Meet the smart, creative, and super-dedicated team behind the Live Wire Radio magic.

LUKE BURBANK
HOST

Luke Burbank (he/him/his) grew up as one of seven kids, learning early on how to vie for attention. Those profound childhood issues have propelled him to various media projects including This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, CBS Sunday Morning, and the daily podcast Too Beautiful To Live. Luke is thrilled to be hosting Live Wire and keeps telling himself you're chanting Luuuuuuuuuke and not saying Booooooooo because you're not doing that, right? Wait, seriously, you were booing? At a public radio show? This would never happen to Ira Glass. He's on Twitter @lukeburbank.

ELENA PASSARELLO
ANNOUNCER

Elena Passarello (she/her/hers) grew up in Snellville, a smallish town in Georgia with the motto "Where Everybody's Somebody." Even after moving several thousand miles from Snellville's city limits, she thinks this motto still applies. Elena is the author of two books, one about humankind's most amazing voices called Let Me Clear My Throat and one about famous critters called Animals Strike Curious Poses. Her dream in life is to one day jump out of a cake.

HEATHER DE MICHELE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Heather de Michele (she/they) has a background in theatre, film, live event production, and non-profit management. She joined Live Wire in June of 2020 after serving as the Managing Director of The Groundlings Theatre and School in Los Angeles for over a decade. Previous to that epic stint she was in NYC as the Artistic Director of American Girl Theatre. Heather is the momma of two hell-raising daughters, the wife of one badass creative, and is often found roller skating in the streets. She hopes you'll find as much unabashed joy and unexpected wisdom in Live Wire as she does. You can email Heather here.

LAURA HADDEN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Laura Hadden (she/her/hers)​ spent three years producing media for The Moth in New York City before returning to her beloved Pacific Northwest in 2014. Her ongoing creative projects include co-­producing Wage/Working (a jukebox­-based oral history project ), co-­hosting United Noshes (a one­-meal­-per­-country dinner party series), and keeping her two small children entertained. When she was a kid, she wanted to be a country singer and/or dog. She now spends her free time hanging out with her dogs, Emmylou & Reba, which is close enough. Email Laura here.

MELANIE SEVCENKO
PRODUCER AND EDITOR

Melanie Sevcenko (she/her/hers) moved to Portland by way of Berlin, Germany, where she lived for almost a decade and turned her film career into a journalistic one. She’s reported for The Guardian, Marketplace, NPR, BBC, CBC, among others. Melanie is also a published poet and her debut full-length collection I Still Go to Bed With Water was published in 2022. You can find Melanie’s work at msevcenko.com and email her here.

ASHLEY PARK
PRODUCTION FELLOW

Ashley Park is a multimedia producer from Virginia. She carries with her an intense passion for all things music, arts, and digital culture. For nearly half a decade, Ashley fulfilled various roles at the University of Virginia's two community radio stations in Charlottesville—where she was a DJ, social media manager, podcast and video producer, and eventually station director of WXTJ. Her ambitious spirit and empathetic approach to media production allows her to truly connect with other creatives. Off-the-clock, she's probably out at a show somewhere in Richmond, VA doing freelance concert photography or making a silly little craft.

HAZIQ BIN AHMAD FARID
ASSISTANT EDITOR

Haziq (he/him/his) is an audio nerd who loves stories. His experience includes working for shows like 99% Invisible, What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law, and Immigrantly. When not lost in a book, podcast, or documentary, he's happiest collaborating with others to bring their stories to life. In a world that can at times feel lonely, he believes that stories have a special way of reminding us all that we're more connected than we think.

ANDREA CASTRO-MARTINEZ
INTERN

Andrea is a bilingual creative designer with a strong emphasis on digital marketing. Born and raised in Seaside, Oregon, growing up on the coast has given her endless inspiration for her designs—something she is very grateful for. She enjoys outdoor activities like running, hiking, surfing, snowboarding, and playing beach volleyball. She competes in the Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament every year, playing doubles and quads with friends. Andrea’s all-time favorite artist is Harry Styles, and she was very fortunate to see him perform when he last came to Portland.

EBEN HOFFER
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Eben Joondeph Hoffer was grown in a damp corner of Portland, to which he returned in 2020 after a decade making performance art in NYC basements and inflicting it on college students around the eastern United States. Now he teaches, makes and mixes music, and manages projects and tours for artists who think about how things could be Different. You can listen to his podcast post office poems (a collaboration with an actual mail carrying human), or inflict his performance art on yourself at ebenhoffer.com.

LEONA KINDERMANN
ASSISTANT TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Leona's life is woven together through work as an interdisciplinary teacher, as a Music Director for children's theater, a live and recording sound tech and musician, and physical artist. Born and raised in this cloudy corner of the world (and in an equally cloudy corner of Germany), Leona has a lot of questions about life, but also an endless appreciation for the people that hold it all together, the youth she gets to work with, who will (and should) take over the world, all the beautiful art and artists coming out of these hard times, the planet, and every cat.

A WALKER SPRING
HOUSE BAND

A Walker Spring (she/her/hers) - Cohost of Honest Jams songwriting podcast, recording engineer and veteran Portland songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (Bitch’n, Sallie Ford, Point Juncture, WA).

ETHAN FOX TUCKER
HOUSE BAND

Ethan Fox Tucker (he/him/his) is from Portland and grew up on '70s funk and '60s folk. He attended the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies and earned a degree in "Studio Art, Creative Writing, and Songwriting." He has worked as a session musician and loves to be in the studio crafting and recording. His current projects include Fox Tucker, Siren and the Sea, Saroon, and Mean Sun.

AYAL ALVES
HOUSE BAND

Ayal was born in a settlement 10 families large to parents from the northern and southern halves of the other side of the world. He has picked up every musical instrument dropped in his path since. ayal believes in music as a beacon towards self-actualization and his love for sound has expressed itself through international tours with his genre-fluid project Saroon, as host of the music podcasts Sketches with Songs and Honest Jams, contributing to numerous Portland artists’ records and bands, and as a Music Therapist. 

SAM PINKERTON
HOUSE BAND

A native Floridian, Sam first discovered Portland while on tour in 2016 and moved shortly after. She earned her degree in songwriting from Belmont University in Nashville, TN. Currently, Sam works in marketing and recruitment at Oregon State University and also serves as the executive director of the Portland Songwriters Guild, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit she co-founded in 2022. In addition to her professional roles, Sam plays guitar in Girlgoyle and MORROW, and enjoys several phantom hobbies like sewing and gardening.

THE BOARD

Live Wire Radio is a 501c3 non-profit organization. These incredible people donate their time to ensure the continued success and longevity of their favorite public radio show and we are so grateful.