Reporter not new to Alaska journalism

Frontiersman staff

MAT-SU — Longtime Alaska journalist K.T. McKee gas joined the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman as the paper’s newest reporter.

McKee, who grew up in Anchorage and has lived in the Valley for seven years, recently filled in at the Anchorage Daily News as a copy editor and Valley reporter before joining the Frontiersman team for the second time in her career.

“We’re thrilled McKee has joined our team,” said Heather Resz, Frontiersman managing editor. “We have a small, talented news team and McKee is a perfect fit.”

The former English teacher previously covered the cops and courts beat at the Frontiersman in the summer of 2005 between school years.

“It’s great to be back at one of the best community-oriented newspapers in Alaska,” McKee said.

After earning her journalism degree at Ohio University in 1986, she worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in West Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey and Colorado before returning to Alaska in 2001 to try her hand at teaching secondary school.

She also earned a master’s degree in political science and a bachelor’s degree in English. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists and state press associations with several first- and second-place awards over the years.

McKee said that although she enjoyed being a teacher, she’s thrilled to be reunited with her first love — journalism.

“I’m still naïve enough to believe reporters and photographers can move mountains and really make a difference out there,” said McKee, who also enjoys singing in a women’s barbershop chorus and chasing her three cats around her Meadow Lakes home.

She has also skydived, raced hydroplane powerboats, worked on an offshore oil rig and biked more than 1,000 miles across the Canadian Rockies.

“I guess you could say I’m up for just about anything,” McKee said.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.