 | Max Flehinger - our Board Chairman, has a long resume in public service. He was past Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles unit of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, Director of Volunteers for the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service (LARRS) for ten years, and a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Tarzana Neighborhood Council and the Tarzana Community Center. Along with other former volunteers at LAARS, he founded AIRS in 2005. |
 | Dr. Bill Takeshita - our Vice President, is also the founder of the Dr. Bill Takeshita Foundation, which provides information and assistance to help children who are visually impaired. The Foundation was established in 2004 after Dr. Takeshita, a pediatric low vision optometrist, ironically lost his own sight, but gained a new perspective on vision impairment. |
 | Richard Burden - our Treasurer is an AIRS founding member and former Chief Engineer. He has been a broadcast engineer for more than fifty years. He was instrumental in bringing FM stereo to the public and is one of only seven colleagues who have been given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He currently operates Burden & Associates, his own broadcast systems engineering firm. |
 | Anne Marie Howard - our Secretary, has been with AIRS-LA since the beginning. She's a voice-over artist and has been in the entertainment industry for 30 years. Currently the spokeswoman for the National Association of Realtors, Anne Marie appears regularly in feature films and television series. She's hosted infomercials with Donald Trump, Vanessa Williams and George Foreman, and has worked in films with Bryant Gumbel, Nicolas Cage, Adam Sandler, Steve Martin and many others. Visit her website. |
 | Jack Caulfield - an engineer by training, served as project manager for the recently - completed recording studio for LARRS. Currently he is office and finance manager of a niche business serving the entertainment industry worldwide. He spent thirty years with Rockwell International, the last fifteen in the corporate office in various capacities. Jack is legally blind. |
 | Racquel Decipeda - is Program Coordinator for the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles HandsOn Volunteers Program, one of eight programs of the Assistance League of Southern California, Secretary of the National Federation of the Blind of California San Fernando Valley chapter and President of DOVIA SFV, a networking organization of volunteer managers and directors in the San Fernando, Simi and Santa Clarita Valleys. She was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at the age of 4 and her sight really started deteriorating at age 15. |
 | Rick Gerber - following graduation from law school, received a Ford Foundation Fellowship to become only the third American attorney to work as an intern in the Legal Service of the European Economic Community. For many years he lived in Brussels. Until his retirement, Rick served as director, Vice-President, and Regional Counsel for Federal Express in Brussels. |
 | Jennifer Hecker currently serves as the Western & Southern Regional Director of Events for the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB), a national nonprofit focused on driving the research that will find treatments and cures for blindness. Jennifer works with staff, members, and volunteers across Southern California and the country to host community fundraising events. Since joining FFB, Jennifer has had the great opportunity to partner with AIRS-LA on a number of projects. She was excited to join the AIRS Board in 2009. |
 | Ryan Honey - is currently the director of Digital Media at the Braille Institute of America where he and his team produce promotional content for the organization. Formerly, Ryan worked as a producer and actor in film, television, and live theater. He produced numerous award winning short films and plays as well as the feature films "The Victim" and "Westender". As an actor, Ryan has been seen on Alias, E.R., N.C.I.S., Cold Case, L.A.X., Star Trek: Enterprise, the feature film "Men of Honor", and he regularly appears on General Hospital. His non-profit experience includes working for Enrichment Works, an organization that provides interactive educational productions to Los Angeles area schools and fundraising for the Thabaneng Primary School Fund which supports a incredible school in Soweto, South Africa. Ryan also teaches spinning at the Ketchum YMCA downtown. He and his wife, Amy, are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their second child in June. Ryan is excited to have the opportunity to contribute to AIRS-LA and facilitate their growth. |
 | Patricia Jordan - was the Public Information Manager for the nonprofit Center for the Partially Sighted, a low vision rehabilitation agency helping children and adults with impaired sight maintain their independence. The Center has offices in Los Angeles, Tarzana, Torrance and San Luis Obispo. Patricia speaks to the public about maintaining healthy vision and about how to find help when vision fails. |
 | Joe Jurca - AIRS Chief Engineer, has 40 years experience as an Aerospace and Sonar Systems Engineer, 15 years of which was spent managing military contract proposal teams. He was named Engineer of the Year at The Bunker-Ramo Corporation and, at Bendix Ocean Systems, won a special award for excellence running a losing proposal effort (Really! - Ask him about it. It was like winning second place in a tug-of-war.) Since his retirement in 2000, he has been a volunteer reader at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD), in Reseda, CA and jumped aboard AIRS-LA shortly after its founding. In addition to managing the AIRS web site and Studio, he records a series of podcasts featuring scientific articles from popular journals and another of articles from The L.A. Weekly. |
 | Kristin Macdonald - began her television career doing research at Eyewitness News in Manhattan. After graduating with honors in film and television, she landed a spot in news setting up stories for reporters and pitching new segments. The Executive Producer was impressed with her ability to book talent and hired her as a freelance Associate Producer for his company, Troika Productions. Kristin learned how to produce telethons and went on to produce the Los Angeles Easter Seal Telethon, hosted by Alec Baldwin and Heart of the Nation with Ed McMahon. Working with people with disabilities was rewarding for Kristin and, at the time, she had no idea she would be facing the challenge of vision impairment. |
 | Nancy Niebrugge (KNEE-brew-ghee) - is the Assistant Vice President of Programs and Services at the Braille Institute®, where she directs the Institute's national programs, including The Braille Challenge®, and oversees BIA's marketing, public relations and volunteer services. Nancy's been with Braille Institute for 14 years, having served as director of both the braille publishing and communication departments. She is a member of several professional committees serving people who are blind or visually impaired, as well as being BIA's trustee to the federal educational materials program administered by the American Printing House for the Blind and BIA's representative to the national Councils for Schools for the Blind. |
 | Anita Rodriguez-Lambert, MA, CFRE, began working with Airs-LA when she served as the Western Regional Director of Development for the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB). Her Role at FFB offered her the opportunity to work closely with volunteers and donors who are affected by retinal eye disease. Through this experience, she has become passionate about improving the quality of life and curing those who are visually impaired or blind. In January 2009, Anita joined the Alzheimer's Family Services Center in Huntington Beach as the Director of Development and Communications, where she raises funds needed for the agency to fulfill it's mission of providing quality care for families dealing with dementia. Anita earned a BA in English and a BA in Liberal Studies from Cal State Fullerton in 1994 and her MA in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix in 1998. She currently serves AIRS-LA as Chair of the Fundraising Committee, where she is developing a comprehensive financial plan. |
