Meet the new members of the Idaho Statesman editorial board
Every year around this time, the Idaho Statesman welcomes new community members to the editorial board.
I’m pleased to introduce our three new members: John Hess, Debbie McCormick and Julie Yamamoto. Hess was recommended to me by a former board member, McCormick saw my request for the members in The Idaho Way, my weekly newsletter, and I reached out to Yamamoto myself.
I want to thank former community members Greg Lanting, Terri Schorzman and Garry Wenske for serving on the editorial board for the past year. Their contributions and perspectives led to some great conversations and deep, well-thought-out editorials.
I’m looking forward to more great conversations and editorials with the new community members.
John Hess
Hess is a 40-year veteran of the media industry, working in television, radio and newspapers.
Hess has spent the past 25 years building and leading public media organizations. Hess joined the Idaho Foodbank as its development manager in July 2023. He recently retired at the end of 2024. Before joining the Idaho Foodbank, Hess was director/general manager at WUWM, the NPR affiliate for Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin. Earlier in his career, Hess served as the general manager and executive director of Boise State Public Radio.
John and his spouse, Michelle Coleman, have lived in the Treasure Valley since 2005 and have two children, Kelly and Gabriel.
Debbie McCormick
McCormick fell in love with Southwest Idaho early in life, spending summers at her uncle’s cattle ranch from age 9. At 19, she moved to the North End and attended Boise State University for a couple of years before earning a degree in biology from the University of California at Irvine.
She chose to retire in Boise after a successful career as an entrepreneur, author, writer, lecturer and LinkedIn expert. She’s passionate about causes that matter to her, like supporting an orphaned elephant every year through the David Sheldrick Wildlife Foundation in Kenya. She also donates to the National Breast Cancer Foundation and advocates for aid programs for domestic violence survivors. When she’s not working, she loves spending time with her big family, visiting her son in California, and cuddling with her adopted pup, Buddy Love.
Julie Yamamoto
Born and raised in Canyon County, Yamamoto earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The College of Idaho, and an education specialist and doctor of education degree from the University of Idaho. Yamamoto worked for 32 years as a teacher or administrator in public schools and currently serves on two public charter school boards. She continues contributing to her community through various service clubs and as a member of several service-oriented boards.
Yamamoto served four years as a Republican representative in the Idaho House of Representatives. She was on the Resources and Conservation; Transportation and Defense; Environment, Energy and Technology; and Education committees, serving as the House Education chair for two years. She is married to Leland Sasaki.
Other members of the editorial board are Statesman editor Chadd Cripe, opinion writer Bryan Clark, assistant editor Jim Keyser and online editor Dana Oland. We meet once a week for an hour to discuss issues, but we also communicate throughout the week via email to talk about editorials based on what’s happening now.
We’ve got a pretty big year ahead of us. City elections are happening this fall, then the legislative session begins and then there are primary elections in May.
Welcome to John, Deb and Julie.
