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Gary Davis | Health & Science Reporter/Assistant News Director
Gary Davis is KPLU's Health & Science reporter and Assistant News Director. A SeaTac native and University of Washington graduate, Gary has been a public radio journalist for almost 20 years in Seattle and overseas in Germany and the U.K. He's reported on a variety of topics, including the opening of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the vote on Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct, and a broad range of education issues as part of the KPLU-KCTS series "The Learning Curve." Gary was also host of KPLU's Weekend Edition Saturday from 2005 to 2007.
Gary's memorable moment in public radio: "For a story I was preparing about gay youth, I interviewed a 14-year-old Seattle boy whose parents had kicked him out of his home after he told them he was gay. He was about to be placed in a foster home and he was really scared about his situation. What's so memorable for me is, in that moment, realizing the power of our medium. He wasn't willing to show his face (for TV), but he was willing to share his story through sound - to speak out for himself and for other kids he knew with similar stories."
Contact info: gdavis@kplu.org
 Click here for stories by Gary Davis
Adam Gehrke | Weekend Edition Sunday Host
Adam Gehrke, KPLU’s Weekend Edition Sunday Host, has been sitting in the
comfortable control-room chair on Sundays since 2001. Adam grew up in what’s now called Sammamish (formerly unincorporated King County) and is a graduate of PLU’s arch rival, the mighty University of Puget Sound. He has been in broadcasting since he was 17.
Adam’s memorable moment in public radio: “Getting to play a part as
myself and a few other characters in Dick Stein’s Jimmy Jazzoid radio-detective drama.”
Contact info: agehrke@kplu.org
Erin Hennessey | News Director
Erin Hennessey, KPLU’s News Director, has been overseeing the station’s news team since 1996. From 1991-1996 she was KPLU’s All Things Considered Host. Erin is a native of Spokane and a graduate of the University of Washington and City University’s Center for Journalism Studies in London. Erin worked in the film industry and as a print journalist in London and New York before returning to Seattle to work in broadcast news.
Erin’s memorable moment in public radio: “Interviewing jazz icons from Seattle for a radio documentary about Jackson Street After Hours, a book by Paul de Barros that examines the years surrounding WWII when night clubs lined Seattle’s Jackson Street. A lot of the musicians were in their last years of life when I interviewed them – but, my, what stories they had to tell about the music, dancing, and bootleg liquor!”
Contact info: ehennessey@kplu.org
Chana Joffe-Walt | Education Reporter
Chana Joffe-Walt started out covering general assignment stories for
KPLU in 2005. Work for KPLU and the Northwest News Network (N3) has taken her into Buddhist temples and out to private San Juan islands. In 2007, Chana joined KPLU as Education Reporter which she job shares with reporter Jennifer Wing. She loves any story where she gets to meet a new person, idea or place. A native of Philadelphia, Chana is a graduate of Oberlin College.
Chana's memorable moment in public radio: "Searching the streets of Las Vegas for a recycling bin. I was working on a story about how the casinos were “going green." I figured they're building the largest green building in the world here, there has to be one recycling bin. I was wrong.
Contact info: cjoffewalt@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Chana Joffe-Walt
Kirsten Kendrick | Morning Edition Host
Kirsten Kendrick has been KPLU’s Morning Edition Host since September 2006. She came to KPLU in February 2005 as a reporter. A native of Ohio who grew up in Texas, Kirsten's nearly 20-year career in news radio has taken her all around the country – from Dallas to Miami to Seattle.
Kirsten’s memorable moment in public radio: “The day my first feature aired on KPLU. I continue to be amazed and appreciative that there is an outlet for radio stories that are more than one minute long!”
Contact info: kkendrick@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Kirsten Kendrick
Kevin Kniestedt | Weekend Edition Saturday Host
Kevin Kniestedt, KPLU's Weekend Edition Saturday Host, has held a variety of roles since joining KPLU in 2003. In addition to Weekend Edition, he hosts the daily jazz program, Jazz on the Grooveyard. Kevin produces news features and regularly hosts KPLU's live in-studio music performances. Kevin grew up in Western Washington and got his start in radio while he was in college, working as a producer for KPBX in Spokane. Kevin's memorable moment in public radio: "Covering the retirement of Seattle Mariner baseball legend Edgar Martinez. I grew up a huge Seattle baseball fan and the opportunity to go into the clubhouse and talk to one of the most respected and legendary Seattle sports figure of all time was a dream come."
Contact info: kkniestedt@kplu.org
Dave Meyer | All Things Considered Host
Dave Meyer, KPLU's All Things Considered host, has been anchoring our news shows since 1987. He started out on Weekend Edition, moved to Morning Edition in 1988 and has been hosting All Things Considered since 2005. A native of the Olympic Peninsula and a graduate of Washington State University, Dave worked as a broadcast journalist in Pullman, Boston, Longview and Everett before joining the KPLU news team.
Dave's memorable moment in public radio: "Hosting Morning Edition during the tragedy and chaos of September 11, 2001. It was the biggest challenge of my career and I hope we never have to go through that again."
Contact info: dmeyer@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Dave Meyer
Liam Moriarty | Environment Reporter
Liam Moriarty, a New York native, has reported for KPLU for more than 10 years, starting as our freelance correspondent in the San Juan Islands in 1996. He stepped in as full-time Environment Reporter in June 2007. In between, Liam was News Director at Jefferson Public Radio in Ashland, Oregon for three years and reported for a variety of radio, print and web news sources in the Northwest. He's covered a wide range of environment issues, from timber, salmon and orcas to oil spills, land use and global warming. He’s also reported for KPLU from France for the station’s Learning Curve series “The French Connection” – comparing education styles and funding between France and the U.S. with a special emphasis on Washington State.
Liam's memorable moment in public radio: "It's probably a tie between getting tear-gassed during Seattle’s WTO riots in 1999, and getting upclose and personal with killer whales while reporting on whale research in the San Juans."
Contact info: lmoriarty@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Liam Moriarty
Bellamy Pailthorp | Business & Labor Reporter
Bellamy Pailthorp has been overseeing KPLU’s coverage of employers and workers since 2001. She started at the station in 1999 as a general assignment reporter. Bellamy has traveled extensively but finds herself consistently drawn back to the Pacific Northwest. She grew up in central Seattle. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and holds a Masters from Columbia University. She’s a Fulbright Scholar and a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. From 1989-1998 she worked in Berlin where she got her start in public radio as a stringer for NPR’s cultural news desk.
Bellamy’s memorable moment in public radio: “Seeing the INS open a shipping container at the Port of Seattle that contained stowaways from China, three of whom died en route of seasickness. Harrowing stuff, with global economics and inequity at its root.”
Contact info: bpailthorp@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Bellamy Pailthorp
Keith Seinfeld | Health & Science Reporter/Assistant News Director
Keith Seinfeld has been KPLU’s Health & Science reporter since 2001. He’ll cover just about any area of scientific research or health care, from the laboratories to the patients, from public clinics to the rivalries between hospitals. His series of stories on the use of electricity to modify the brain won the 2008 Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Prior to Health & Science, Keith covered the environment for KPLU for five years. He also was a staff reporter at The Seattle Times and The News Tribune in Tacoma and a freelance writer-producer. He’s a native of Tacoma who loves to keep learning new things. He also loves the craft of writing and storytelling. Keith is a graduate of Stanford University and is currently attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship. He expects to return to KPLU in June 2008. Keith’s memorable moment in public radio: “Watching brain surgery on a patient with Parkinson’s Disease. There’s a lot of mystique about brain surgery, but when the doctor pulled out a pretty hefty hand-held drill, I realized: It may be a hi-tech procedure, in a room filled with hi-tech gadgets, but you still have to open up the skull. The rest of the operation was fascinating, especially when you could hear the electrical pulses of individual neurons, amplified through a loudspeaker.”
Contact info: Away on a fellowship. Contact Gary Davis for Health & Science
Click here for stories by Keith Seinfeld
Jennifer Wing | Education Reporter
Jennifer Wing has been leading KPLU's Education coverage since
2001. She now job shares the beat with reporter Chana Joffe-Walt. Jennifer was born and raised in Philadelphia, where she graduated from Temple University. Before joining KPLU she worked in radio and television in Bellingham, Delaware, Seattle and Philadelphia.
Jennifer's memorable moment in Public Radio: "Covering a press conference on the top floor of Seattle's old, un-retrofitted, City Hall Building when the 2001 earthquake hit!"
Contact info: jwing@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Jennifer Wing
Paula Wissel | Law & Justice Reporter
Paula has covered the Law and Justice beat at KPLU for more than a decade. She began her KPLU career in 1989 when she was hired to host All Things Considered. Prior to moving to Seattle, she worked in public television in Idaho. She also worked in public TV and radio in upstate New York and San Francisco, where she graduated from Lone Mountain College, now part of the University of San Francisco. She was born and raised in Idaho.
Paula’s memorable moment in public radio: "Sitting in a King County courtroom when Green River killer Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to strangling 48 women. As the serial killer responded to each charge in an emotionless tone, the families of the murder victims sat quietly crying. They'd been waiting decades for the killer to be caught. It reinforced my feeling that, with this or any tragedy, the people left behind live with the pain long after I've packed up my microphone and gone home."
Contact info: pwissel@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Paula Wissel
Northwest News Network (N3) Reporters:
Tom Banse | Regional Correspondent
Tom Banse, KPLU’s and N3’s Regional Correspondent, roves the Northwest to report on broad themes and telling details. His topics run the gamut from business to the environment and human interest. Home base is in Olympia, a legacy of a previously held state government beat from 1991-2003. Although he grew up in Seattle, Tom's radio career began by chance in Minnesota at Carleton College’s student radio station.
Tom's memorable moment in public radio: "I am indebted to many people for tips and tutelage, but certainly some of the bluntest -- at times unprintable -- guidance came from NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg. I interned at NPR in 1989 and was privileged to keep Nina's chair warm at the U-S Supreme Court or at the high-octane Iran-Contra trial of Oliver North, wherever she wasn't at the time. Heady stuff for a tenderfoot reporter."
Contact info: tbanse@u.washington.edu
Click here for stories by Tom Banse
Austin Jenkins | Political Correspondent
Austin Jenkins, KPLU’s and N3’s Olympia Reporter, has been covering the Washington State Legislature and regional public policy issues since 2004. Prior to becoming a public radio reporter, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise – to name just a few of his stops. Austin grew up in Seattle and is a graduate of Connecticut College.
Austin’s memorable moment in public radio: “There are too many to pick just one: Covering Washington’s contested 2004 gubernatorial election, flying in an Army Reserve Chinook helicopter to the top of Mt. Rainier, spending 24-hours on a tug boat on the Snake River, the list goes on.”
Contact info: ajenkins@kplu.org
Click here for stories by Austin Jenkins
Anna King | Richland Correspondent
Anna King, KPLU’s and N3’s Richland-based reporter, has been covering the Mid-Columbia since the spring of 2007. Before that she was a print reporter for the Tri-City Herald where she covered the environment, Native Americans, agriculture and Northwest wine. A Washington native, she's also a regular contributor to the magazine Wine Press Northwest and was a contributing author to the guide book Best Places to Kiss in the Northwest.
Anna's memorable moment in public radio: "Being dusted from head-to-toe by a potato digger during harvest. Every square inch of me was covered in fine sand. Public radio is a dirty job!"
Contact info: aking@wsu.edu
Click here for stories by Anna King
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