Julie Thompson

Julie Thompson learned to be a reporter feet-first, when she walked into her Texas hometown newspaper, the Pampa News, and asked for a job. From that decidedly old-school starting point, she built a career in multimedia journalism — print, radio, television and streaming/social media, often in developing and fast-changing environments.
As senior reporter, managing editor, and acting editor at the St. Helens (Oregon) Chronicle, communications director for Columbia County, Oregon, and founding reporter at the Amarillo Tribune, Thompson covered the gamut from wildfire information coordinator to mental health advocate.
Thompson, a sixth-generation Texan, says nothing sounds like home more than the buzz of cicadas and tires on a red dirt road. She is excited to build a network that reflects the complexity, culture, and people of the High Plains in a way that feels both grounded and expansive. When she is not at work on the computer (her dog claims the sofa),