Our Team Season II
We bring you Season II in collaboration with the Speakers Bureau of Community Family Life Services (CFLS). The Speakers Bureau is a CFLS program that empowers women who have experienced first-hand trauma by equipping them with the skills to become compelling speakers and offer their testimonies to policymakers, criminal justice advocates and other key influencers. We are honored to offer a basic journalism training course to a group of outstanding Speakers Bureau women and elevating their voices during this public health emergency. Please help us support the production of this season, either by donating to CFLS or becoming a One in Four podcast sponsor or through our Patron page. Meet the team for Season II.
Reporters in Training
Beverly F. Smith-Brown
Reporter in Training
Beverly F. Smith-Brown is the founder of Momma’s Safe Haven, a nonprofit organization. She is the author of He Kept Me, as well as a filmmaker, a TV Show host, a transformational speaker, a curator, a wife, mother, grandmother, and a “forever student.”
Crystal Marshall
Reporter in Training
Crystal Marshall has worked as a cook and lead culinary specialist, and she previously worked as a workforce development specialist at DC Central Kitchen. Prior to her training with the Speakers Bureau, she spoke at several conferences and forums through DC Central Kitchen, Suited for Change, and Trauma Informed Youth.
Aaliyah Polite
Reporter in Training
Aaliyah Polite is a behavior and educational aide at Ballou Senior High School in DC and a violence interrupter with the National Association for the Advancement of Returning Citizens’ “Cure the Streets.” She was also a Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program supervisor through the DC Department of Employment Services. In college, she was the keynote speaker for her sorority’s new member ceremony.
Jennifer Speight
Reporter in Training
This single mother of one has overcome homelessness and a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. Through this challenging journey, she has become a fierce advocate for homelessness prevention, the need for medical empathy training, and accessible mental health services for all.
Executive Producers
Bea Spadacini
Executive Producer | Co-host
Bea is a writer with a purpose, who enjoys looking at the big picture and connecting the dots. In her work, Bea seeks to educate, inspire and build bridges of understanding that highlight our shared humanity. From early on in her career, Bea has worked to promote peace and justice by elevating conversations that bring awareness to issues often underrepresented in mainstream media.
Eric Bond
Executive Producer
Eric Bond is a public affairs host and audio producer at WOWD, Takoma Park Community radio. He also works fulltime as a documentarian with an international nongovernmental organization with a focus on ending AIDS. For 25 years previously, he was the publisher of the Takoma Voice, a community journal based in Takoma Park, Md.
Co-Host (Intro and Ending Narration)
Tim Nicholson
Co-host | Visual Artist in Residence
Tim is a multifaceted artist who has led on a broad range of creative projects. He is an experienced graphic designer, photographer and sound/video editor. Originally from El Reno, Oklahoma, Tim grew up in close proximity to the El Reno Federal Correctional Facility. Many of his personal friends either worked there or were doing time inside that prison.
Production and Post-Production Support
Michael Balasia
Senior Sound Engineer
A graduate of Omega Studios’ School of Applied Recording Arts and Sciences comprehensive audio engineering program, Michael has spent over 15 years refining his skills. After school, he began recording books on tape for the Library of Congress’s Library for the Blind program while also recording, mixing, and mastering local bands in the Washington D.C area.
Heartcast Media
Editors and Sound Engineers
Heartcast Media is a full service podcast production studio and content creation lab in Washington, D.C. They work with clients across the globe to produce, distribute and monetize podcasts with a purpose. They specialize in amplifying the messages that make the world a better place.