Staff

Maxie C Jackson III, President and CEO
Maxie C Jackson III serves as President & Chief Executive Officer for the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB).

Jackson has served as Senior Director Program Development at New York Public Radio (WNYC) involved in strategic planning for national and local programming, outreach and audience development efforts, and new media and marketing initiatives. He was intimately involved in the launch of “The Takeaway” in addition to developing community engagement strategies and a new evening drive program for WNYC.

During his public radio career, Jackson has served on national (CPB, PRX, NPR, BBC and PRI) committees impacting public radio funding, technology, recruitment and programming. Currently, he is a member of the Development Exchange Inc. (DEI) Board of Directors, Association of Independents in Radio's (AIR) Maker’s Quest 2.0 Talent Committee, and Public Radio International’s (PRI) Program Director Advisory Group. He served on Eastern Region Public Media's (ERPM) Executive Board and the Executive Board of the African American Public Radio Consortium (AAPRC).

Jackson holds a master's degree in multi-channel management from Michigan State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast management from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He is capable of providing critical analysis of design, convergence and management strategy relevant to multimedia programming. Jackson lives with his wife and two children in New Jersey.

Ginny Z. Berson, Vice President and Director of Federation Services
Ginny Z. Berson has primary responsibility for planning and organizing the Community Radio Conference and the National Youth in Radio Training Project. She also runs NFCB's Rural Programming Initiative (a CPB-funded initiative). She writes the "Rules, Tools and Jewels" column for Community Radio News. Ginny is absolutely not a lawyer, but she is the person to call if you have questions about FCC regulations or other legal issues. If she doesn't know the answer, she'll find out. She also keeps the resource files, so if you have or need copies of other stations' job descriptions, plugola policies, etc., ask her.

Ginny has been at NFCB since October 1998. From 1981-1997 she held a variety of jobs at KPFA-FM in Berkeley and with Pacifica National Programming, including being Program Director and Senior Producer of Live National Programs. In her spare time Ginny plays the clarinet and goes diving in exotic locales such as Fiji and the Caribbean islands.

Kai Aiyetoro, Chief Operating Officer
Kai Aiyetoro is the Chief Operating Officer for the National Federation of Community Broadcasters  and Director of Financial Affairs for Native Public Media. Kai has worked in community radio for over twenty years and has served as Operations/Development Director at KKFI-FM  in Kansas City, MO; Program/Music Director at KJLU-FM  in Jefferson City, MO; and Business/General Manager at WRFG-FM in Atlanta, GA. Kai served as NFCB consultant to community organizations throughout the country assisting with the development of LPFM stations prior to her current position. She wrote and compiled the resource manual “Starting an LPFM Station” which is a publication available through NFCB.

Martina Tran, Program Manager
Martina Tran got her start in community radio with KALX Berkeley almost 10 years ago and was immediately bitten by the bug.  She learned to produce public affairs programming there via Film Close-Ups, really to legitimize her movie-fending habits.  Martina went on to work with independent production companies around the San Francisco Bay Area and as Production Coordinator on The Loose Leaf Book Company with Tom Bodett and The Blues, a PRI-distributed documentary.  Her Facebook profile lists “Radio! Radio! Radio!” as her only interest though she also likes books, music, knitting, and tea.  Martina joins NFCB as Program Manager, heading up our New Technologies, New Music initiative as well as taking over organizing the annual Community Radio Conference. 

Jessica Rand, Communications Coordinator
Jessica Rand joins the National Federation of Community Broadcasters as Communications Coordinator. She graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2006 where she was very active within the university's station, KZSC, as a program host and rock music director. Upon graduation, Jessica moved to Portland, Oregon quickly becoming involved with KBOO  Community Radio as a local music host, public affairs engineer, and event coordinator. She brings technological knowledge to the NFCB she gained from Free Geek, an organization which teaches people to refurbish junked computers. In her spare time you can spot Jessica on her bicycle, painting, or at music shows of all sorts.

Carolyn Caton, Development Manger
Carolyn Caton joined NFCB in 2005. She previously worked at CTCG, a nonprofit political and technology consulting company in San Francisco. Originally from Philadelphia, she has returned to the east coast to live in New York City where she marvels at the breadth and depth of the subway system.  A volunteer with YEAH! Youth Emergency Assistance Hostel since 2005, Carolyn plans to continue her youth advocacy work in New York.

Tad Oyler, Development Coordinator
Tad Oyler assists in the day to day fundraising activities of NFCB and Native Public Media.  Tad comes to us from College Track, an Oakland based college preparatory program for undeserved students in the Bay Area, where he managed grants as the Development Associate.  He also brings donor cultivation skills from his time at the American Red Cross in Seattle as their Major Gifts Assistant.  As a native of Seattle, Tad is a recent Bay Area transplant.