The Western News welcomes new sports writer

Hope Nealson is the newest member of The Western News editorial staff. Nealson was born in Toronto, Canada, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado, where she graduated from Boulder High School in Boulder.

She got her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore. and went on to study Fine Art Photography at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.

Nealson worked as a photogapher for the ICON, an entertainment weekly in Iowa City and a reporter for Geronimo in Taos, N.M. She has shot river rafting photos along the Rio Grande, ski instructed children and worked as a portrait photographer in Albuquerque, N.M.

She comes to Libby with her Great Pyrenees, Yogi, and two cats, Bob and Peter, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she worked at The Gazette, a daily newspaper. An avid football fan (Ducks, Hawkeyes and Broncos), Hope is excited to follow the Libby Loggers and Troy Trojans. She also plans to enjoy the surrounding mountains to ski and hike, as well as learn how to kayak.