Third Coast artistic director Julie Shapiro has been with the Festival since its inaugural year (2000). Before moving to Chicago, she spent years behind record stores counters before landing in North Carolina to work at the the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and gain a little radio experience at WUNC-FM. These days, besides Third Coasting, Shapiro teaches radio documentary in Chicago and beyond, keeps a blog about teeth signs, and can occasionally be heard on the public radio airwaves. 

John Biewen is audio program director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, where he teaches and produces work for national and international audiences. He reported for Minnesota Public Radio, covered the Rocky Mountain West for NPR News, and spent eight years as a correspondent/producer with American RadioWorks, the documentary unit of American Public Media. Biewen’s work has won many honors, including two Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Awards, the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, and Third Coast’s Radio Impact Award.

Sarah Boothroyd's audio work has been featured by broadcasters, festivals and galleries in over a dozen countries. Her work has won awards from the Third Coast International Audio Festival, New York Festivals, La Muse En Circuit, and the European Broadcasting Union.  Her website is www.sarahboothroyd.com.

David P. Earle is a Los Angeles based writer and artist. His sound-based work ranges from site specific installations to radio narratives. Recent work includes projects for group shows in Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Long Beach, California. Earle received an MFA from The School of Critical Studies at CalArts and now teaches sound art and radio theory & production there.

Meghan Vigeant is a radio gypsy. Most recently she taught radio documentary at the Brown Ledge Gap Year program in Vermont. Over the last year she's learned from Vermont farmers how to live a rewarding and frugal life so she can support her radio habit. She has filed for Vermont Public Radio, interned at Living on Earth, starved as an actor in Detroit, researched Manhattan's African Burial Ground and salted the radio landscape at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.