Your new Savoa Advisory Board:
of the membership, for the membership.

We recently had a call for nominations to the newly established SaVoa Advisory Board. We had 6 seats open plus one filled position(chair) and six well qualified nominations. As a result the SaVoa Executive Board and SaVoa Founders unanimously elected the nominees to the SaVoa Advisory board. Since there were six seats and six candidates, a formal election process was not necessary, and the SAB was directly appointed.

I am proud to introduce the SAVOA ADVISORY BOARD serving as your direct member representatives. They are your fellow VO actors and SaVoa members and have volunteered to dedicate their time and resources to serve as your direct contacts for ideas, comments, suggestions, and ways to make SAVOA a stronger guild.

Feel free to contact any or all SAB members by clicking on the SAB button (also found on the SaVoa members page)

MEET THE SAVOA ADVISORY BOARD 

Dave Courvosiier
07041
http://www.courvo.com/

Bio: Dave is a TV News Broadcast veteran of 30 years, and has won numerous regional Emmys for excellence in anchoring, writing, producing and reporting. 5 years ago, Dave began in earnest the segue into full-time voice acting, and has pursued this endeavor with a singular passion. Dave is especially good at fostering relationships between members of this community, and enabling others to rise to their potential. Dave lives in Las Vegas, NV, and has 3 daughters. He's married to his first wife of 26 years, and enjoys blogging, racquetball, and an occasional cigar.

What I bring to the SAB: "I realize the power of forming and encouraging relationships to succeed in this business. I also fully support the overall goal of SaVoa from the beginning: to bring a legitimacy to the profession of voice acting by setting standards and protocols that enhance our profession's standing among other fields of endeavor. I am dedicated to the business of voiceovers, and would work hard to further the mission of SaVoa in raising the standards of our business."

Scott Diskin
08004

http://www.scottdiskin.com/

Bio: From hard-sell to soft-spoken. Scott has a deep, warm, resonant, sexy, trusting voice. A complete professional studio including phone patch. 24-hour turnaround on most projects, and offers full production capabilities, including copy writing assistance.

Scott's clients include: The U.S. ARMY, Hilton Hotels, General Electric, DYMO - Rhino 6000, Yellow Tail Wines, Fidelity Investments, Dictaphone, John Hancock Insurance, Subaru, Somerset Mortgage, Penn State University, and many others. Scott has also narrated 6 audiobooks which are available on Audible.com, and include; Cyrano de Bergerac, Around the World in 80 Days, Silas Marner, The Monkey's Paw, To-Morrow, and The Moon and Sixpence.

What I bring to the SAB: "I am really very excited about the opportunity presented to all of us as SaVoa members to have an impact on the VO industry, and to drive change. Participation on the SAB is really cool, and I am honored to serve."

Dustin R. Ebaugh
08017

www.tvandradiovoices.com/dustin.htm

Bio: I have over 23 years of experience in voice over and worked in radio for over 20 years. I've been heard nationally on MTV and regionally for Blockbuster Video, Pizza Hut and Carlos O' Kelly's. Some of my corporate narration clients include General Electric, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, Kraft Foods, The Four Seasons Hotels, The United States Air Force, The American Red Cross and The United Nations. I very much enjoy working with others and teaching. I also enjoy learning. I have a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Development and a Masters of Leadership Studies degree. Specific to voice over, I have attended several voice acting seminars with instructors like Dick Orkin, Christine Coyle, Dan O'Day, Nick Michaels and Marc Cashman. I have also taught voice over seminars at an acting school in my community. I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else!

What I bring to the SAB: "I believe that audio quality and a good studio sound are paramount. Anyone can develop a clean sounding studio with the right assistance, advice and tenacity. It's by no means a simple or easy thing, but it's possible. I have helped others set up studios and tune their sound for optimum performance. I think serving on the SBA would be a great opportunity to give back to the community of voice actors which I love, but also to help grow new talent and work with the stars of tomorrow. I am a very happy member of SaVOA and would like to contribute more to this fine organization."

Daniel R. Lenard
07047

www.dansvoice.com

Bio: Buffalo, NY native Dan Lenard has been a radio personality, an insurance sales consultant, a high school Media and Social Studies teacher, a stay-at-home dad and currently is a free lance producer and professional voice artist. He earned his BA in Broadcasting from Buffalo State College in 1980, a New York State teaching certificate for secondary social studies from Buff State in 1997 and then in 2002, an MA in Creative Studies and Secondary Education from again, Buffalo State College. Also, Dan is an industry recognized expert and consultant on the creation and troubleshooting of home studios for Voice Artists.

What I bring to the SAB: “ As a professional voice talent for over 30 years, I am supremely interested in the improvement of our young and growing industry. This is why I joined SaVoa. The best way to ensure that we are going in the right direction is to be involved at a higher level and lend my years of experience to this organization. I have served on many Boards of Directors for community and national organizations and know what it takes to create consensus, along with the intimate knowledge of running the day-to-day operations of a voice talent business. So many people want to join in this growing market place. The only way to succeed is with the help of those who have the knowledge and the proven experience to guide them. We also need to maintain a high level of professionalism by setting the standards that we will all adhere to. This is SaVoa's mission and it is mine, personally.”

Rafe Sampson
08023

http://sampsonmedia.com/

Bio: I have 30 years of experience in front of the microphone; 15 years in radio (production and on air) and 15 as a VOA. I've been a full time VOA since 1997 and have had a successful voice/audio production company (Sampson Media inc.) for 10 years. Though the bulk of my business is e-learning narration, I also have extensive experience in website audio, broadcast commercial voice over/production, and animation character voices. Much of my recent work has involved not only being a voice in, but project managing the audio production of larger, multi-voice projects for my client, so I have a rather unique blend of both providing voice services and hiring other VOAs.

What I bring to the SAB: "I believe that SaVoa is positioned to be a leading resource for not only VOAs but for those seeking voice/audio services to enhance their product or projects. There is a need for some kind of barometer or standards bearing organization that can validate the expertise and abilities of voice artists as the advent of broadband and other technologies related to the internet and digital audio production have 'watered down' our industry. Anyone with a laptop, USB mic and a closet can pay Voice123 or other like showcase sites and declare themselves a VOA. Not only does this drive down prices for VOAs, but it makes it increasingly tedious to sift through the scores of 'talents' and find a professional when hiring voice talent. Unions and agents are the only options, yet for most companies and applications needing audio they are cost prohibitive. I think SaVoa can fill a very large void in setting standards for VOAs and through accreditation, creating assurances for voice seekers that they are engaging skilled and experienced professionals."

Robert J. Sciglimpaglia, Jr.
07035

http://www.robertpaglia.com/

Bio: Robert J. Sciglimpaglia, Jr. is a practicing attorney, as well as voiceover artist and on-camera actor in the New York City area. He is also the owner of All in One Voice, LLC, (www.allinonevoice.com) a company that helps beginning and advanced voiceover artists and actors with business and legal issues. His course “You’re on the Air: How to Really Make it in Voice-overs” is taught throughout the NYC tri state area. Robert has appeared in numerous national voiceover projects, including commercials, promos, and narrations, plus on-camera appearances in programs airing on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and feature films “Enchanted” and “Music and Lyrics”. For more about Robert, visit his website at www.robertpaglia.com and his Internet Movie Database listing at www.imdb.com.

What I bring to the SAB: "I joined SAVOA because I loved the idea that there was some mechanism to differentiate professional voice over artists versus "wannabe's" since there is no true barrier to entry into the business, and no real educational program to "graduate" to be qualified as a voice over artist. That is the exact reason I teach voice overs to beginners so that they start out the "right" way, versus the wrong ones, and for the right reasons. I believe I can further this goal as a member of the advisory board."

Thom Wilkins
07004

www.thomwilkins.com

Bio: I started in radio at sixteen, earned a First Class Broadcasting license, and worked in AM, FM and Television as on-air talent and in broadcast engineering. I eventually joining Hewlett-Packard company where I was responsible for media based training delivered via satellite to 179 countries. I was involved very early with Internet development, working with Pac-Bell, Netscape, Time Warner/AOL and other early adaptor WWW companies as a member of HP Labs. Well grounded in broadcasting, education, new-media and voice-over, I naturally moved into the voice-over field and now earn most of my income through VO activities, both as a VO artist and producer. With top-tier studio quality equipment, Source-Live, Source-Connect, and ISDN, I service clients worldwide from my home in Columbus, GA.

What I bring to the SAB: "I joined SaVoa in August 2007 as one of the founders, and have been involved since it's very inception. I currently serve on the SaVoa executive Board of Directors and as chair of the Savoa Advisory Board. With a tie breaking vote (only) on the advisory board, I serve to carry recommendations and resolutions to the executive board for formal approval or corporate action."