• Audio Statement: Download or Stream to Media Player (mp3 format)
• Nomination Statement
• Candidate Questionnaire

My name is Nazreen Kadir. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 32 years and I have been listening to and supporting KPFA for all of this time. I consider myself someone with progressive values and I have always worked for progressive social change. I value diversity - in ideas, culture, and speech.

I grew up, the youngest of six, in a multi-racial, pluralistic society in South America in a country that was once a former British Colony. Race and class divisions in society bother me, so do class superiority and imperialism. I believe that unification of the human race, by making sure every one is treated the same, should be the goal of every human being on this planet.

Here in the Greater Bay Area, we live in a society that I would say is fast approaching a poly-cultural one. KPFA has been a force for social equity and justice in our society for more than half-a-century. As the Bay Area demographics change, KPFA's listening audience composition will change. In order to continue to be a voice for a more enlightened society based on core human values of decency towards, and respect for, one another, and for the rights of all, the station has to keep up. It has to continuously review and revise its programming mix to ensure relevance with the listening audience. This is one important way in which the station can grow its funding base as well. I believe I can contribute to this goal.

My professional background is an inter-disciplinary one. It includes scientific research (with patents and publications), strategic management consulting (with a doctorate degree in Business/Strategic Management), intellectual property rights protection, contract negotiations, college graduate level teaching, writing, editing, community development, and advocacy for the poor and under-represented. I have lived and worked in various countries, interacted with people from all walks-of-life - scientists, artists, writers, religious scholars of all kinds, policy-makers, lawyers, the financially wealthy as well as the impoverished who barely subsist. What intrigues me is the human spirit; it is the same in every one of the more than six billion people on this planet. I live to meet and interact with people - on the streets, in the coffee shops, on the bus.

I love to listen to the radio. I was 20 years old when I first saw a television set. This explains my fondness for KPFA and why I would like to serve on its board as a listener-representative. I believe I have the skills and expertise to seek consensus among board and staff members within KPFA, and with the community, and with the Pacifica family of stations.

I am running as an independent candidate, not part of a slate. I thank you for your support and I pledge to represent your voice on the KPFA Local Station Board.

1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board?

I have served on other not-for-profit boards. I have been a community and social activist for a long time and I believe in free-speech radio. As a listener of radio, I rely on KPFA and would like to contribute to its success.

2. How do you envision the Local Station Board working with the Pacifica Foundation, KPFA and the community?

I realize that LSBs, the PNB, Pacifica Foundation's management team, and the local station management and staff, are all part of a "power-sharing" arrangement. These types of arrangements are usually conflict-promoting and difficult to manage. The LSB has an important role as liaison between Pacifica and the community. Education and outreach to facilitate what should be a collaborative arrangement are critical for these relationships to work for the benefit of all.

3. How could the station better serve its listeners?

By continually reviewing what listeners want to hear and airing programs to match their interests.

4. Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in under-represented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening audience?

It's not so much "to increase the influence of the station" as it is how to get these communities to influence programming of interest to them. Community outreach is key to this. Broadcasting from Mission Cultural Center in SF, New College campuses are examples of how KPFA does this. This should be expanded to other communities.

5. What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel KPFA should solicit?

Any sources that would not place restraints on, stipulate, or in any way try to influence, its programming or hinder free-speech.

6. Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board?

I am a former research scientist with extensive strategic management and technology transfer experience in public, private, and not-for profit sectors in the U.S. and other countries. I have applied my knowledge and skills to promote social equity and I adapt easily to diverse institutional cultures.

I would like to use my knowledge and expertise to strengthen KPFA, whether financially or to make it more listener-relevant. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay area for 32 years and value its cultural diversity, progressive politics, and I am sensitive to the needs of its working class and new immigrant communities.

7. Do you anticipate missing any Local Station Board meetings due to family or job-related problems or inadequate transportation?

None that I can project other than financial constraints to travel to far distances for out-of-town meetings.

8. On which Local Station Board Committees are you interested in actively serving?

Hard to tell because the KPFA website is not current on reports from all committees. Absent that, probably management or governance.