#MediaMonday – Meghann Finn Sepulveda

Those of you who know me, know I am all about the West Coast. It is, after all, the best coast, according to Snoop Dogg.

But, every so often, I make an exception to be friends with an East Coaster – especially if that East Coaster came to her senses and now lives on this side of the country.

I kid – but today’s Media Monday, Meghann Finn Sepulveda, does hail from the East Coast – Long Island to be exact.

Today, she is both the editor of Chandler Lifestyle Magazine and a local freelance writer, most often for Republic Media Custom Publishing and its specialty publications, including New Homes  and Living Well .

So, Meghann, what do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?

Alison is right. I am originally an East Coast girl, but I moved to Arizona my junior year of high school, so have been here all of my adult life. When I moved to Arizona, I finished out my high school career at Saguaro High School in the Scottsdale School District , which is just a hop, skip and a jump from Alison and Caelen’s alma mater, Horizon, and Abbie’s, Shadow Mountain.

I started my college career in Flagstaff at NAU, but ended up finishing at ASU, earning my Bachelor of Arts in Communication.  I had several interests in school and even considered being a teacher.

But fate had other plans for me.

While working at AJ’s Fine Foods, which is owned and operated by Bashas’, a corporate communications job opened up in 2002, and I went for it. Next thing I knew, it had been two years, and I was hooked on writing and public relations.

After my time at Bashas’, I moved into healthcare public relations, working in various roles at Banner Health and then later at Abrazo Health Care from 2004 to 2013. During this time, I was able to work on everything from media relations, to internal communications to – of course – crisis management. As you can imagine, we got to see it all, and work with nearly every local, regional and national media outlet you could think of.

One of my favorite moments from those days had to be when we handled the media around a mother who was due to give birth to sextuplets at one of the hospitals. Not only did I get the chance to work with national media, but I was also expecting my first baby.  The mother of the sextuplets and I developed a friendly bond. Today, our kids – who are all healthy and happy, by the way – actually attend the same elementary school, so I get to see that “story” continue to evolve all these years later.

Once I became a mom, life changed a bit for our family. My husband works in Tucson.   Once we started having our second and third kids, in recent years; it became very clear one of us needed to be close to home.

That’s how I initially got into freelancing. Of course, I started out doing quite a bit of health-related writing, given my background. But in more recent years, I’ve taken on more general assignment work ranging from small business success stories to events to even real estate.

I took the helm of Chandler Lifestyles Magazine last year, while still maintaining my freelance work. If you take a look at our magazine, we feature a wide variety of topics including philanthropy, food, local hot spots, road trips, business features and more.

I love getting local pitches. We work about 60 days in advance, so keep that in mind. For example, right now would be the best time to pitch stories for the April issue. Just one rule – always tailor your story specifically to Chandler. Spell out the local connection to me – it isn’t always as obvious as you might think, especially over email.

Feel free to reach me anytime at: meghann.sepulveda@cox.net.

Thanks so much for this opportunity!