Kelly Cooper
Editor-in-Chief

Kelly is a Visalia native who, after spending seven years in Southern California, decided to move home and pursue an unexpected career in journalism and publishing. With a little over a year’s experience as assistant editor with another local publication, Kelly and her father established When Pigs Fly Publishing, Inc. and subsequently launched Valley Response Magazine. In her spare time, Kelly enjoys reading, traveling, helping plan the Heart Spectacular Celebration to raise funds for the Kaweah Delta Cardiac Division, and dabbling in interior design.

Kellie Palmer

Production Assistant

New to the area, Kellie Palmer is doing her best to help out any way she can. Born and raised in Petaluma, in beautiful Sonoma County, she has learned different trades that have helped her and others in many ways. While she’s a wiz at a wide range of office work, she also has her license in Cosmetology and loves to take pictures. She enjoys spending time with her loved ones and preserving those wonderful times through her photography. You can usually find her playing fetch with her dog Diesel an Australian Shepherd or hanging out with her husband Casey, who is currently training to become a helicopter pilot.

Jill K. Applegate
Copy Editor

Jill K. Decker occasionally sheaths her red proofreader's pen to track down the answers to readers' questions about first responders. She recently moved to Visalia from her hometown of Napa to build her freelance editing and proofreading business in the Central Valley. She enjoys bike riding, volunteering with the Boys and Girls Club, and fogging up the glass of the baked goodies case at downtown Visalia cafes.

Michael Cooper
Business Development

Raised in Visalia, Michael has spent the last ten years fostering a passion for athletics. He attended USC and Fresno State on baseball scholarships and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals, where he spent three years pursuing a career as a professional pitcher. Michael recently moved home to Visalia to lend a hand to his family’s publishing company and learn about the intricacies of running a family-owned business. In his spare time, Michael enjoys traveling and being active in the great outdoors.

Carole Firstman
Writer

Carole believes in the spirit of community. She is a performing artist, an educator, a world traveler and a freelance writer. After teaching for nearly 20 years, Carole went on to co-found First Arts and Visalia Arts Market. Carole is a member of Visalia Breakfast Rotary and serves on the Visalia Community Players board of directors. "Life is too short to do absolutely everything we want," she says, "but I can certainly try."

Kimberly Sherman
Writer

The wife of a California Highway Patrol sergeant and mother of three kids, Kimberly Sherman is a stay-at-home mom who moonlights as a freelance writer. Her work can be found in a variety of publications--profiling interesting subjects, pursuing the human-interest side of a story and offering advice and support for various issues within the family home. Kimberly has a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from California State University, Fresno. She enjoys jogging with her dog and being with family in her spare time.

Paul Main
Writer

Paul Main has worked in EMS for over 25 years and served seven years as a volunteer fire fighter. Paul has a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco, an Associate of Arts degree from the College of the Sequoias, and an AOS Culinary Arts degree from Pennsylvania Culinary Institute.

Dustin Thompson
Writer

Visalia native Dustin Thompson has been a local police officer for thirteen years and worked as an EMT for nearly six years prior to getting into law enforcement. Dustin is active in the community where he grew up and went to school, serving on many charitable boards such as Relay for Life and Wish Upon a Star. Dustin is married and has three daughters and a son.

Bob Daughrity
Writer

Bob Daughrity is a retired California Highway Patrol lieutenant who lives in Clovis. During his 30 year career with the Patrol he worked varied assignments, which took him throughout the state. He attended Loma Linda Medical University where he earned a paramedic rating. He has written many articles for law enforcement periodicals and magazines. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, landscaping and exercising.

Jim Blanks
Writer

Jim Blanks has returned to his hometown of Fresno after spending two years in Montana. A journalist, short-story author and playwright, Jim has had fiction published in The Raconteur and Clemson Poetry Review, and he wrote and produced a number of short stage-plays while in Montana. Currently he is working on a full-length screenplay based on his short story, "Dead Man's Town." When not writing, he daydreams about his true life's ambition: becoming a Northern California gold prospector.

Aaron Collins
Writer

Aaron Collins is a Visalia-based freelance writer whose many published articles on art, culture, architecture, and urban planning have appeared throughout the San Joaquin Valley media. He is the author of two 2008 Gold Medal Addy Awards for Best Magazine Feature. Collins is the creator of Cetus Gallery District, an award winning online virtual place where artists and galleries promote their art to international audiences via the Second Life platform. He is a native of Exeter.

David Swann
Photographer

Commercial photographer David Swann is an Orange County transplant now based in the South Valley. Working as a team with his wife, Susan, a renowned digital artist, they travel nationally working with architects, magazines, and advertising agencies. David is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, the American Institute of Architects, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and the Fresno Advertising Federation. He was awarded two Gold and two Silver Addy Awards in 2008 for magazine feature and cover photography. When not throwing tennis balls for their three dogs, David volunteers as president of the Arts Council of Tulare County and is director of the Artists In Education program for Tulare County Schools.

Forrest Cavale
Photographer

Forrest Cavale, a Visalia native, has been taking photographs since the eighth grade. It wasn’t until college, while getting his aeronautical science degree, that photography took over as his main passion in life. About five years later, Forrest opened his own studio as a professional photographer. He is currently a freelance photographer for various local publications and companies. And while he will always love flying airplanes, being a photographer allows him to soar to artistic heights.

Sara Deasy
Photographer

Sara Deasy is a free-spirited photographer who literally woke up one morning and decided to open her own photography studio, D.C. Photography Studios. With her passion for photography and her camera always at hand, Sara has brought her dream into focus, and now specializes in wedding, portrait, and commercial photography. Sara has always had a deep love for life, as well as the beauty within it, and with her photography she enjoys stealing moments from time. Working in both color and black & white, her photojournalistic style is modern and distinctive with a timeless, classical edge.