Meet the Board of Directors
Board of Directors
Directors ensure that Driftless Community Radio, the owners of WDRT 91.9FM, does its best work possible in pursuit of the organization's goals, and they accept the legal and ethical responsibilities inherent in such a function. Board members are:
Eddy Nix - President
Born in Madison and raised in La Crosse, eddy has spent most of his life in the Driftless Bioregion. He has been a Teacher and Theatre Director at Youth Initiative High School from 1996–recently. Since 2003 he has been owner and operator of Driftless Books & Music, a local book business with an online presence. He enjoys odd and unique experiences and people. He has been and Actor, Director, or Producer of over 40 Theatrical experiences in many strange and far away places. One day he hopes to have a small porch in the woods where he can learn to play the banjo and grow his own garlic. Eddy has a daughter, Emma Belle, who is 8 and lives in California.
Charles Angell - Vice President
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The longer I live in the Driftless area the more I’m able to see the subtle yet profound difference that our regional lifestyle choices create. Many in our area embrace the ideals of sustainability, ecological awareness, moderation, family, community, self sustenance, tradition, and ritual. I believe these ideals form a path that is sufficiently adaptive for the societal and personal challenges that lay ahead.
In that regard, I see our region as the vanguard of a revitalized and aware lifestyle. As a non-profit public effort, I believe that WDRT has great potential to enhance our communal voice and strengthen our communal integrity. Blessed as we are here in the Driftless, I feel privileged to have the opportunity to contribute my 20+ years as a Photographer, a Pre-press Image Specialist, a Graphic Artist, and a Web Designer, to such a fine effort as WDRT promises to be.
Tamara Dean
Tamara has been part of WDRT since 2006 and believes that grassroots media can inform, entertain, and connect communities in powerful and unique ways. She studied radio production and broadcast policy, among other things, in college and went on to work at the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). Later, in the 1990s, she hosted and produced an author-interview show on WORT in Madison. Along the way she's made her living as a systems engineer, manager, teacher, and writer. She also serves on the board of The Valley Stewardship Network, and she's the author of The Human-Powered Home in addition to various stories, essays, and technical books.
Alicia Leinberger - Treasurer
Alicia comes from a long history of community initiatives, from agriculture and fair trade, to food, energy, and local media. Her experience in small business development, marketing and graphics will guide her in her role as a board member. Currently, Alicia works with Seventh Generation Systems Integration, growing small wind and solar distributed energy markets as a marketing and development coordinator.
Alicia grew up in the Midwest and Central America, and most recently lived 15 years in Madison, WI where she volunteered at WORT 89.9FM and saw the power of community radio in action. Her family came to the Driftless in 2007, and her two children attend Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School. In 2009, she joined up with the team at WDRT planning and promoting Kickapalooza, our annual celebration of the region and it's people. Her commitment to community radio and local media stems from a belief in the power of knowledge as connection, and it's ability to transform the barriers between us all.
Jennifer McGeorge - Secretary
Joy maker, treat baker, garden raker, chance taker. Passionate about great fresh food, family, friends, and flowers. A nurse, wife, sister, friend who loves many kinds of music, dance and the great outdoors. I love the hills and valleys of the driftless region—how they shelter and change us as people. Radio is such an accessible medium, providing us with the voice and music we need. I am pleased to be part of our community radio effort and thrilled that now we’ll have some homegrown, bad axe radio programming to groove to.
Genie (Eugenia) Petrovits Nordskog
I moved from Minneapolis to the Viroqua area with my husband and three children about two years ago. Born and raised on Cape Cod, I received my degree in Russian from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. I am a freelance desktop publisher/graphic designer and Art Director of the Kickapoo Free Press. As staff representative to the board of directors of Hampden Park Co-op (St. Paul), I was honored to participate in the shaping of the co-op's future as well as address the equally important issues of day-to-day operations. I am an avid listener of non-commercial radio, my taste in music ranges around the world and across the ages, I appreciate a challenge, am fond of a good yarn and I have opinions. I believe very strongly in living locally and am very excited about having an independent radio station to directly serve this unique community of ours. Lacking the talent to go on air myself, I welcome the opportunity to put my enthusiasm and skills to work behind the scenes to help ensure that WDRT lives up to its potential to entertain, inform and edify its listeners.
Cori Skolaski
Prior to moving to the Driftless region in December 2000, Cori was the Membership Director for 10 years at WXPR, a 100,000-watt community public radio station at 91.7FM serving a 70-mile radius around Rhinelander, WI, including north and northcentral Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan. During her time at WXPR Cori was responsible for member acquisition, pledge drives, volunteer recruitment and training, special events, and membership meetings. And she filled in on-air whenever necessary - from Blues to Bluegrass, Classical to Polka, and everything in between.
Now Cori lives in Westby, WI with her husband and two children. Cori's children attend a local Waldorf school and she sits on its Board of Directors. For the past eight years she has been the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity-La Crosse Area where she is responsible for managing the non-profit agency working to eliminate poverty housing.
Ed Holahan
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Ed comes to this side of the Mississippi after living four years in lovely Houston County, MN. He and the amazing Mary Benson live and work on Ella Bella Farm just north of Westby growing organic fruits, veggies and flowers. He was born, raised and educated in New York City and left those parts at the ripe old age of 19 to head for the Midwest. He spent thirty-five years in business in the Twin Cities and Chicago during which time he happily invented hundreds of toys and games. Yes, people really do that for a living.
He is a writer of commentary, humor, fiction and nature; sometimes all on the same page. His work appears in the Kickapoo Free Press, The Houston Banner and is heard on WDRT. All of which might make you ask, “Why, on earth, is he on the board?” Let’s let him tell you in his own words. “WDRT is such a totally healthy manifestation of everything positive that a Community like our Driftless has to offer. This is radio that people make. This is radio that comes from the land and its citizens. It’s mission is to exhale story and song and news to the culture by breathing in that culture as its source of inspiration. I hope, in my way, to contribute good humor, optimism and wit to all our offerings. I hope to be a voice for joy and literacy. I want WDRT to be as wonderful as you are.”
