Radio KPFK is not for sale

Charlie Wilken

Statement

 

I’m a lifetime listener of KPFK from the 60s until now. The programming I heard in the 60s and 70s helped shape me into the person I am today. I hope to play a role in supplying Los Angeles with the ongoing great programming that KPFK has provided over the decades. I hope to assist in creating a stable and viable station that can help lead the independent thinkers of Los Angels to have enlightening programming to move our city in greener directions.

I am a retired LAUSD science and shop teacher, social justice and climate activist, and union activist. As the UTLA chapter chair at my school for a decade I served on a monthly school-based management council to help govern the school’s finances and schedules. As a teacher, I spent my 30 years at VNHS building alternative Academy programs for “at-risk” and “underperforming” youth. I was active with the LAUSD East and supported two different teacher strikes. I worked with the union human rights committee and also was a strong supporter of bilingual education. I was the faculty advisor to many student clubs over the years including our MECha and BSU clubs.

I have spent the last couple of years working with the LA Climate Reality Project Curriculum committee to pass an LAUSD resolution to facilitate teaching more climate curriculum in every grade level and in every subject. After passing the resolution our committee continues the long and tedious journey of trying to get LAUSD to implement and fund all the parts of the resolution. We are also committed to sharing the best practices of climate curricula with other districts.

I am also a lover of outdoor education and have authored a website (outdooreducationla.org) dedicated to utilizing outdoor spaces more with classroom visits. I am working as a board member of the SFV Audubon which besides enjoying bird watching spends a lot of effort on greening and protecting our natural environments. I work a couple of days a week with the Santa Monica Mountains Resource Conservation district touring elementary school students around cool outdoor habitats. A good age for them to bond with the natural world around them.

I also have started a website called vegan95. It is a website that advocates being vegan at least 95% of the time in order to lessen the impact of domesticated animals on the environment. I’m very interested in the emergence of so many plant-based food products in the last few years.

Como muchos californianos, tengo algunas raíces en México. Uno de mis abuelos nació en Sinaloa, México. Soy ciudadano estadounidense y mexicano. Me gusta el dicho de que una persona bilingüe vale por dos. Hablo Espanol.

I am active on social media sites; @cwilken , @ClimateCCom and @GPCandiate2024 on twitter. My Websites are Outdooreducationla.org and Vegan95.com