Grace Zafasi, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been named the new membership director for UA Little Rock Public Radio.

UA Little Rock Public Radio is the home of KUAR FM 89.1 and KLRE Classical 90.5 and serves as the region’s NPR news and information provider. Housed within the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education, UA Little Rock Public Radio is a public service unit of UA Little Rock where university students gain professional experience by working as interns and part-time staff members.

“So far my job at KUAR and KLRE has been a really cool experience,” Zafasi said. “I’ve learned a lot about the importance of being an NPR affiliate station and being connected to UA Little Rock puts us in a great position. Our newsroom is nicely connected with university departments, and every year we get wonderful students who serve as interns for our radio stations and get a chance to see what it’s like to work in a newsroom.”

In her new role, Zafasi is responsible for membership services, donor relations, organizing the annual fund drives, event planning, and working with Friends of KLRE/KUAR. With a listenership of about 80,000 people per week, Zafasi is dedicated to showing the community the value of public radio.

“Individual donors make up over 50 percent of our revenue, which helps us to independently report on stories, companies, and organizations without any ethical conflict,” she said. “Radio is a very unique platform. I am trying to encourage everyone to see the value of public radio. In a state like Arkansas, people like to know what is happening in their local communities.”

Zafasi joins UA Little Rock Public Radio from Mental Health America of Ohio, where she served as coordinator of the Franklin County Suicide Prevention Coalition and manager of support groups. She has also previously worked as coordinator of residence education at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and master’s degree in social work from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Zafasi and her wife, Alison Zafasi, an oncology and hematology nurse at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, live in Little Rock with their dog Ella.