Kellie Benz is the City of Belmont’s first Community Engagement Specialist, and coincidentally, her session date of May 2 is the one year anniversary of starting at Belmont. Kellie joined Belmont from the City of San Mateo where she originated its Communications & Public Relations Analyst role for the Public Works Department. She arrived in the Bay Area in 2017 to be the Editor for community newspapers in the south bay for the Bay Area News Group aka San Jose Mercury News. Previously she was the editor of Humboldt County’s Redwood Times newspaper and before that was the lifestyle editor for the Aberdeen Daily World Newspaper in Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Kellie was born in Redding, California, but raised in British Columbia, Canada where she interspersed a career as a screenwriter (Feature film: “Finn on the Fly,” and numerous TV series and short films) with communications work, namely for seven years with the Vancouver Aquarium where she worked on the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and its sustainable seafood program, OceanWise. Kellie returned to the states in 2014 to be the Communications Manager at PAWS, an animal shelter/wildlife hospital near Seattle, before moving back to California. Kellie has a professional certificate in Leading Smart Communities from Pepperdine’s Davenport Institute, a certificate in communications from California Association of Public Information Officials (CAPIO), is trained in FEMA’s National Incident Management programs, specializing in Joint Information Center/Systems, and is a CERT member for San Mateo County. She lives in Redwood City with her 12-year-old cat, Henry, and her 20-month-old dog, Maybe. She is a Wordle nerd and a hobbyist illustrator of animals and landscapes.