John Schwartz
A public broadcasting advocate for nearly 40 years, John has founded community radio and television stations and brought wireless broadband services dedicated to schools and nonprofits to markets throughout the United States. In 1995, John spearheaded the launch of Free Speech TV (FSTV), which reaches an over-the-air audience of 30 million households nationwide. In 1983, John founded the EBS organizations, five non-profit organizations that obtained licenses in what is now the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) band. Utilizing the organizations’ spectrum, commercial operator Clearwire, in concert with principal investor Sprint Wireless, delivers 4G broadband to many major U.S. cities. In exchange for the use of this spectrum, Clearwire provides the EBS organizations with royalties, which the organizations allocate to their operations and philanthropic efforts. John lives in Boulder, CO.
Chris Artem
Chris is the Director of Voqal’s EducationOnDemand initiative. Chris is responsible for bringing quality content and internet connectivity to schools. Chris graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in European History. Chris loves the outdoors, reading history books and rooting for his beloved Steelers. Chris joined Voqal in 2001.
Patricia Dwyer
As Voqal’s CFO, Patricia is responsible for the financial stewardship of Voqal. Prior to joining Voqal, Patricia focused on assisting small businesses in her community with their financial affairs including the Wheat Ridge Foundation and Wheat Ridge 2020. Patricia worked with various divisions of MetLife from 1997 to 2009 and started her career in public accounting with Deloitte & Touche. Patricia is a registered CPA and holds a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. Patricia joined Voqal in 2010.
John Kennedy
John joined Voqal’s Mobile Citizen initiative in 2011.
Adam Miller
Adam is responsible for budgeting and policy development, and oversees the EducationOnDemand and Mobile Citizen initiatives. Prior to joining Voqal, Adam was the Volunteer Coordinator for Special Olympics Texas and also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer in Manor, TX implementing literacy programs. Adam holds a bachelor’s degree from Sewanee. When not playing with his family Adam is riding his bike. Adam joined Voqal in 2001.
Evan Moore
Evan Moore is the Assistant Director of Voqal’s EducationOnDemand initiative. Previously, Evan taught middle school science in Phoenix as a Teach for America corps member. He holds a bachelors degree from the University of Delaware. When not working, Evan enjoys reading, playing ultimate, and spending time with loved ones. Evan Moore joined Voqal in 2012.
Michelle Warner
Michelle is the the Director of Voqal’s Mobile Citizen initiative, which aims to bridge the digital divide with affordable technology. She has spent her career helping nonprofits of all sizes and is passionate about capacity building for innovation and growth. Michelle holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois. Michelle Warner joined Voqal in 2010.
Advisors
Michele Christiansen
Michele Christiansen serves as Program Associate and supports Voqal’s philanthropic initiatives.
Ken Devine
Ken Devine has been an accomplished media executive and entrepreneur for over 30 years. He founded and operated the consulting firm Broadcast Technical Services (BTI) in New Orleans in 1979. An early project was the licensing and construction of WWOZ, New Orleans community radio. BTI provided engineering and technical management services to radio and television broadcasters, manufacturers, government agencies and non-profit organizations.
Ken and BTI worked extensively with community radio and television licensees including the Pacifica Foundation, Acorn, Radio Bilingüe and Educational Broadcast Foundation (WNET-TV) until 1995 when a lengthy consulting engagement with WNET evolved into a senior management position and relocation to New York City, where he served for over 15 years, most recently as Vice President of Media Operations and Chief Information Officer.
During his tenure at WNET, Ken was responsible for creating innovative public/private partnerships with studio and post-production companies in NYC to co-operate and market the excess capacity of WNET facilities for internal and external clients. Comedy Central’sDaily Show was originally launched from WNET’s studios and the Paramount Television Montel Williams Show spent two seasons at WNET side-by-side with The MacNeil Lehrer News Hour, sharing a control room. The revenue derived from these arrangements helped to sustain WNET and its productions during a difficult period.
Ken was also responsible for creating a five-year collaborative project with PBS, WGBH and NYU to create a centralized access and preservation system for public television. The project was funded under the auspices of the Library of Congress and lead directly to the CPB American Archive project.
Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish has worked at the intersection of politics and public interest entrepreneurship for much of his thirty-five year career. The former publisher of The Nation magazine, and co-founder and publisher of the non-fiction imprint Nation Books, he is currently publisher of the Washington Spectator. Mr. Fish has produced several documentary films, including Hotel Terminus, winner of the 1989 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. He sits on a variety of non-profit boards including Riverkeeper, which advocates for clean water and the Hudson River, and the Fund for Constitutional Government in Washington, DC. Mr. Fish is also the President of the Hamilton Fish and Alice Desmond Library in Garrison, New York.
Kevin Lindsay
Harvests, Inc. is a Denver-based consultant group assisting non-profit organizations with economic strategies to strengthen and extend their reach.
Harvests began its affiliation with Voqal in 2004. Originally engaged to develop marketing and recruitment methods forming strategic partnerships with fellow EBS operators, its role quickly expanded to include EBS spectrum acquisition and market intelligence tasks. To date, Harvests has successfully generated in excess of $26 million in contractual revenues for the EBS Companies and their affiliates.
In addition, Harvests has been instrumental to the launch of Mobile Citizen™ (4G mobile broadband service exclusively for schools and non-profits) and continues to provide day-to-day operational support to the initiative.
Harvests is pleased to support the Independent Public Media effort.
The Harvests Team
- Kevin-John Lindsay, Principal
- Kirkland Lindsay, Financial Officer
- Jim Ringel, Executive Consultant–Sales & Marketing
- Lisa Jones, Executive Consultant–Project Management/IT
- Aiden Gray, Consultant–Creative Services
- Melissa Edmonds, Manager of Administrative Services
Project Affiliates
- Public Relations: Chatterbrain – Nikki Martin, Principal
- Research Services: EHI Services – Karen Lindberg Jefferson, Principal
- Web & Digital Services: ibu – Evan Dechtman, Principal
Hollis A. Hope
Hollis A. Hope serves as Senior Philanthropy Advisor and is responsible for strategy, program development and impact assessment for Voqal. She leads the consultancy Hope Strategies, Inc., in Boulder, Colorado, providing expert counsel, strategy development and project management for social sector clients.
Erin Polgreen
Erin Polgreen serves as Program Strategist and manages the Media Ideation Fellowship program, strategic partnerships and assists in the development and implementation of philanthropic initiatives for Voqal Chicago and Voqal USA. She is a consultant with deep experience developing community, fostering technological innovation, and increasing the reach of independent media.