Virginia Voice Staff

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Yvonne Mastromano
Yvonne MastromanoCEO
Yvonne Mastromano joined the Virginia Voice team in January 2022 as the Chief Executive Officer. Although she now feels that her feet are firmly planted in Virginia soil, Yvonne is an upstate New York transplant. She attended Ithaca College, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree with an emphasis in piano and a minor in voice. After graduation, Yvonne was recruited to be the Assistant Director in the museum where she spent her summers during college as a tour guide and three years later was promoted to Executive Director of a museum in Yonkers, NY.
After moving to Virginia, Mastromano decided to make a career change to broadcast television and was hired by the local NBC affiliate, WWBT-12. Yvonne had the opportunity to become the first person in Richmond to do live traffic reports and quickly earned the moniker of “Traffic Lady.”
In 2012, she returned to non-profit work as the Executive Director for the Innsbrook Foundation, where she remained for nine years before being drawn to the mission of Virginia Voice. She is currently focused on expanding Virginia Voice’s reach to serve more individuals with blindness, vision impairment and other disabilities, raise awareness, increase funding, and build brand identity.
Yvonne is a 2020 Leadership Metro Richmond graduate and serves on several local non-profit boards. When not working in the community, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their two sons at the family restaurant and at home walking their two fur babies.
Kenneth Wene
Kenneth WeneOperations Manager
Kenneth Wene joined Virginia Voice in August 2013 as Administrative Assistant, and was promoted to Office Manager in July 2017. Kenneth spent almost ten years as a Retail Systems Consultant for IBM and CapGemini. Prior to that, he worked for many decades in the retail industry designing and managing merchandise distribution systems. Ken was also a volunteer reader for many years starting in 2006, reading for the Science Today program and doing the live read of the Saturday Richmond Times-Dispatch, “retiring” as a reader at the end of 2018. In January 2022 he was promoted to Operations Manager, in recognition of the fact that he is in charge of managing all of the administrative operations of Virginia Voice.
Alex Childress
Alex ChildressStudio Manager
Alex Childress joined Virginia Voice as the Studio Manager in January 2008. Alex has a BS in Technical Theatre from Radford University. Outside of the studios he can occasionally be spotted at one of the local breweries or playing disc golf. Otherwise he enjoys meeting friends for board games or curling up with a good book next to his wife and their two tiny dogs.
Tim Vogel
Tim Vogel Program and Volunteer Manager
Tim Vogel joined Virginia Voice in March of 2023 as the Program and Volunteer Manager. Tim was born and raised in Easton, Pennsylvania and attended college at Penn State University. After graduating, Tim began a career in sports radio at WEEK and WTKZ in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 2009, he moved to New Orleans, Louisiana and spent nearly 14 years at WRBH Radio for the Blind & Print Handicapped as a studio engineer, Program Director, and Associate Executive Director. Then, when the opportunity to join Virginia Voice became available in the spring of 2023, Tim and his family quickly knew that this was the right move for them and that Richmond would be their future home. When not at work, Tim enjoys traveling, attending festivals, hiking, camping, video games, running, and going to the beach with his family,
Sharalyn Garrard
Sharalyn GarrardCommunity Engagement Coordinator
Sharalyn Garrard joined Virginia Voice in 2018 as a Live Audio Describer. In 2020, when the theater scene shut down, she became a Remote Reader. A native Richmonder, Sharalyn obtained her B.A. in Speech and Drama From Hampton (Institute) University in 1982. From there she lived in Los Angeles for 5 years working as a Stage Manager at various theaters. She returned to Richmond in 1989, where she continued her theatrical career both on and off the stage. Currently, she is the Community Engagement Coordinator at Virginia Voice. Sharalyn is also the Administrator of The Dominion Energy Christmas Parade, and enjoys singing in One Voice Chorus of Richmond as well as her church choir, and any time she gets to spend with her 2 grandsons.
Ilana Matfis
Ilana MatfisCommunity Engagement Liaison
Ilana Matfis joined Virginia Voice in 2024. A native of Massachusetts, she received her B.A. in music from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and her M.M. in Viola Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She worked as a professional violist and instructor in the San Francisco area for 15 years, playing with orchestras, touring Broadway shows, and chamber ensembles all over the Bay Area. Passionate about sharing her love of music with children, she taught private violin and viola lessons, worked extensively with the Berkeley and Oakland Youth Orchestras, and gave outreach performances and demonstrations in local elementary schools. Ilana moved to Richmond, Virginia in the fall of 2019 and lives with her husband, two young sons, and two old cats. She enjoys baking, spending time at the beach, and exploring Richmond with her family.
Dennis Waldron
Dennis WaldronStudio Assistant
Dennis Waldron joined Virginia Voice in January 1981 as a volunteer board operator and sometimes reader. He also assisted with other production work, such as engineering recordings of radio dramas produced by Virginia Voice’s Out-Sight Players. When not needed as a board operator, he prepared books on CDs for broadcast. Dennis retired from Overnite Transportation Co., a Richmond, Virginia-based trucking company, in 2016 after 39 years of service. He worked in the Operations Department, managed a public warehouse and was a manager in Employee Communications, where he was the editor of Over the Road, the company employee publication. In addition, Dennis served as the corporate photographer. His induction into the Virginia Voice Hall of Fame in 1984 is his most cherished recognition from any organization.
Becky Emmett
Becky EmmettStudio Assistant
Becky came to work with Virginia Voice in 1986 and continued until retirement 28 years later, 26 of those years as Program Director. As it was a very small staff (3) in those first few years, she worked in nearly every aspect of the service, managing volunteers, issuing radios, keeping up with listeners, managing programming, reading, operating the studio, and managing part-time studio technicians. As Virginia Voice expanded in staff, service and facility, Program Director tasks changed to include the move to digital programming which allowed Virginia Voice to increase broadcast hours to 24 hours daily, the addition of a website and online programming and a full-time Studio Manager. After retirement, she realized she was addicted to Virginia Voice and continued to volunteer, delivering radios when needed and reading the weekly program “Looking Back.” Now she’s happy to return as part-time studio assistant, feeling right at home in the studio and happy to reconnect with long-time volunteers and meet more recent ones. She’s very excited to be part of the continued growth of Virginia Voice. She lives with her daughter Soo, who is waiting for a kidney transplant, and they share a love of horseback riding. Becky can often be found trying her hand at gardening, with very little success, and lawn maintenance. Other hobbies include reading and traveling and spending time with her grandchildren.