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. 

Summer Sewell, Communications Coordinator
Summer Sewell is the Communications Coordinator at NFCB. She studied journalism at San Francisco State University, and soon after graduation began building experience in public relations while freelancing for publications such as Juxtapoz, The Onion and 7x7. An unexpected fascination with public radio subsequently ensued, and she began producing segments for KQED and KCBS. During a year-long layover in her hometown of Los Angeles, she produced KPFK’s Beneath the Surface. Now back in the Bay, she continues to freelance for Marketplace and Marketplace Money. Summer usually has a book, yerba mate, or bicycle handles in her hands and reggae in her ear.