Announcing AIR's 2024 New Voices!
July 10, 2024—AIR (Association of Independents in Radio) proudly announces its New Voices Class of 2024.
The New Voices program will run virtually from August to December 2024 bringing together a cohort of 16 emerging, underrepresented audio makers to engage in critical dialogue about their creative journeys and support them as they chart their own paths.
Each participant is thoughtfully matched with a mentor whom they will meet with each month during the program. In addition to working with a dedicated mentor, each New Voices will receive a $1000 stipend, along with ongoing support, AIR member resources, online workshops and networking opportunities.
Through a curated series of compelling workshops led by New Voices alums, AIR members and distinguished industry speakers, this year’s scholars will emerge from the program with a toolkit of versatile skills and a clearer picture of how they can adapt to and catalyze change within a changing media landscape, while reimagining more collaborative career paths. After completing the program, each participant becomes part of an incredible network of program alumni who represent all levels and careers in the audio industry.
This year’s program is led by New Voices Captain & Alumni Ray Pang (‘21) and AIR’s New Voices Program Manager Lynn Casper with support from a Review Committee made up of program alumni: Kyle Norris (‘16), and Liz Mak (‘15), Pallavi Kottamasu (‘17), Morgan Givens (‘18).
Please join AIR in welcoming the dynamic New Voices of 2024! #AIRNewVoices
Ana De Almeida Amaral (she/her) is a Chicana storyteller from southern San Diego. Coming from a background in ethnic studies and education reform, she aims to center marginalized voices in everything she creates. Her work is heavily influenced by her passion for bilingual storytelling and untold histories. In her short time working in the audio space, she has worked as an associate producer for the Stanford Storytelling Project, interned for Wonder Media Network, and has twice been a finalist for the International Women’s Podcast Awards. She recently graduated from Stanford University and is now working as a podcast intern at KQED.
Brandon Gates (he/him) is a Brooklyn-based journalist, screenwriter, and voice actor. With academic pursuits spanning journalism at the University of South Carolina and Columbia University, he furthered his craft through sketch comedy training at the Upright Citizens Brigade. He has done character voicing for the rom-com podcast "Meet Cute" and freelance work for NPR. His comedic short "Podcast Bros" earned acclaim at multiple film festivals, while his scripted podcast "Today We Almost Died," exploring pandemic-era roommate dynamics, garnered numerous accolades including Best Comedy Screenplay honors from the Prague International Awards and London Movie Awards.
Britny “Bee” Cordera (she/they) is a published poet, nonfiction writer and emerging journalist who investigates the intersections between environment, climate change and culture. She is interested in doing stories on environmental justice and climate solutions. Bee is also a 2024 Science Health and Environment Reporting Fellow and a 2022 graduate of NPR's Next Generation Radio Project. Her work can be found in Grist, The New Territory, Atmos, Next City and Planet Detroit. She received her MFA from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. When she is not reporting or writing poetry, Bee enjoys anime and roller skates in her free time.
Chandra Thomas Whitfield (she/her) is Co-Host/Producer of "Colorado Matters" on Colorado Public Radio. An award-winning multimedia journalist, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Essence, Ebony, NBCNews.com, NPR.org and The Huffington Post. In 2020, she completed a Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting Fellowship with In These Times magazine, during which she hosted and produced "In The Gap," a podcast about how pay inequity and discrimination impacts the lives – and livelihoods – of Black women in the American workforce. The short-run podcast won a 2021 Clarion Award from the Association of Women In Communications.
Eleanor Klock (she/her) is an Ifugao-American artist and storyteller based in Portland, Oregon. Her work serves as an intimate vessel for connection and she uses humor as a tool to encourage critical thought. She strives to highlight the nuances of Filipino and queer identities, social relationships, and the discomforts of living in the 21st century. In her free time, she loves drawing, complaining, and eating ice cream sandwiches.
Elize Manoukian (she/her) is a Bay Area-based Armenian-American freelance audio producer. She started working in audio as a producer for the California Journalism Award winning podcast "Border City," co-produced by the San Diego Union Tribune and LA Times Studios, and as a radio producer for "On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez," on KQED. She's a co-founder of Mother Armenia, an art collective that bridges musicians and creators in Armenia to the Bay.
free feral (they/them) plays with sound, song, and story to curate multidimensional experiences. Born in the SF Bay Area, they've made their home in New Orleans and Mississippi since 2012. free centers collaborations with other Black and queer artists and have composed scores for film, theatre, and dance using strings, loops, and vocals. A poet and active listener, they explore how individual experiences illuminate facets of our collective stories. free holds a BM from Oberlin Conservatory, a Certificate in Documentary Studies from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, and an MA in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi.
Hussain Khan (he/him) is a writer and audio producer studying journalism at UC Berkeley. He was born in Pakistan, raised in Canada, and lives in Oakland, California.
Leying Tang (she/her), a bilingual journalist with an M.A. in multimedia journalism from NYU, works as a production assistant at The Journal, specializing in business audio stories. Concurrently, she serves as an audio reporter and producer intern at WJFF Radio Catskill, focusing on local news in Upstate New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania. With previous experience in video journalism, she interned at both NBC News digital video desk and Beijing Bureau, contributing to coverage of significant events such as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and China's zero-COVID policy. She also provided assistance on a PBS Frontline investigative documentary about Jack Teixeira.
Max Ludlow (he/him) is a British-American audio engineer, sound designer, and multimedia artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He can often be found building sound systems, troubleshooting projectors, and hanging large objects from the ceiling at venues such as The Kitchen, Harlem Stage, and Chocolate Factory, among others. A graduate of Purchase College, SUNY, with a BA in Anthropology and Media Studies, Max produces the Artists and Hackers podcast and coordinates the Audio Storytelling program at the Tribeca Festival. In his free time, he performs electronic music under the alias Windy 500.
Maxwell Joy Moore (ze/they) is a podcaster, poet and political agitator fiercely creating fresh and irresistible narratives about the Black trans disabled experience. Ze is the host, producer, editor and sound engineer of POWER NOT PITY. Max's episodes serve as a vehicle for amplifying, preserving, and delighting in the voices of disabled people of color. Maxwell was the 2019 Stitcher Breakthrough Fellow, a 2019 Werk It! Presenter, featured at the 2020 Afros and Audio Festival and a virtual presenter at Podcast Movement 2021. Their work has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Colorlines, and Disability Visibility Project to name a few.
Ngoc Bui (she/they/none/Ngoc) is a producer focused on stories about health, climate, and diaspora communities. They were born in Vietnam and grew up in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. They come into the field of audio by way of community media and social work. Outside of their work, Ngoc is a sporadic runner, writer, calligrapher and former dog person turned cat person.
Sarah Liese (she/her/they/their) (Navajo/ Turtle Mountain Chippewa) is passionate about heart-centered storytelling and works as an Indigenous Affairs Reporter at KOSU in Oklahoma City. Her previous work focused on Indigenous research, documentary film, public relations, and broadcast journalism. She has received multiple fellowships from the Indigenous Journalists Association and the Sundance Institute and was awarded the Oustanding Master's Student Award in 2022 from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.
shaylyn martos (she/they) works to provide better representation of LGBTQ+ and Indigenous people in media. As a newsroom and podcast producer at YR Media, she hopes to create pathways for young journalists of color to make their passions their livelihoods. shaylyn is a Gracie Award winner; a member of NPR's Next Generation Radio; the season three host of the climate advocacy podcast Inherited from YR Media and Critical Frequency; and part of the inaugural early-career cohort of Chips Quinn Scholars. Her passions include reading speculative fiction, cooking favorite CHamoru foods and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Sonali Gupta (she/her) is a freelance writer, producer and editor from New Jersey. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and Vogue India among other publications. She recently completed a Master’s in Journalism at New York University and is at work on a book proposal about how a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy in her twenties led her and her father on a search for a cure in India.
Vanessa Handy (she/her) is a podcast producer and journalist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work focuses on race, culture, and civil rights. Currently, she's the Associate Producer for At Liberty, the ACLU's podcast. Previously, she helped produce WNYC's Notes from America with Kai Wright, NPR's Life Kit, where her work won a 2023 Gracie Award, and GBH's Under the Radar with Callie Crossley. Her writing is published in New York Amsterdam News, NPR Music, and Huffington Post. Outside of work, she enjoys 2000s pop hits, reading romance novels, and fantasizing about the end of capitalism.