The Friends Council is a group of up to thirteen WUMB listeners, with the charge of assisting and advising the radio station's general manager with fundraising, outreach and community service. They also review programming, policy decisions and our financial statements. The Council's members represent a geographic diversity reflecting the stations listening areas.

The following listeners currently serve as members of the Council.

Tom Callahan is an actor, artist, and radio broadcaster and has over 20 years of broadcast and performance experience. Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, he studied acting with Jeannie Lindheim and Michael Shurtleff, worked in public and commercial radio, and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City before relocating to Los Angeles. Mr. Callahan has been in over 20 films, commercials and radio & theatre productions including The Lesson, Metamorphosis, A Cry of Players. Abracadabra. Mercedes-Benz, Miller-Lite and sketch comedy and improv troupes. He has exhibited his art in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. A recipient of several awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Associated Press, and the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California, Mr. Callahan was co-founder of WUMB-FM in Boston, and currently hosts 'Seasons & Celebrations' and 60's Chicks' Radio broadcast on Live365.com.

Susan Davis is a fundraising consultant with over nineteen years experience in fundraising administration, annual giving, endowment and capital campaigns. Retiring from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2002 as an Assistant Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement, she continued to assist the University on special projects and joined the University of Massachusetts Foundation as a Senior Officer in 2006. Davis has been a member of WUMB since 1989, has served on its Advisory and Public Policy Boards, and is an active volunteer.

Mac McLanahan is a self-employed Marketing Consultant with more than 30 years in the advertising, marketing, and promotional field. He is Artistic Director and co-founder of the Rose Garden Coffeehouse, an active and successful folk music venue running continuously in Mansfield, MA since 1989. He has served as a Stage Host of a number of area folk festivals including the Boston Folk Festival, The New Bedford Summerfest, and the Habitat for Humanity Festival in Avon. As a representative of the Rose Garden, Mac is an active participant in meetings of BACHA, the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association. As a musician, Mac sings and plays guitar, mandolin, and dobro. He has performed and recorded with the Boston Music Award winning John Michaels Group and still performs with friends and his wife Rae Ann, with whom he has attended WUMB's Summer Acoustic Music Week for many years. Mac also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Richards Memorial Library in North Attleborough where he and Rae Ann live.

Mark Schlesinger: Mark Schlesinger retired in September, 2009, after 32 years with the University of Massachusetts. A graduate of Columbia, Colgate, and MIchigan, he was for nearly a decade the director of UMass Boston's Communication Studies Program, and served in a variety of college and campus level positions in academic administration. He worked with WUMB General Manager Pat Monteith to support radio interns and has consistently been a financial supporter of WUMB since before it went on the airwaves in 1981. He is also a musician, having played a variety of instruments ranging from the French horn in orchestras to the washtub bass in a jug band. Mark spent his last four years at the UMass System office, serving as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and International Relations. And he concluded his convoluted career with a 9 month stint as interim CEO of UMassOnline. His favorite recreational activities are kayaking, birding, photography, and music.

Lynne Tirrell (Acting Chair, Friends Council) is Associate Professor of Philosophy at U Mass Boston. Her philosophical research and teaching interests are in language, art, literature, politics, and the intersections amongst these. She has taught philosophy at U Mass Boston, Wellesley College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Judy Wong is an attorney who is working as the Associate Director of Human Resources at Middlesex Community College. Prior to that she was the labor counsel at UMass Memorial Health Care. For the 20 years prior to that, she was the General Counsel for the 15 community colleges in Massachusetts. Judy has long been a listener and member of WUMB, she is a dedicated SAMW camper, and plays fiddle and hammered dulcimer, with occasional forays into mandolin and piano.

You can reach the Friends Council at friends@wumb.org

Overview
Nominations