Danny Baker, Director of Development
Phone: 816.235.2861 / email

Danny Baker joined the KCUR team in June 2008 to serve as the station's Development Director, succeeding Parker Van Hecke.  He has been a long-time member and advocate for KCUR.  With degrees in accounting, theatre and public administration, Danny also brings over 30 years of experience in leadership positions at educational and cultural organizations to his new role.

Danny has served as development director for UMKC's College of Arts & Sciences and the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, Managing Director of the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis, and Managing Director of the Missouri Repertory Theatre (now Kansas City Repertory Theatre) in Kansas City.  He also served as the National Endowment for the Arts' regional representative in the mid-America region and he is currently an adjunct instructor on UMKC's Theatre Department faculty.

Cooking, tennis, and golf are the activities Danny enjoys in his leisure time, as well as listening to live jazz and exploring new, local restaurants.

Annie Benskin, Underwriting Account Executive
Phone:816.235.5770/ email

Annie is a Midwestern girl, born in Oklahoma and raised in Kansas and Texas. She attended the University of Kansas and graduated with a BA in English in 1998. Following graduation, Annie began her career in public radio at KANU in Lawrence, as Membership Director and then Corporate Development Director. She was excited about the opportunity to continue her work in public radio sales at KCUR, where she started work in May 2003.

Annie lives in Leawood and enjoys running, yoga, traveling, and spending time with her two little girls.

Chris Graham, Underwriting Account Executive
Phone: 816.235.2839/ email

Chris Graham joined KCUR in April 2003 as an account executive in our Development department. She is a past volunteer and avid listener of the station. Chris received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Communication Studies. After college, Chris worked for an advertising agency in business development for more than four years. During that time she co-founded Moxie Catering, KC Magazine's 2006 Caterer of the Year.

Chris recently left the catering world behind and in July 2007, she and husband Andy welcomed their daughter, Hartley, into their family. Chris is active in JDRF fundraising activities, loves cooking, knitting, skiing, yoga, pilates, and singing on recordings of Andy's original songs.

Dana Ray Thompson, Underwriting Sales Executive
Phone: 816.235.5702 / email

Dana was born and raised in Northwest Missouri and attended college at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she obtained a bachelor's degree in Persuasive Speech Communications in 1994. Upon graduation, she married her high school sweetheart, Chris Thompson, and began her future in public radio at MU's public radio station, KBIA-FM, selling underwriting for the next two years. After moving to Kansas City in 1996, Dana made a bee-line to KCUR where she was promptly hired as an underwriting executive. "Public radio is such a part of me and working for a non-profit is very compatible with my personality. The relationships I have developed here are ones that will last a lifetime," Dana said.

She enjoys spending time with her family, a true public radio family. Dana predicts that her son and daughter will both work in underwriting sales at KCUR someday. Her daughter frequently answers her phone with, "This is Taylor with KCUR" and her son, Gage, continually reminds her, "Shhh, Mommy, I'm talking to a customer".

In 2003, Dana and her husband also began partnering with Lakota leaders on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota creating humanitarian relief programs and offering economic development assistance.   Dana, along with the help of her husband and other local leaders, has organized a new soon to be non-profit organization here in Kansas city that partners with American Indian leaders in South Dakota and Missouri called Warm Embrace, Inc.  The Thompsons along with their two children, travel to South Dakota two to three times per year taking up to 100 people to participate in economic development projects and construction projects with their Lakota partners and to make deliveries.  Dana is currently focusing on the Lakota Star Quilt Project working towards building a structure on the reservation that will house a non-profit organization, owned and operated by the Lakota people that will provide outreach to the community through the cherished Lakota Star Quilt.  The organization will generate funds for operation and outreach through quilt sales on and off of the reservation, local fabric store sales, a 'coffee corner' for networking and through rental fees from the community sewing room. For more information, you can go to www.warmembrace.org

Dana is also an accomplished party and wedding planner. She also enjoys renovating old homes, movies, hosting tea parties and collecting children's books.