Gail Eichenthal

Opening Plenary Speaker

Gail Eichenthal is Chief Engagement Officer and a member of the senior management team for the USC Radio Group, which includes KDFC San Francisco, KUSC Los Angeles, and their repeater stations. She oversees community engagement, arts leader roundtables, instrument drives, live concert broadcasts, and contributes to KUSC’s arts magazine program, Arts Alive, which she created in 2006. As an on-air host, she’s heard Sundays 4-6pm on KUSC and throughout the day as the voice of the station.

A graduate of UCLA in music and English, Gail began her association with KUSC as Abram Chasins Intern in 1976, joining the staff the following year. She began her nearly 30-year association with the LA Philharmonic in 1978, becoming the first woman to host the national radio broadcasts of a major American orchestra.

From 1994-2005, Gail expanded her career into broadcast news and was a staff reporter and news anchor at the CBS radio news station in Los Angeles, KNX 1070. At KNX, she picked up 13 Golden Mikes, the Bill Stout Enterprise Award, Associated Press awards, and other regional and national honors.

As a print journalist, Gail has written for the LA Times Calendar, LA Times Sunday Magazine, and Symphony Magazine. She’s also a regular contributor to the KUSC Arts Alive blog.

Gail is a director of the Colburn Foundation, a member of the USC Thornton School of Music Board of Councilors, and an advisory council member of the new music ensemble, Jacaranda.