or other programming.

In her spare time, Lisa enjoys hiking with her husband and two dogs, as well as cuddling with her cats while listening to podcasts. She also enjoys needleworking, scouring local thrift shops, and attempting to play piano and ukulele.

Leslie Davis

Special Events Director

Leslie Davis comes to St. Louis Public Radio as a long-time listener and NPR groupie. She brings twenty years of experience in event and program management along with a strong commitment to St. Louis and the region to her role as Special Event Director.

Leslie joins us from the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University. Prior to that she worked for Destination St. Louis and Clipper Cruise Line. She is an active leader and member of several local nonprofit organizations. She earned her B.A. from University of Missouri-St. Louis and her M.A. from Washington University’s Nonprofit Management Program.

Leslie loves exploring the many gems that St. Louis has to offer, working through her never-ending list of restaurants to try, traveling, keeping up with the latest movies and recovering from the frenzy of events curled up on the couch with a good book.

Rozmond Dorsey

Account Manager, Corporate Sponsorship

Roz Dorsey is dedicated to identifying key stakeholders and developing campaigns that strategically align with organizational goals to achieve targeted objectives. He began his career as a news photographer, working a combined 22 years at KTVI-TV and KPLR-TV in St. Louis. His extensive outside sales experience includes his early years at KMOX Radio, as a media consultant at Rare Gem Productions, and most recently as a Senior Digital Media Representative at Vivial, an Ohio-based company providing marketing products and solution to small and medium-sized business across the U.S.

A graduate of SIU – Carbondale and father of two, Roz is thrilled to join the team of his favorite local radio station.

Robyn James

Fundraising Data Manager

Rebecca McBride

Associate Director of Development, Membership

In Rebecca’s first memories of public radio, she’s 3 years old, riding in the passenger’s seat of dad’s truck, eating oatmeal cream pies (that mom knew nothing about), and listening to the morning news on South Carolina Public Radio as dad drove to daycare every morning. She’s been a loyal NPR fan ever since.

Rebecca grew up in South Carolina and attended Clemson University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre. She has been in St. Louis for almost a decade. She comes to STLPR after seven years at the Missouri Historical Society, where she was most recently the Membership and Annual Fund Manager. Prior to that, she was part of the development team at STAGES St. Louis. Rebecca became a Certified Fund Raising Executive in 2018.

Rebecca lives in University City with her husband John and 9-year-old “permanent-puppy” Brooks. She enjoys spending time tending to her garden and numerous house plants, cheering on the Clemson Tigers as part of the St. Louis Clemson Alumni Club, singing in her church choir, and finding fun new spots for tasty food and beer.

David Rachell

Account Manager, Corporate Sponsorship

David Rachell is passionate about supporting brands by connecting them with corporate social responsibility initiatives and community engagement strategies. A lifelong public media fan and consummate STLPR listener, David began his career as Director of Development at KBIA, Columbia Missouri’s NPR station. His vast media and sponsorship expertise is a result of working as Partnership Marketing Manager at the St. Louis Zoo, at Vangel Marketing and Advertising, as Marketing and Public Relations Manager at MAC Meetings and Events, and as the President and Founding Partner of SponsorPark Consulting.

A graduate of SEMO and The George Washington University – College of Professional Studies, David enjoys his grandchildren, fine wines and NPR.

Linda Reich

Account Manager, Corporate Sponsorship

Linda Reich has enjoyed working at St. Louis Public Radio since 2004 as a Corporate Accounts Representative. During this time, she has developed strong friendships and strategic partnerships with her clients…who value their brand alignment with NPR. In her free time, Linda enjoys (in random order)…yoga, tennis, travelling, music and family.

Jacqueline Smith

Development Coordinator, Data Management

Madalyn Painter

Director of Marketing & Digital Media

As the Director of Marketing & Digital Media for St. Louis Public Radio, Madalyn Painter works to move audiences to deeper levels of loyalty to our service to the community. She and her team provide targeted marketing, business intelligence, and visual design and support the station’s digital products and strategy.

Since joining KWMU in 2006, she has helped transform stlpublicradio.org into a regional news destination, with well over 500% growth in site visits.

Previously, she worked in communications and digital media for KETC/Channel 9 (Nine Network of Public Media). She started her career in marketing in 2000 as a copywriter and website designer. Her professional awards include four regional and one national Edward R. Murrow Award.

Her master’s degree in social work, from Saint Louis University, instilled values of collaboration, listening, and evidence-based practice — all surprisingly applicable to marketing. She’s also a proud former English major, with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and enjoys drawing and poetry.

She grew up in the forested Ozark mountains and still dreams about moss-covered boulders, cold Bull Creek, and the sound of spring peeper frogs. In the city, she delights in gardens — her own and any others into which she can wander.

Fontella Bradford

Communications Specialist

As the Communications Specialist for St. Louis Public Radio, Fontella gets to showcase the award-winning local reporting, original programming and community engagement that make STLPR a beloved regional institution. She studied journalism and fine art at Webster University and has worked for institutions across St. Louis as a journalist, copywriter, editor and project manager.

Fontella was formerly Publications Associate at the Saint Louis Art Museum during the Museum’s expansion. As project manager and editorial support staff, she helped the Design Department produce thousands of new didactics for the Grand Opening in 2013. She’s a native St. Louisan who rather redundantly enjoys reading, writing, painting and public media in her leisure.

Cristina Fletes-Mach

Visual Communication Specialist

Alex Rice

Digital Media Developer

Alex Rice is a Digital Media Developer at St. Louis Public Radio. He studied Web Design and Web Development at Southwestern Illinois College and is responsible for making web updates, designing back-end systems, and building and maintaining digital technology at the station.

Alex landed a job at the station in 2019 after an extended internship and sees his future in building web solutions for non-profits. Outside of the station, Alex is a foodie and sushi aficionado.

Melody Freeman

Director, Business Administration

As a long time employee of The University of Missouri-St. Louis, Melody joined St. Louis Public Radio in March of 2018 as a Financial Accountant/Analyst with the Finance and Administration team. Now, as Director of Business Administration Melody will continue to help oversee the business and fiscal functions of the station while working with the leadership team and staff to support the station’s mission. According to Melody, being able to work for an organization that she admires feels like “having my cake and eating it too, it is a pleasure!”

Whenever she can, Melody volunteers or serves on committees with her son’s school district and her neighborhood association. She is a member of the Chancellor’s Cultural Diversity Council (CCDC) and a former volunteer with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Her free time is spent enjoying time with family, reading a good book, listening to public radio programs, watching HGTV, and listening to music, especially the magnificent playlists prepared by her husband. Her enjoyment of the STLPR award winning podcast “We Live Here” has helped to grow her interest in podcasts and the wonderful stories and learning opportunities that come from them. Her family has also been involved in youth sports for many years with a particular passion for baseball. She has visited almost every youth sports park in the Metro St. Louis area and quite a few in other states. The easiest way to describe her family’s relationship with baseball is to Google, “If You Give a Boy a Baseball.” It pretty much sums up her life as a baseball mom.

Laura Gisi

Guest Relations Specialist

Kate McKay

Business Support Specialist II