Los Laureles Canyon: Learn More About the Producers

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 […]

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.

Los Laureles Canyon: Research in Action Premieres Fall 2009

In collaboration with Keith Pezzoli, at UCSD’s Urban Studies and Planning program and others, Shannon is producing on a documentary about watershed planning and sustainable development in Los Laureles, a canyon that starts high in Tijuana, crosses the U.S.-Mexican border and ends at the Tijuana River Estuary in Imperial Beach, California. Some 65,000 people live in Los Laureles, and because of inadequate infrastructure, much of their waste flows unrestricted down the canyon into the estuary, threatening the wildlife that depend on its pristine wetlands for survival.

The UCSD-TV crew in Los Laureles Canyon. From left to right: Willie Wiliams,
Harry Caruso, Rachel Bradley, Laura Castañeda, Matt Alioto, Shannon Bradley

Notice Laura Castañeda in the group? We’re delighted to have her back with us on this project after her compelling and courageous documentary, The Devil’s Breath: Border Crossers caught in San Diego’s Wildfires (2008)

Interview with Producer Shannon Bradley for Quarry Falls

UCSD-TV: What sparked your interest in Quarry Falls?

Shannon Bradley: I heard a story about the San Diego River Park Foundation getting a donation of 17 acres right on the river in Mission Valley and I couldn’t believe it. How in the world does a non-profit get a gift like that? Land that was zoned for a 30-story hotel? So that’s where it started. Then I found out the landowners also owned the 230-acre quarry across Friars Road that was slated for development. And when I looked at the plans for the site, I was impressed by what they wanted to do there. So that became our story: how the landowners would go about building support for their plan to turn the quarry into a mixed-use development and in the process, donating the 17 acres to the River Park Foundation.

UCSD-TV: When you hear the words “sand and gravel mine,” a livable space is not
usually what comes to mind. What makes this site ideal for development?

SB: Because the quarry site is in the exact center of San Diego! Literally the heart of Mission Valley! It’s close to everything. And the whole mantra of smart growth is to reduce the distance people must travel between home, work, school, and recreation…

Read the Entire Interview