Board of Directors

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William G. Moll, Chair Emeritus -- Moll is President of KLRN-TV, San Antonio’s Public Television Station, Channel 9. Previously, Moll served as Chairman of Clear Channel Television, a division of Clear Channel Communications headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

In addition, Moll’s wide-ranging experience includes positions as President of WNBC-TV in New York; President/CEO of the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) in New York; President/CEO of Clear Channel Television in San Antonio; President/CEO of WKRC-TV, in Cincinnati, Ohio; President/CEO of Harte-Hanks Broadcasting in San Antonio; President/CEO of KENS-TV, San Antonio; Station Manager, KLRN-TV, San Antonio.

Bill Israel, PhD, Chair -- Israel is a journalist and a professor of journalism and political communication at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. He focuses on the study of media and power.

Israel began his career in Iowa as a reporter for newspapers, radio and television, specializing in political reporting while completing a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Iowa. 

After a stint as press secretary for an Iowa gubernatorial candidate, Israel became the Washington, D.C. press secretary to U.S. Sen. Harold Hughes. He later won a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to study at the University of Strasbourg, France. He moved to northern California, where he worked as reporter, editor, photojournalist or anchor for news organizations including the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, Dallas Morning News, USA Today, The New York Times, CBS Radio and ABC-TV.

At the University of Texas at Austin, Israel completed a master’s degree in journalism in 1994 and a Ph.D. in journalism and political communication in 1999. Israel was on the faculty  of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he was awarded the President’s Public Service Award for developing an innovative Information Technology minor open to students in every discipline.

Charles C. Andrews, Board Secretary --Andrews currently serves as the Co-Chair of Inner City Technological Ventures and is the President of 4NAffairs, an off-shore destination and financial management group.

Previously, Andrews was involved with radio programming since 1982 and for ten years, beginning in 1993, he was the executive producer and on-air talent for the AFRICAN All Africa Network.

Steve Blanchard, PhD -- Blanchard earned a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Public Health, and a Doctor of Philosophy, in Sociology with emphasis in population studies. He currently teaches in the Sociology Department of our Lady of the Lake University.

Blanchard’s recent honors and awards include: West San Antonio’s Chamber of Commerce 2005 Doctoral Achievement Award, Moody Professor for 2005 – 2006, McNair Scholars Mentor of the Year 2004 – 2005. He has published numerous articles in his fields of expertise.

Blanchard’s current research experience includes: Principal investigator of a PepsiCo Foundation funded project to identify the factors that lead to Hispanic undergraduate achievement. He is also a consultant at the Center for Health Care Services in San Antonio, reviewing the Center’s extant database with the goal of designing an indicator database for assessing outcomes in the Center’s community mental health programs.

Rosie Castro -- Full Bio coming soon.

Ray Howard -- Howard is an Evaluation and Educational Development Specialist for the Academic Center for Excellence in Teaching (ACET) of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. 

In this capacity, Howard supports its educational, research and development programs with academic and organizational systems development, faculty development, strategic planning, project design, educational research, scientific grant writing and technology-based learning assistance and training. Howard has over 30 years of experience in areas of health care policy, fiscal management, organizational development, research and building collaborative partnerships. He has served on community and corporate boards, civic and government committees focused on improving health, economic and social support systems for children, men and families. Howard is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Public Health from the University of Texas. 

Brian Johnson -- Johnson is a Cloud Compute and Social Web Evangelist at Rackspace Management; leveraging project management best practices to turn big ideas into business cases, and business cases into reality.

Pilar Oates -- Oates serves as Executive Director of Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas (MHM). MHM is a 501(c)(3), faith-based organization and is San Antonio’s largest non-public funding source for community healthcare. MHM is one-half owner of the Methodist Healthcare System – the largest healthcare system in South Texas. MHM’s funding from 1997 through 2009 will exceed $235,900,000 for programs to uninsured and underserved individuals throughout South Texas.

Oates has a background of service to community, having worked for the City of San Antonio’s Department of Community Initiatives in adult literacy and community action programs. She is involved in extensive community service that focuses on improving outcomes for individuals and families, serving on community boards such as American Heart, United Way, and The Bexar County Health Collaborative.

Charles Pruski -- Pruski has more than 37 years of experience in the field of public health. He is currently the Interim Deputy Public Health Director for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (SAMHD), a city department with almost 400 employees and an annual budget exceeding $40 million. Pruski assists the Director of Health in the management of the department and he represents the department at various state, local and community events.

Pruski assists the Director of Health in the management of various public health programs to include: fiscal operations, contracts and ordinances, human resources, information technology, emergency preparedness, food sanitation, environmental health, epidemiology, capital projects and health facilities management. He also represents the Director of Health at various state, local and community events.

Jennifer Velasquez -- Velásquez serves as Coordinator of Teen Services for the San Antonio Public Library System and manages the daily operations of the Teen Services Department of the San Antonio Central Library. She serves as lecturer in the School of Information and Library Science at San Jose State University (CA) where she teaches programming and services for young adults.

In 2005, The New York Times recognized her work in the area of teen services when she was a recipient of the New York Times Librarian Award. Her programs were twice recognized as YALSA Excellence in Library Service to Young Adults Award recipients. In 1996, her work was recognized with La Promesa Award for Outstanding Programming to Latino Youth from The National Latino Children's Institute. She received her Masters Degree in Library Science from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey’s School of Communication and Information in 1991.

Julie Weber -- Bio coming soon.