Elizabeth Shepherd set to leave Beachcomber staff

Published 1:06 pm Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Longtime Beachcomber reporter and former editor Elizabeth Shepherd will soon step down from her position to pursue other professional and personal projects.

Her last day as a staff member will be February 24.

Shepherd, an almost 30-year resident of Vashon, has worked for the local newspaper for more than half of that time. Hired as the part-time arts editor of the paper in 2008, she stayed in that role until 2013 before leaving to concentrate on her other job as the director of Northwest Film Forum’s youth programs. She returned to the paper in 2018 to fill the arts editor role again, while still working for Northwest Film Forum.

When COVID-era layoffs hit The Beachcomber’s newsroom in March of 2020, Shepherd decided to fully devote herself to her work as a journalist and was named as The Beachcomber’s editor in 2021. She served in that role until October of 2023, returning to her position as a part-time reporter after the hire of former editor Alex Bruell.

Over the years, she picked up 28 awards in the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest, including multiple first-place prizes for investigative journalism, personality profiles, comprehensive coverage of a single issue, editorials and arts coverage. She won the contest’s prize for News Writer of the Year in 2024 for multiple stories written during a period when she was the sole staffer in the Beachcomber’s newsroom, and swept the contest’s category for arts reviews in 2025.

She also received a first place trophy for arts coverage in the Seattle Society for Professional Journalism’s 2024 journalism contest.

Reflecting on her long tenure, Shepherd expressed gratitude to her former and current colleagues at the newspaper and she looked forward to making future contributions as a freelancer. This role will begin in March, when she will coordinate The Beachcomber’s annual “Island Child” special section detailing summer activities for island youth. She also plans to write several arts stories for the paper in the coming months.

“With so much ink running through my veins, I don’t think I’ll ever really ‘leave’ The Beachcomber,” said Shepherd. “It’s been the honor of a lifetime for me to tell the stories of our beloved community and be part of this newspaper’s long history.”

Beachcomber publisher Daralyn Anderson, who has worked side by side with Shepherd throughout her tenure at the newspaper, offered high praise for her work.

“Liz has truly left her mark on The Beachcomber and served the island tirelessly during her years here,” Anderson said. “We wish her nothing but the best and can’t wait to see what she does next.”

A new hire will be announced soon to fill Shepherd’s part-time position.

“Liz is an institution,” said Aspen Anderson, the paper’s editor since December. “Her weekly byline, deep island knowledge and steady judgment are woven into this place, and they’ll be deeply missed at The Beachcomber. And her shoes — her extremely artful shoes — may be impossible to fill. But we’ll keep leaning on her wisdom, even from afar.”

— After Feb. 24, reach Elizabeth Shepherd at justasklizshepherd@gmail.com. To reach Beachcomber editor Aspen Anderson, email editor@vashonbeachcomber.com.