#MediaMonday – Kerry Fehr-Snyder

I have known Kerry Fehr-Snyder for a long time.  Our paths have crossed personally and professionally many times over the years.  She was a long-time print journalist at the Arizona Republic, moved into communications for a state agency and most recently announced that she was moving to KJZZ, Phoenix’s NPR affiliate.  You know sometimes the right job opportunity opens up for the right person?  This is it – I can’t think of a more perfect person than Kerry for this managing editor position.

I asked her to share her story for our #MediaMonday post.

I have long wanted to work in public radio but was discouraged by my “breathy voice,” according to my radio professor at Arizona State University’s school of journalism and communications. Now 30 years later, I have landed my dream job as managing editor for science and technology behind the mic at KJZZ, the Phoenix affiliate of NPR.

It was a right-place-at-the-right-time deal. After 25 years as a daily newspaper reporter for The Arizona Republic, I moved to the state health department to write and design the monthly medical marijuana newsletter for the state’s 70,000 and counting card holders. I came to that job after specializing in public health and science reporting, which I honed during a yearlong MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship in Cambridge, Mass.

My job at KJZZ was created to manage the four-reporter team of science reporters at NPR affiliate stations in Flagstaff, Tucson, Yuma and Tempe. We are the Arizona Science Desk and are funded through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In my spare time, you’ll probably find me at a local gym either working out (if you’re awake early), watching my teenage daughter play club volleyball or cheering my son in club basketball with my husband, the English department chair at Tempe High School.

We also enjoy reading, family movie night and walking our very cute rescue dog, Tucker.

You can find me at ksnyder@kjzz.org and @kerryfehrsnyder on Twitter.