DAVID ACOSTA Chair (Houston), is a certified public accountant with a small firm, yet he has had tax liens and civil judgments brought against him by the IRS and the State of Texas. The former Board vice chair, he was handpicked as chair by his predecessor, Mary Frances Berry. He resigned on June 13, 2001.

KEN FORD Vice-Chair (Washington, DC), is the emergency response chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), which calls itself the third largest trade association political action committee in the U.S., raising over $2 million each election for both Republicans and Democrats. According to Ragged Edge, a disability rights magazine, "NAHB has systematically worked to prevent the passage of every piece of legislation that might mandate any access feature in housing (accommodating the disabled)." Ford's term on the Board expired in June 2000.

MICHAEL PALMER Treasurer (Houston), is a real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis, one of the largest commercial real estate firms, whose web site offers advice on finding cheap rentals in Mexico for maquiladoras (sweatshops). Palmer authored a misdirected email in 1999 which strongly advocated the sale of either WBAI or Berkeley station KPFA. He resigned May 14, 2001, just days ahead of planned national demonstrations at CB Richard Ellis offices.

JOHN M. MURDOCK Chair of the Board's Governance Committee (Washington, DC), is a senior associate at Epstein Becker & Green, which, according to its web site, is one of the world's largest labor and employment law firms whose expertise includes helping employers maintain union-free workplaces. Murdock specializes in HMO law, where the firm has excelled in defeating consumer lawsuits seeking accountability for needless injuries and deaths. In a clear conflict of interest, the firm now defends Pacifica against lawsuits by listeners, local board members and dissident national board members. He was brought on the Board by Berry in February 2000.

ANDREA CISCO Secretary (New York), operates her own small consult-ant company which concentrates on diversity training within corporations and other institutions. In 1999, the WBAI Local Advisory Board (LAB) voted to recall her after she voted with other members to remove LABs from any role in electing board members.

KAROLYN VAN PUTTEN member (Berkeley), is President of Western Public Radio, and had been a music programmer at a local NPR station for years. She was also hand-picked for the Board by Berry, and resigned on June 13, 2001.

VALRIE CHAMBERS member (Houston), is a certified public accountant who teaches accounting at a public college. She was appointed in June 2000.

ROBERT FARRELL member (Los Angeles), is a former member of the Los Angeles City Council. and former political editor of the LA Sentinel, an African-American weekly.

WENDELL JOHNS member (Washington, DC), is a vice president with the Fannie Mae Corp., a federally financed home loan mortgage board.

BERTRAM LEE, Sr. member (Washington, DC), also serves on the board of directors of Reebok, the multimillion dollar sneaker firm whose sweat-shops in East Asia have been the subject of many Pacifica programs. Mr. Lee is what his industry calls a "big buck boom and bust" businessman who buys and sells radio and television stations (such as the CBS TV affiliate in Boston and WKYS-FM in Washington.) He was brought on the Board by Berry in February 2000.

LESLIE CAGAN member (New York), was seated on the board in June 2000, served on the WBAI Local Advisory Board from 1987-1990, and has produced several special national broadcasts in cooperation with WBAI. She has been a peace and social justice organizer for almost 35 years, and has recently done organizer training at the Brecht Forum and Z Media Institute. In the '90s she coordinated the Cuba Information Project and co-coordi-nated the National Network on Cuba. She presently serves on the steering committee of the Same Boat Coalition, con-sults for a campaign against the Rockefeller Drug Laws, and is a national co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. Cagan and Beth Lyons initiated community meetings in New York last November, which grew into the Concerned Friends of WBAI.

ROB ROBINSON member (Washington, DC), joined the board in 1998. Robinson spent twenty years in District of Columbia government, divided between executive and legislative policy development, communications, research, and election campaign management. He currently works as a public affairs specialist, focusing on educational programming about asbestos in the public school system. Robinson and fellow board member Rabbi Aaron Kriegel filed the Directors' Lawsuit last year, one of three joint suits against the Pacifica Foundation, calling for the removal of the board's executive committee.

RABBI AARON KRIEGEL member (Los Angeles), is senior rabbi at Temple Ner Maarav in Encino, CA. He is on the executive committee of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, and he represents the Jewish community on the Chaplain's Coordinating Committee of the Department of Corrections and on the State Advisory Committee on Institutional Religion. Rabbi Kriegel is a member of the Priest Rabbi Dialogue, and adjunct professor at the American Baptist Seminary. Last year Kriegel was invited by the German Government to review policies and attitudes to Judaism and the Jewish communities there. The lawsuit he has filed with Robinson focuses on bylaw violations by the national board, including failure to disclose essential information on Pacifica matters.

PETER BRAMSON member (Berkeley), is based in Oakland and has served on the KPFA local advisory board since 1995. He hails from a progressive, politically active family and is a lifelong radio devotee. Bramson joined the Pacifica National Board in 1998, and describes joining the board as an attempt to represent the KPFA area "with the support of our varied and diverse radio and support communities." He has twenty years of professional experience in the music field, concentrating on systems support, client service, and staff development.

TOMAS MORAN member (Berkeley), has been a KPFA listener and supporter since 1980, joining the Pacifica National Board in October 1999. He came to the Bay area from Puerto Rico in the late seventies; he is a well-known public speaker on Puerto Rican and Cuban affairs and long-time community organizer. He has been a volunteer, facilitator, and consultant for community schools, local commissions, and social service organizations for the past two decades, and recently produced a series of local access TV shows focusing on the issues of homelessness and low-income residents. Moran currently serves as director of quality and planning at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

BETH LYONS is a former dissenting member of the PNB who resigned from the board for personal reasons.

On January 18, 2001, six dissenting members of the Pacifica National Board released a statement laying out their concerns and disagreements with recent developments at WBAI, and indicating their commitment to remedy the situation and get Pacifica back on track. Signed by Leslie Cagan, Tomas Moran, Pete Bramson, Rob Robinson, Rabbi Aaron Kriegel, and Beth Lyons, the state-ment was published in a full-page ad from FAIR in the February 26 issue of The Nation. The six dissidents came to the Pacifica National Board at different times, and via different routes. During the time they have served, they have challenged the present leadership, shared information about the workings of the National Board, and worked with community-based groups in their cities.