Sara has been involved with the Rogue Valley Messenger from its inception, innocently responding to a craigslist ad asking for writers back in 2012, because she figured, why not? She had received her B.A. in Journalism/Mass Communications from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, in 2007 and was itching to put it to good use back where she was born and raised, in Grants Pass. Little did she know that the then online paper would end up in print, or that she would find herself in the esteemed position of Associate Editor two short years later. She and her husband and daughter, Seth and Lavender, have a small farm outside Grants Pass, where they primarily raise goats and rabbits and sell their products at their farm stand, L-Mae Essentials. They aspire to add produce to their repertoire in coming years. In her spare time, she also works as a Surgery Assistant/Implant Coordinator at Associates for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Grants Pass and Medford.

Phil Busse has spent the past 20 years as a journalist, attorney and educator—and doing his tour of duty with alt-weeklies.

He has served as the Editor for the Source, a popular weekly newspaper in Bend, Oregon and was the founding Managing Editor for the Portland Mercury. While in law school, he wrote crime and legal stories for the Eugene Weekly and started his writing career as the first environmental beat reporter for San Francisco Weekly.

In 2006, Phil started the Media Institute for Social Change (MediaMakingChange.org), an educational non-profit. Based in Portland, Oregon, the organization hosts college students each summer to teach them how to produce public interest film and radio documentaries—and, in 2013, helped launch XRAY.FM, a talk and music radio station that won Willamette Week’s readers choice for Best Local Radio Station in 2015.

Phil is truly surprised that he ended up as a newspaperman; as a kid, he believed that he would grow up to be a spy, and has spent a lifetime acquiring the proper skills—he is certified SCUBA diver, knows how to tie a bow tie and can mix (shake) a mean martini.

Phil graduated from Middlebury College in 1992 and earned his law degree from the University of Oregon in 1997.

Mike started writing in elementary school and never looked back, though is still not a big fan of cursive. He got his first big break when he was picked up by the Elko Daily Free Press as a freelance writer during his two year-long hitchhiking stint from Nevada to Argentina. He currently lives in Ashland.

Ace reporter. Produced playwright. Internationally recognized rock and roll superstar and burrito connoisseur.

The Rogue Valley Messenger publishes RogueValleyMessenger.com, Southern Oregon's daily alternative for community news and arts & entertainment. Covering Merlin to Mt. Ashland and Crater Lake to Cave Junction, RogueValleyMessenger.com delivers high-quality and engaging information to the public while providing local businesses with innovative and cost-effective marketing solutions including advertising, social media promotions, press services, and editorial search engine marketing. The Rogue Valley Messenger also offers a wide array of media services, including graphic design, start-up assistance, business strategy, branding, band bookings and press, event production, email marketing, SEO, SEM and many others.

The Rogue Valley Messenger publishes RogueValleyMessenger.com, Southern Oregon's daily alternative for community news and arts & entertainment. Covering Merlin to Mt. Ashland and Crater Lake to Cave Junction, RogueValleyMessenger.com delivers high-quality and engaging information to the public while providing local businesses with innovative and cost-effective marketing solutions including advertising, social media promotions, press services, and editorial search engine marketing. The Rogue Valley Messenger also offers a wide array of media services, including graphic design, start-up assistance, business strategy, branding, band bookings and press, event production, email marketing, SEO, SEM and many others.