People:
Hillary Beech, MBA
'91
IT'S 5:19 P.M. ON KZSC-FM and Hilary Beech is multitasking. Raising
the volume on a CD of North African jazz, Beech asks the subject of
her interview how she’s holding up, sips some water, runs through her
notes for the next segment of KZSC’s “Community Lives,” reads a few
public announcements in a cool “Mid-Atlantic” accent, and returns seamlessly
to her guest. Three minutes have passed.
Since last January, Beech has been the volunteer producer, director,
researcher, writer, disk jockey, technician, and host of her own weekly,
hour-long interview and call-in show, which profiles people from all
walks of life in California’s coastal Santa Cruz County.
By the end of the hour, Beech, through skillful questioning, will have
enhanced her listeners’ appreciation for the problems facing gay, lesbian,
and bisexual teenagers (today’s guest runs a nonprofit speaker panel
that visits local schools); answered a caller as her guest continued
on air; and crawled around the maze of wires under her desk in a futile
attempt to locate the cause of a static-laden news feed from Berkeley’s
KPFA.
And this isn’t even her day job.
Days, Beech runs her own high-tech consulting firm in nearby Aptos.
Born in England and raised there and in California, she is an electrical
engineer with bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as a Stanford
MBA. Last year she finished a master’s in international economics. And
this, oddly, is where the radio show comes in.
“People are talking about globalization, but they don’t understand
how it affects them. That worries them,” Beech says as she heads for
a 7 o’clock appointment. “There is little public discussion of the relationship
between globalization, trade, and work.” Beech hopes eventually to raise
the debate over globalization to a higher—and wider—level on TV or
radio. For now, she’s preparing for the next step in her career with
all the thoroughness of preparing for her weekly show. “Community Lives”
isn’t the product; it’s Step One in the process.
—Janet Zich
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