Crossing East - Producer Bios

Sara Caswell Kolbet, Associate Producer, has worked with MediaRites Productions for over three years, assisting with the production of several one-hour documentary specials. She does production, writing, web design, teaching, and bookkeeping for MediaRites. Kolbet has also worked at WCFM in Massachusetts and WUWM in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Ping Khaw-Sutherland, Marketing and Outreach Director teaches visual arts residencies and is the marketing and graphic designer for MediaRites projects. Sutherland is a native Malaysian who speaks four languages, which helps with outreach to International Asian communities. Sutherland is a gifted painter and visual artist and teaches arts residences to at-risk children throughout Oregon, as well as to breast cancer survivors, survivors of violence, youth with mental health issues, and other participants in MediaRites programs.

Catherine Stifter, Managing Editor, is a Peabody award-winning freelance editor and independent training and production consultant for radio stations around the US. She has been a regular contributor to NPR news magazines and documentary series. Her awards include a Peabody and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for the DNA Files. Current and recent editorial projects include "The Boomtown Chronicles: Reflections on a Changing California", and "The DNA Files," two series on genetics, ethics and politics produced by SoundVision Productions and distributed by NPR.

Michael Johnson, Technical Advisor has covered Native American issues as associate producer for the Smithsonian's "Spirits of the Present," was the associate producer for "Legacies: Tales From America" for MediaRites Productions, and associate producer for "Lost and Found Sound." He was general manager at KALW-FM and digital training manager for KQED-FM, San Francisco.

Clark Salisbury, Master Engineer has produced public radio programming, music libraries, demos, and music for award-winning video projects for 17 years, including the PBS documentary Kids In Crisis – Robert’s Story. He is owner/operator of C_Sonics. His technical articles have appeared in Electronic Musician and Keyboard magazine, among others. Salisbury is an accomplished guitarist and has performed with a varitey of ensembles in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, as well as in Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Arizona.

Ruby de Luna, Segment Producer is a features reporter at KUOW in Seattle with a focus on Seattle's immigrant community, a natural draw because she was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Before KUOW, Ruby worked in the Washington state legislature as a broadcast information assistant for the House Democrats. DeLuna was a Jefferson fellow at the East-West Center Media Program in Honolulu, Hawaii. She's a mentor for the student radio project at AAJA (Asian American Journalists Association). Currently she is also president of the SPJ's (Society of Professional Journalists) Western Washington Pro Chapter.

Catrin Einhorn, Segment Producer, is a reporter at Chicago Public Radio. Her work airs locally and nationally on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and she has also contributed to The World, Marketplace, and Day to Day. Catrin has won awards from Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), and the Illinois Associated Press. Before landing in public radio, Catrin freelanced, waited tables, and studied national identity and globalization in Chile on a Fulbright fellowship. She graduated from Haverford College, where she majored in anthropology and Latin American and Iberian studies.

Reese Erlich, Segment Producer reports regularly for National Public Radio, Marketplace Radio, Latino USA, Radio Deutche Welle, Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio. He also writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, St. Petersburg Times, and Christian Science Monitor. Erlich has been a media critic for San Francisco's KQED-FM since 1988. His "Perspectives on Jazz" series airs on sixteen public radio stations in the United States and Canada. Erlich has won numerous journalism awards, including the 1996 Chicago International Film Festival's Silver Hugo for investigative reporting.

Stephanie Loleng, Segment Producer is a freelance reporter for KALW News and Pacific Time,
KQED public radio in San Francisco. She's also worked as a mentor for NPR's Next Generation Radio Project and was an assistant editor for Philippine News.

Ginger Miles , Segment Producer has been an award-winning independent producer for two decades. Her work has been broadcast on a host of NPR programs and special series. She was Design Editor for a permanent exhibit at the Ellis Island Museum and worked with the Smithsonian as producer on the series "Legacy From Native America". Her radio work has won awards from CPB, Ohio State, the National Federation of Community Broadcasting and others. Currently, she is producing a live radio production special (On Border Radio) for the Texas Folklife Resource Center. Miles teaches Digital Audio Production at the University of Texas.

Nguyen Qui Duc, Segment Producer is the host of KQED's 'Pacific Time.' He has worked as general manager for the Vietnamese Broadcasting Network (VBN), a division of SkyView Media Group, a provider of foreign-language television services on DirectTV. Nguyen also is a former National Public Radio commentator for All Things Considered. In 1989, he received a Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club for his documentary series on Vietnam, produced for NPR. From 1986 to 1993, he was production manager for public radio station KALW-FM in San Francisco. From 1984 to 1986, Nguyen worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in London as a production assistant.

Deepa Ranganathan, Segment Producer is an education reporter for The Sacramento Bee, one of California's
major metropolitan newspapers. She has worked at KTOO News in Juneau, AK where she produced several features a week for state and local public radio networks on a wide range of topics, and WNYC where she produced several features a week for state and local public radio networks. A graduate of Harvard University, she has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Alaska Press Club.

Robynn Takayama, Segment Producer began working in radio with a one-hour documentary on Japanese American musicians for her senior thesis project at UC Santa Cruz. She graduated from the year-long KPFA Apprenticeship Program and contributes to KPFA, National Radio Project, and Pacific Time. She has also expanded her audio work into video and sound installation pieces that have shown in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rainjita Yang-Geesler, Segment Producer is a founding producer of Full Circle, a weekly radio magazine
produced by graduate and current Apprentices of the KPFA Apprenticeship Program. She is Full Circle's Lead
Segment Editor. Yang-Geesler is also a founding producer of the award-winning program, "APEX Express,"
KPFA's weekly show covering issues in the Asian and Pacific Islander community. She is currently the
Co-Director of the First Voice apprenticeship training program at KPFA.

Jennifer Dunn, Assistant Producer is an East West Center Degree Fellow, pursuing her MA in the Asian Studies Department (China focus) at University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has lived in China as a student, teacher, translator, and volunteer for a US- based non-profit organization called PEACH Foundation. Her current research involoves ethnic minorities and tourism in southwestern China.

Anne Morin, Assistant Producer is a writer for Wisdom of the Elders, a radio production about Native American history. She taught English as a Second Language to the first refugees out of Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, particularly the Hmong people of Laos. She has worked with Asian gang members from a variety of backgrounds. Morin was also involved, through the years, in working on several Foxfire writing and video projects that included students from more than ten different ethnic backgrounds.

Dhevi Natarajan, Assistant Producer is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, double majoring in Radio Television Film and Spanish with pre-med. Her current interests lie in traveling and photography. She practices Classical South Indian music and dance and enjoys playing the veena.

Miae Kim, Contributing Producer is an award-winning freelance radio producer and the founding producer and host of Radio Beyond Borders at KBOO, a program which explores the lives of immigrants. Her work has been featured nationally or internationally on radio stations and programs such as National Public Radio (NPR), National Radio Project (Making Contact), Pacifica (Free Speech Radio News), Pacific Time (KQED), Prime Time Radio, Soundprint, Women's International News Gathering Services (WINGS), and Workers Independent News Service (WINS) as well as many local radio stations. She also worked as a newspaper reporter for The Asian Reporter and The Dispatcher.

Trang Ho, Contributor is a reporter and producer for KPCC in Los Angeles.

Scotty Iseri, Contributor is a freelance producer and musician in Chicago.

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