KP Whaley (General Manager)
KP has been involved in public and community broadcasting for more than a decade, and joined Asheville FM in 2017 after nearly four years as a senior talk producer at Wisconsin Public Radio. He started his radio career as a volunteer and then News and Public Affairs Director at WORT Community Radio in Madison, Wisconsin in 2005. Between those two gigs he has also worked in community television, community food cooperatives, and as the manager of MAIN-FM for a year. And once upon a time worked in the private sector in a variety of supervisory, management, and project management roles.
Greg Lyon (President, Board of Directors)
Greg is one of the founders of Asheville FM. Before returning to his native Asheville, Greg was a DJ at WPRB (Princeton, NJ) and the Music Director at WXDU (Durham, NC). He’s also lived in Berlin and Zurich, where he suffered withdrawal from freeform radio. Greg is a historian of early modern Europe, an editor, and a teacher of professional writing. He also teaches Humanities and History at UNC-Asheville.
Esther Cartwright (Vice President, Board of Directors)
A lover of music who has lived in Atlanta, Chapel Hill, New York and Memphis and enjoyed the diverse radio each had to offer. After working in the music industry, I moved to Asheville 13 years ago to work at the family business. From it’s very beginning my family and I have been supporters of AshevilleFM. Now both my husband and daughter are DJs and I am honored to serve on the board.
Katie Fisher (Secretary, Board of Directors)
Katie was born in New Orleans, LA and grew up in Atlanta, GA. She earned a B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill and majored in psychology (1992). After college, she moved to Austin, TX where she worked with visually impaired children at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired for four years. The last 2 years of her time in Austin were spent enjoying great music. In late 1998, Katie moved to Asheville, NC and started law school at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law in 1999. Upon graduation, she and her young family lived in Oaxaca, Mexico where she studied for the NC Bar exam and immersed herself in a Spanish language program. She was soon back in Asheville full-time and working as a staff attorney, then managing attorney, for the Mountain Violence Prevention Project at Pisgah Legal Services. After five years at Pisgah Legal, Katie went into private practice. In 2017, Katie joined the Van Winkle Law Firm, bringing a full practice with her and starting a family law section in one of Asheville’s oldest and largest law firms.
Hope Butterworth (Treasurer of Board of Directors)
Hope has spent the past 20 years in Asheville and is proud to call these mountains her home. She received a BA from the University of Virginia in African and African-American Studies, a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago in Cultural Anthropology, and is currently working towards a degree in Accounting. Hope serves on the Boards of Francine Delany New School for Children, Asheville High School Booster Club, and the Kenilworth Residents’ Association. She is learning to play bluegrass banjo and enjoys thrift store shopping and discovering new music.
Kama Ward (Board of Directors)
When Kama realized her kids didn’t need quite so much raising anymore, she looked into raising other things. Hell? Farm Animals? No… How about a radio station?– It’s a little bit of both! She has a BA in communication and in her spare time enjoys domestic policy, eating, and traveling to exotic thrift stores for old records.
Will Sibbald (Board of Directors)
1988-1998: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington. Technical Writer for Microsoft Word, User Assistance Department Manager for Microsoft Excel, Manager of technical writers and editors for Microsoft Office manuals and on-screen Help content.
Retired from Microsoft, August 1998; moved to rural south central Colorado. Served as a volunteer for a number of non-profits in Westcliffe, Colorado between 1999-2010, including….
1999-2010: Served on the Board of Trustees for the West Custer County Library District; 2002-2010: Co- founded and served as President of the non-profit High Mountain Hay Fever Bluegrass Festival; 2001-2005: Served as President of the Wet Mountain Valley Arts Council, producer of the annual Jazz in the Sangres festival; 2000-2006: Member of the board of the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts; managed the New Rocky Mountain Voices regional one-act play competition; 2004-present: Served as Music Director and member of the Program Committee for KWMV Radio (now KLZR), a non-profit community radio station.
2014-present: Volunteer for Asheville FM. 2015-present: Member of the Asheville FM (Friends of Community Radio) Board of Directors.
Elizabeth Garland (Board of Directors)
Elizabeth Garland is the Director of Alumni Relations and Community Engagement and the Co-Director of Equity and Inclusion at Carolina Day School. She is the creator and host of Slay the Mic (Saturday evenings on Asheville FM), which is founded on the mission to celebrate culture, community, and creativity by amplifying voices.
In her role, as an administrator, educator, mentor, and radio host she aligns her passion for creating community, and encouraging active engagement as an advocate for culturally enriched resources. Prior to joining Carolina Day School in 2015, Elizabeth worked in the radio entertainment industry for iHeartMedia in San Francisco, CA, and Core Communications in Asheville, NC. She is a communications professional with a background of effective promotion of brands through marketing, media/public relations, communications and community-involvement channels. She has a wide variety of knowledge with fundraising and development, coordinating scalable events and projects, management, marketing, radio, entertainment, video production, photography, community engagement, leadership, equity, inclusion and belonging.
Elizabeth is certified by the Radio Advertising Bureau; she is a national SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) leader, a host and facilitator for the annual NAIS People of Color Conference, a production assistant for the annual BET Network Award show, and serves on the steering committee for the WNC Diversity Engagement Coalition.