Amy Armstrong is the managing editor of the ECHO News (the Eagle River Chugiak Herald Observer) in Eagle River, Alaska. She worked from 1999 to 2016 in a freelance capacity for the Alaska Star, covering education and government, writing features, and becoming highly acquainted with what makes Chugiak-Eagle River so incredibly special. During that period, she was honored with more than 40 awards for excellence in journalism on a state and national level.

When Armstrong left the Alaska Star in summer 2016, she was the last remaining piece of the Lee Jordan era. She was tickled when he agreed to write the ECHO’s historical column. As ME of the ECHO, she has spearheaded an informal internship program, allowing local high school students to write for the newspaper and is active in creating community-oriented events, including a political candidate forum and an upcoming business-speed-dating event. Her focus is on bringing high-quality community journalism to ECHO readers, as well as working together with the local business sector to build partnerships and not just sell advertising. Her goal for the ECHO News is to continue delivering the information and news that matter to locals in Chugiak-Eagle River.

She is a board member of the Chugiak-Eagle River Women in Business. Armstrong is a graduate of the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University. She grew up on a dairy farm in western Washington near the Canadian border, where she learned the value of diligent work. While in college, Armstrong wrote for several agricultural publications, including The Capital City Press, The Dairyman, Farm Journal magazines and Hoard’s Dairyman. She left the agricultural world after marrying Bob, a Coast Guardsman in 1995.

Amy Armstrong

Lee Jordan: writing on and in Alaska from a historical standpoint as well as The ECHO News column. He has been an Alaskan since 1949 when he was assigned to the Army’s historic Alaska Communication System. As a printer for the Anchorage Daily Times, he set the iconic “WE’RE IN” headline on June 30, 1958. He founded the Chugiak-Eagle River Star in 1971 and served as its editor and publisher until retiring in 2000. He has written four non-fiction books on Alaska and now writes a column on local history in The ECHO News.

Lee Jordan