About Sarah
Sarah Keech is a published writer, professional editor and successful Web producer.
Sarah has been an ambitious leader her entire life. She coordinated and hosted a fashion show at just 11 years old as an independent school project working with a local children’s clothing store. Her first professional writing assignment came at just 16 years old when she was asked to be the High School Fashion Correspondent for Washington Square’s “On the Mall” publication.
Upon arriving at the University of Oregon she instantly immersed herself in multiple extracurricular activities. She spent three years in student government and a year working for The Oregon Daily Emerald. She also managed to intern for the first openly gay Republican Oregon State Representative in Salem, work a part-time fashion-related job and graduate within four years.
Upon graduating UO with a degree in Political Science, Sarah moved to Washington, D.C., where she landed her first post-college job as a Staff Assistant for a (mildly scandalous) United States Senator on Capitol Hill. After more than a year working in politics, Sarah decided to go back to her real love: journalism.
She immediately landed a job with The Weekly Standard, one of the country’s leading political weekly magazines. While serving as an Editorial Assistant she was able to gain valuable insight on the world of Washington politics and magazine publishing—including the very late Friday nights putting the magazine “to bed.”
At this time Sarah also started her freelance career, selling her first nationally published political article to Salon.com when she was just 24 years old.
During a D.C. to Maui flight in late December, Sarah had a layover in Los Angeles. It was then that she realized she was tired of the cold, snowy D.C. winters (and the very low pay at her job) and decided to move to the sunny Southland.
Sarah secured a Lead Content Editor/Producer position with the insanely cool Internet startup thirsty.com, one of the first social networking sites ever created.
Unfortunately, like so many other startups at the time, thirsty.com went belly-up within a year. After thirsty.com, Sarah continued to develop her freelance career and wrote for multiple Web sites, including The WB Television Network, Voter.com, ChickClick.com and Student.com.
She went back to full-time work as the News Writer and Editor for the Web site affiliated with Channel One News, a news program targeted to junior high and high school students throughout the United States (yes, the same place where Anderson Cooper, Lisa Ling and Maria Menounos started their careers). While there she covered a number of important news stories, including the events of September 11, 2001. After the attacks she worked almost 72 hours straight (and missed her likely only chance to see Madonna live in concert), providing original and comprehensive content and coverage for that very sensitive and youthful audience.
After 9/11, Sarah decided to pursue more serious journalism career opportunities, and returned to D.C. She quickly joined the staff at USAToday.com. Sarah started off as an Assistant News Director in their 24-hour newsroom, working to coordinate and plan the most important pages of the Web site. She was involved with covering many breaking news situations, including the beginning of the war in Iraq, election coverage, the discovery of Elizabeth Smart, the Lacy Peterson case, the Beltway snipers and the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
She was promoted to become an Assistant Life Editor, where, along with her other duties, she also contributed to a weekly column on pop culture trends.
After almost two years with USAToday.com, Sarah decided to return to the Pacific Northwest, initially working at a small newspaper where she took on the roles of Features Editor and member of the editorial board. She also designed and developed a popular weekly entertainment magazine, which was distributed within the newspaper and at local businesses. As the youngest member of the newspaper’s editorial board, she had the opportunity to write columns on a vast array of local, national and international issues.
Sarah now resides on the West Coast. She has recently done work for McMenamins, Salon.com, OregonLive.com, Hollywood Entertainment, John L. Scott Real Estate and Reel.com.
Over the past decade, Sarah has had the opportunity to interview some very interesting people. Here are just a few names you might recognize.
News and Politics
Author Christopher Hitchens
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews
Journalist Jack Germond
Journalist Peter Beinart
Former Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker
GOP strategist Rich Galen
Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist
Pollster Kellyanne Conway
Arts and Entertainment
Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess
Rock star Peter Frampton
Author Sarah Vowell
Travel expert Rick Steves
MegasXLR and Clone Wars writer George Krstic
Supermodel Emme
Singer Jill Sobule
The Apprentice’s Troy McClain
Currently, Sarah is finishing her first novel and looking to expand her writing, editing and Web producing career.
When she’s not working, Sarah enjoys hiking with her dog Scout, hanging out with her friends, reading all sorts of books, traveling (her favorite destination so far is Dubrovnik, Croatia), cooking, watching indie movies and documentaries, eating delicious meals (StumptownLunch.com is her latest creation) and browsing random stuff on Wikipedia.
Sarah also loves anything Ewok-related, has a fascination with the idea of artificial intelligence and has an unexplainable crush on James Carville.
To contact Sarah Keech, please feel free to email her at SarahKeech@aol.com.