Credits

Christina Russo

Christina has worked as a producer for a number of nationally-syndicated public radio programs including The Connection, The Takeaway and On Point. As a reporter, she has focused on a variety of stories about animals, including: the hunting of the Eastern coyote; the debate over shark-fishing tournaments, dancing bears in India; caring for donkeys in Ethiopia, and a farm animal sanctuary in Woodstock, New York. Her reports have aired on NPR, PRI's The World, Here & Now, and Weekend America. She has also written for The Christian Science Monitor. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Diane Toomey

Diane began her 15-year long public radio career as a producer at The Marketplace Morning Report in Los Angeles. She later moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she reported on science, the environment, and medicine for WUNC. She later became science editor, reporter and substitute host at Living On Earth, public radio’s environmental news show. Her stories have won numerous awards, including the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service and the Public Radio News Directors' Award for Enterprise Reporting. An hour-long special she reported, featuring famed biologist E.O. Wilson, earned the American Institute of Biological Sciences’ Media Award. Her reports have been heard on Studio 360, Here and Now, It's Only A Game, NPR, and PRI’s The World. In addition to her public radio work, Diane produced a series on alternative medicine for the Discover y Health Channel. And she’s worked as an elementary school teacher. It’s a job, she says, that was more difficult than anything she’s done as a journalist.

Anna Bensted, Executive Producer

Anna Bensted joined the staff of WBUR in 1999. Previously, she spent 15 years with BBC Radio where she produced and presented a current affairs program in England and set up a daily arts show in Scotland. In 1993 and 1994, she produced a series of programs for the BBC about change in America which won the UK's Sony Radio Award. She has edited and produced Inside Out Documentaries for WBUR since 2000.

George Hicks, Technical Director, Studio Producer

Working at WBUR since 1997, George Hicks served as technical director for NPR's The Connection, Car Talk, Only A Game, On Point and PRI's Here & Now. Earlier, Hicks spent fifteen years as a freelance engineer / producer, recording diverse jazz and classical artists such as Stan Getz with the New England Conservatory Orchestra, Keith Jarrett with the Handel & Haydn Society, and The Klezmer Conservatory Band with Yitzhak Perlman. In 2000, Hicks plunged into long-form radio as technical director / producer of WBUR's Inside Out Documentaries. Inside Out has won many RTNDA, PRNDI and AP awards, as well as DuPont-Columbia, RFK Memorial, and Overseas Press Club honors. Recently, in an ironic turn to the (very) short-form, Hicks produced the first thirty-five weekly episodes of 11 Central Ave, the award-winning radio comic strip. In addition to composing and performing theme music for 11 Central Ave, Hicks also provided incidental music for Snakeheads and Slavery: Inside Out and Haunting the Quabbin: Inside Out.

Jesse Costa Multimedia Producer

Jesse Costa studied photography, graphic design and multimedia production at the School at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Maine College of Art. His work has been featured in various publications, including Photo District News. Jesse joined the New Media Department at WBUR as Multimedia Producer in early 2007 and has been having a blast.