Kathy Montgomery

Independent Journalist,

Features and Travel Writer

I love telling stories. And I love digging into the hows and whys of things.

The first time I stepped foot into a newsroom, it felt like home. For more than 25 years now, I’ve been lucky enough to do what I love every day.

I attended graduate school at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. That led to a job as managing editor of Phoenix Magazine, and then to a position as an editor at The Arizona Republic newspaper.

It also opened the door to teaching. Over a 10-year period, I taught courses in editing, news writing and magazine writing to journalism students at the Walter Cronkite School. I also taught a course in memoir writing to adult learners at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU.

As an independent journalist, I’ve contributed regularly to Arizona Highways magazine for more than a decade, as well as writing for a variety of local, regional and national publications.

After the Yarnell Hill Fire of June 2013, I served the residents of Yarnell as Communications Chair of the Yarnell Hill Recovery Group, a volunteer group formed to aid the recovery of the small, unincorporated community, which lost a quarter of its homes.

That volunteer work involved developing content for a website and Facebook page, disseminating information via website, social media, news outlets and an electronic newsletter. I also organized events, and served as the recovery group's media liaison, fielding requests from media organizations and generating publicity for newsworthy milestones. It made for a rewarding chapter in my on-going story.



Check out a few of my stories by clicking on the tabs at right