| The KPLU News family includes many distinct and
memorable voices. Meet the local news hosts and reporters who inform and educate our listeners each day of the week. |
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Tom Banse
Reporter
Regional Correspondent Tom Banse covers politics, state government, and general news from our bureau in the state capital, Olympia. His stories can be heard during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on KPLU and other National Public Radio stations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
Before taking the Olympia posting, Tom worked in the Seattle bureau of United Press International. He got his start in radio at WCAL-FM, a public station in southern Minnesota. Reared in Seattle, Banse graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with a degree in American Studies. In 1996, he spent two months reporting from Bonn and Berlin, Germany on a Arthur F. Burns Fellowship. In 1999, the travel went the other direction -- to Seoul, Singapore, and Jakarta -- on a Jefferson Fellowship.
When he's not sifting through press releases, listening to lobbyists, or attending legislative hearings, Banse enjoys exploring the Olympic Peninsula backcountry and cooking dinner with friends. His secret ambition is to take six months off work and travel to a faraway place where there are no radios.
Banse has received numerous awards for his work from the Society of Professional Journalists, Washington Press Association, Washington Associated Press Broadcast Contest, 1997 Radio Award of the international jury of the RIAS Berlin Commission, and the Arthur F. Burns Journalism Prize.
E-mail Tom at tbanse@u.washington.edu
Click here for Tom Banse's stories
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Gary Davis
Weekend Edition Saturday Host
Gary is a Seattle native who recently returned to work as a public radio journalist with KPLU in December 2004. He began working in public radio in Seattle in the early 1980's while a student at the University of Washington. In 1987 Gary became editor and co-host of Across The Atlantic, a weekly European news magazine that aired on public radio networks in both North and South America. In 1990 he returned to Seattle and was awarded top local journalism honors for his reporting work.
In 1992 Gary changed professional direction and began working with several civic and public policy initiatives in Seattle and Washington State. But his first-love, public radio journalism, called him back, this time to KPLU's award-winning and highly respected news team. Gary, his partner and their beloved cat live in the heart of Seattle.
E-mail Gary at gdavis@kplu.org
Click here for Gary Davis' stories
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Paige Hansen
Fill-in News Host
Paige Hansen has worked in public radio since 1993. On a bet from her
father, she applied for an internship at the NPR station at her college - KUNC
in Greeley Colorado. After two news internships and one music internship, she
started hosting the diverse music in the evenings. It was there she learned to
love the immediacy of radio! She was invigorated by this fast paced
muti-tasking world where a host has to be a good talker, a quick engineer and
producer and a speedy improvisor all at the same time. It applealed to
Paige's theather and music interests as well. Paige majored in Communications
and minored in theater at the University of Northern Colorado.
She's locally anchored NPR's All Things Considered at two affiliate FM
stations for 10 years, and Morning Edition at KPLU for a year.
Paige enjoys music she's in a jazz combo as a singer annd plays piano
and sings with the original band Parkland.
She lives in Lakewood where she spends as much time possible playing with
her toddler and husband.
E-mail Paige Hansen at phansen@kplu.org
Click here for Paige Hansen's stories
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Adam Gehrke
Weekend Edition Saturday Host/Traffic Reporter
Adam Gehrke started in radio while still in High School as an intern for one of the rock stations in Seattle. Then, while attending the University of Puget Sound he became heavily involved in college radio. At the same time Adam also began working for various AM stations in Tacoma. Upon graduation he moved back to Seattle and landed multiple jobs in the radio industry.
Now several years later, Adam works as a traffic reporter and can be heard Monday through Friday dishing out the good and bad news to commuters during Morning Edition. And, on weekends he is the local host for Weekend Edition Sunday.
When he is not working, Adam enjoys writing and composing music, magic, and practicing Baguazhang.
E-mail Adam at agehrke@plu.org
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Austin Jenkins
News Reporters
Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based Political Reporter for the Northwest News Network, a consortium of public radio stations throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington legislature. He also regularly files stories for National Public Radio. Some of the more memorable subjects Austin's covered recently include: geoduck farming in Southern Puget Sound, the Court Martial of a Washington National Guard member accused of treason and Washington's contested governor’s race. Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin was a freelance general assignment reporter at KING-TV, the NBC affiliate in Seattle. He also worked as a freelance education reporter for KPLU-FM. Austin spent 2001 in Washington, D.C. as a Knight Foundation/American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. Austin has also worked as a television reporter in Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and has a B.A. in Political Science from Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Over the years Austin has won numerous professional awards for his reporting. Off the clock, Austin is a competitive runner, an avid skier and mountain biker.
E-mail Austin at ajenkins@kplu.org
Click here for Austin Jenkin's stories
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Kirsten Kendrick
Morning Edition Host
Kirsten Kendrick is the host of Morning Edition at KPLU. She has worked here since February 2005, starting out as a reporter covering a variety of topics including education and business. A native of Ohio, Kirsten's 15-year news radio career has taken her all around the country. She started in Dallas, worked her way to Miami and eventually landed in Seattle! Her work has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press and the Radio Television News Directors Association. Kirsten is past president of the Western Washington Chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists.
Email Kirsten at kkendrick@kplu.org
Click here for Kirsten Kendrick's stories
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Dave Meyer
All Things Considered Host
Dave Meyer grew up on the shores of Hood Canal and has spent most of his life in the state of Washington.
His career in broadcasting began at the age of three with a brief appearance on Stan Boreson's "King's Klubhouse" on KING-TV.
Dave earned degrees in communications and psychology at Washington State University and worked as a broadcast journalist at radio stations in Longview, Everett and Boston before joining the staff of KPLU in 1987. He began hosting KPLU's Morning Edition in 1988. Dave just recently made the switch to hosting NPR's All Things Considered from 3pm-6pm in the afternoons.
Over the years, Dave's newscasts and interviews have won several awards from the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Press Association.
Dave lives in Tacoma with his wife and two very spoiled cats.
Email Dave at dmeyer@kplu.org
Click here for Dave Meyer's stories
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Bellamy Pailthorp
News Reporter
Bellamy Pailthorp covers the Business and Labor beat from KPLU's Northwest News center in Seattle. She also has a passion for cultural reporting, and strives to stay abreast of important trends and issues in the local arts scene. Whether business or the arts, she looks for stories that reflect the changing culture of the region.
She contributes regularly to NPR's national news magazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition, as well as NPR newscasts. Her work has won several awards, including a regional Edward R. Murrow award for continuing coverage of Chinese stowaways arriving inside shipping containers in the Port of Seattle.
A native of the Northwest, Bellamy grew up in central Seattle. She holds a B.A. in German Language and Literature from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT., where she was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society for academic excellence. She has just completed a Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow.
She received a Fulbright scholarship and lived in Berlin, Germany from 1989-1998, after witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall. While there, she worked as a freelance producer and reporter for the foreign and cultural news desks at NPR, as well as stringing for the Associated Press and the German world service broadcaster, Deutsche Welle TV.
Bellamy serves on the Alumni Advisory Council of Seattle's Northwest School, and on the Board of Directors for Seattle's premiere contemporary classical ensemble, the Seattle Chamber Players.
Email Bellamy at bpailthorp@kplu.org
Click here for Bellamy Pailthorp's stories
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Keith Seinfeld
News Reporter
KPLU Science and Health Reporter Keith Seinfeld is a Tacoma native who loves to keep learning new things. He also loves the craft of writing and storytelling. He says his current job is an ideal fit, because every day he's trying to answer new questions, track down information and make sense of it all for listeners. Working out of KPLU's Seattle news center, Keith's stories track changes in health care, innovations in science and explain items in the news such as landslides or bio-terrorism.
As environment reporter for KPLU for nearly five years, he covered topics such as the timber wars, endangered species and energy deregulation. He won the national Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the Makah whaling controversy, along with numerous local and regional awards. He also was a staff reporter at the Seattle Times and The News Tribune in Tacoma, and a freelance writer-producer. Keith has a degree in humanities and a master's in education from Stanford.
Email Keith at kseinfeld@kplu.org
Click here for Keith Seinfeld's stories
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Jennifer Wing
News Reporter
KPLU Education Reporter Jennifer Wing grew up in Philadelphia where she earned a degree in Journalism and Political Science at Temple University.
Her career in broadcast journalism began at WRTI and WHYY in Philadelphia. Before moving west Jennifer was a reporter at WILM news radio in Wilmington, Delaware. She also worked as a producer and writer for Northwest Cable News before joining the staff of KPLU in 1999.
Jennifer's work has won many awards over the years from the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists, Radio and Television News Directors Association and Public Radio News Directors Incorporated.
On the education beat, Jennifer covers a range of stories from early learning to the financial stresses squeezing higher education. Her in-depth reports are featured on the ongoing education series "The Learning Curve."
Jennifer is married to screenwriter and filmmaker George Wing. They live in Seattle with their cats Andre and Misty.
Email Jennifer at jwing@kplu.org
Click here for Jennifer Wing's stories
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