Host and Executive Producer, Shannon Bradley
Shannon Bradley is responsible for developing, producing, and selecting the Public Affairs programs for UCSD-TV.
Shannon has also produced several acclaimed documentaries on land use and urban planning, including Building Consensus: Quarry Falls (2009), The Making of Place: Solana Beach (2007), San Diego Canyonlands (2006), Designing for the Future (2003), and the six-part series, Path to Paradise (1998-2000).
Shannon is also the host and executive producer of State of Minds, a quarterly magazine program featuring stories from throughout the UC system for UCTV, the nationwide satellite channel for the University of California.
Before joining UCSD in 1993, Shannon covered national politics in Washington for nine years, the last five for PBS’ The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. She also wrote for the Washington City Paper; Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper; and WUSA, the CBS television affiliate. She has a B.A. in Communication and Sociology from UCSD and a Masters degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from The American University in Washington, DC. Shannon also taught the News Media Workshop, an upper division journalism class for the Department of Communication at UCSD from 1993-1999 and is now co-teaching the Eleanor Roosevelt College Freshman Honors Seminar with ERC Provost Alan Houston.
Producer and Host, Laura Castañeda
Laura Castañeda is the owner of Press Pass International and an Emmy Award-winning journalist and professional writer with more than 20 years experience in television, radio, and print media. Laura also chairs the Radio and Television Department at San Diego City College and has served as host, moderator, and consultant to various media projects. In 2006, Laura teamed up with Shannon Bradley at UCSD-TV to produce The Devil’s Breath, a documentary about border crossers who were trapped in San Diego’s back country during the October 2007 wildfires.
In 2004, Laura launched Stories de la Frontera, a bilingual, bicultural, human-interest magazine program that currently airs on PBS affiliates in several U.S. cities.
Prior to her solo career, Laura reported for Cox Channel 4’s San Diego Insider, KGTV, the ABC affiliate in San Diego; and KGUN-TV, the ABC station in Tucson, Arizona. She began her television news career in 1987 as a production assistant at WLS-TV in Chicago, her hometown.
Laura is an alumnus of the University of Illinois-Urbana with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a minor in Sociology.