Chris Lawn – Board Chair

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Chris Lawn is the current Board Chair for the Northwest Region of the Alliance for Community Media. Originally from Massachusetts, he had the pleasure of serving in community media for over a decade in numerous capacities at five organizations of varying sizes.  He then transitioned to become an Audio Visual Program Manager at a global service provider collaborating side-by-side with the client company at their corporate headquarters.  Upon departing from that position, Chris went back to school to learn full stack web development and is now working as a Technical Support Engineer in a software as a service (SaaS) role.  His professional experience includes pre-recorded and live studio production, field production, video and audio editing, event management, broadcast programming, equipment maintenance, leading technical trainings, supervising interns and volunteers, project and program management, web development, and software support.  His personal interests are travel, food, camping, meeting and networking with new people, music, dancing, art, and generally exploring the works around him with curiosity and a sense of humor.  He hopes to utilize these skills and passions to continue to bolster community media in whatever ways he can! 

Robert Kam – National Representative

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Robert serves as the National Representative for the Northwest Region of the Alliance for Community Media. He has worked for public, educational, and government access channels his entire career and is currently employed at Thurston Community Media in Olympia, WA as a Media Producer. Robert has an Associates degree from the Art Institute of Dallas in “Music and Video Business” and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Texas in “Radio, Television and Film”. Robert hosts and produces a monthly public access program on his own time called “Karaoke Oly” that airs on public access channel 22 in Olympia and on YouTube at youtube.com/karaokeoly. He is also a board member for OlyFilm, aka The Olympia Film Collective.

Luis Mendoza – Treasurer

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Luis works at Capital Community Television in Salem, OR as the Community Facilitator and loves helping people develop their ideas into programs. Video production started as a hobby for Luis, and has turned into his full time job. He producers three different Spanish-Language programs. CVEL PUNTO is a talk show that covers important information in the Spanish-speaking community. The title of the show is a combination of the first letter of the hosts’ names, which is combined with “Punto” meaning, “We See the Point”. His second program is called Conexíon con la Salud (Health Connection) which is about eating healthy, staying fit, and preventing illness. The third program is Mini Concierto de Studio 77 (mini concerts of Spanish music). He is also the director for a monthly music series called Local Roots, where local bands perform 30 minutes of original music in CCTV’s studios. English is Luis’ second language, which he continues to work hard to master. He likes new challenges, because that’s how you learn and grow. In his free time, Luis enjoys spending time with his family and friends, and working on cars, motorcycles, and electronics.

Jamie Plakos – Secretary

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Jamie Plakos is the current Board Secretary for the Northwest Region of the Alliance of Community Media. Originally from California, she attended the University of California Santa Barbara studying computer engineering, business management, and marketing. She spent the majority of her professional career developing structures and leading expansion in the for-profit sector. Jamie made her move to nonprofit when she joined Open Signal, Portland Community Media in 2016. With an eye for human-centric innovation, Jamie plans to revolutionize the way nonprofits operate. She earned her HR certification in 2017 and has since been implementing new ways of working like shared leadership, equitable pay structures, and flattened hierarchy through transparency and cross-level decision-making. Jamie is part of a female/non-binary led production collective, Girl Game Gang, that produces content for local short film festivals and Portland’s cable access channels.