Staff Bios

Leonard came to radio relatively late in life. He was trained as a serious painter (and studied with some of the leading artists of the day including Ad Reinhardt at Brooklyn College and Mark Rothko at Hunter Graduate School). To support his art habit, he worked in advertising for fifteen years. But when he was given the opportunity to host his first talk show in 1977, he was hooked. What began as a whim has become his life’s work. And his background in art and literature (and in the commercial world) has been a major factor in his success because, no matter how esoteric the topic, he always strives to keep the conversation entertaining.

Before becoming the executive producer of The Leonard Lopate Show, Melissa Eagan was a freelance writer in Rhode Island. Her work appeared in publications like The Christian Science Monitor and Yankee, where she covered everything from windmills to shipwrights. She also edited the reissue of James Franklin’s historic Rhode-Island Gazette. A Greenwich Village native, she attended the Lyceum Kennedy Francais, and graduated from Barnard College with a double major in English and French. She has studied at the Art Students League, the Joffrey Ballet, and with Gary Restifo at Steps, and used to belong to the Collegiate Chorale. She has climbed the Northeast 111 highest mountains. And loves swimming, when she manages to get to the pool in the morning.

Blakeney Schick joined the show as an intern in the fall of 2004. She contributes to the Underreported series and keeps an eye on national and international politics. She produced the year-long States of the Union series during the 2008 presidential campaign. Blakeney went to Bowdoin College, where she studied Government and Spanish.

Steven Valentino is a California native who currently resides in Brooklyn. He enjoys cooking, bicycling, reading, working in a community garden and most importantly: good gin. He runs the Projections film series and contributes to the Underreported series. He’s also produced two full length radio documentaries for Pacifica and Sirius Satellite Radio, one on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and another on gay marriage called “Regulating Love” that won him the 2005 NLGJA student journalist of the year award. He graduated from UC Davis in 2006 and joined the Lopate show as an intern shortly after stumbling off the plane.

Julia Corcoran joined the show as an intern in spring 2007 after listening to the show for many years, and has been contributing full-time since February 2009. She contributes to the Please Explain series. She studied literature and art at the University of New Mexico, and enjoys escaping the city living to climb up and ski down mountains. She went to Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and has reported and produced radio features for WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany and for WSHU Public Radio in Connecticut.

Melissa Waldron Lehner was a producer of film and television until she fell in love with radio. She is currently the founder of Lions Tooth Media, a niche marketing company that focuses solely on promoting and advocating for sustainable food projects. She is also a freelance writer and tries to write about food and the future of farms as much as she can and has launched her own blog about sustainable agriculture, FertileGroundUSA. Before working for WNYC, she was the Co-Producer of a PBS current affairs TV series called World @ Large with David Gergen.

In addition to working for The Leonard Lopate Show, Virginia Dorris is a freelance writer who has written frequently about architecture, engineering and construction. She has a MS from the Columbia University School of Journalism and a BS in architecture from the University of Virginia. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and 3 sons.

Bonnie Lafave worked for many years as a producer of national news and current affairs programming with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. In 1996 she was awarded a Nieman Fellowship and spent a year studying at Harvard University. She subsequently moved to New Yok City where she now lives with her husband and two young sons.

Paula Crossfield is a contributing producer at The Leonard Lopate Show, where she focuses on food issues. She is the managing editor of Civil Eats, a site dedicated to sustainability and food, and is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post's Green Page. She is currently tending a vegetable garden on her roof in the Lower East Side. You can follow her on Twitter.

Barbara studied art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and New York University, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras. When not at WNYC, she can generally be found making pottery in her Greenwich Village studio.

Rory Bernstein, is a web developer. She studied painting at Wesleyan University and the University of Illinois of Chicago. She has lived in the country's best public radio cities, which is how she got hooked. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her divine husband and two adorable daughters.

In addition to The Leonard Lopate Show, Miranda also works with the radio show Selected Shorts. She is a life-long New Yorker and likes learning about local history.

Sherry is studying Journalism at Ithaca College. She is the College's Park Communications School Senator. She also reports for Ithaca College's television news program, Newswatch 16. She enjoys high quality coffee, good novels, old record shops, and fun concerts.

Nichols is a student at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He spends his time abroad staying up late to listen to WNYC, and his time in New York waking up early to listen to the BBC.

Drew Katchen is currently an editor at MSN.com. He's lived in Jersey City for the past five years, which is the longest stretch of time he's been in one place since he graduated from the University of South Carolina oh-so-many years ago. He enjoys roaming the city, Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, Porchetta sandwiches, Tribe Called Quest, Nas and The Wire.

Additional information on staff biographies for all of WNYC's shows