Show Staff

• Lisa Allison - Associate Producer, The Brian Lehrer Show

  The product of two generations of preachers and schoolteachers, perhaps it's inevitable that Lisa found her dream job in public radio. Prior to coming to WNYC, she worked for several years on the business side of magazine publishing and did a little bookbinding. Lisa grew up in the middle of the country and headed for New York to attend Barnard College where she received a degree in political science. She likes to go back and visit family in Kansas, especially during the State Fair, but she still hasn't figured out why she had to leave the top wheat-producing state in the country to find a decent loaf of bread.

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  Jody Avirgan - Associate Producer, The Brian Lehrer Show and It's A Free Country

  Jody Avirgan started two days before The Brian Lehrer Show won a Peabody, and he is taking full credit. He comes to WNYC from WFUV, where he produced "Cityscape" with the great George Bodarky. He's worked for KQED Radio in San Francisco, is a founder of Longshot Radio, and has produced pieces that have aired here and there and everywhere.

• Alana Casanova-Burgess - Assistant Producer, The Brian Lehrer Show

  Alana Casanova-Burgess is a native New Yorker whose childhood was split between Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Samana peninsula in the Dominican Republic. She went (slightly) north to study at SUNY-Binghamton and stayed put to earn an M.A. from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and work as a freelance reporter. She is living the intern-turned-staff dream since starting as a graduate school intern with the show in 2010.

• Paige Cowett - Assistant Producer, The Brian Lehrer Show

  Paige Cowett first joined the Brian Lehrer Show as an intern, following two years deep in the weeds on housing policy and Brooklyn politics. Before that, she studied urban planning in Los Angeles, and before that she worked at arts non-profits in San Francisco. She's a 4th generation Californian from San Diego, and she holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA.

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  Brian Lehrer - Host, The Brian Lehrer Show

  Brian Lehrer is host of "The Brian Lehrer Show," WNYC Radio's daily call-in program, covering politics and life, locally and globally. The show airs weekdays from 10am-noon on WNYC 93.9 FM, AM 820 and wnyc.org.

• Megan Ryan - Senior Producer, The Brian Lehrer Show

  Megan Ryan is a Jersey girl at heart even after 13 years in the city. She has degrees from Rutgers College and The New School. After making the freelance rounds in theater, magazines, and film Megan joined WNYC Radio in 2000. She produced The Satellite Sisters briefly, and then On the Media (not briefly) before joining The Brian Lehrer Show in 2009. She spent the first year on the job being the most pregnant woman in broadcasting and now spends her free time trying to stop the baby from eating the newspaper.