Rebekah in the Keys Biography
Rebekah moved back to Islamorada, Florida Keys in 2014 after living in Jacksonville for seven years. Previously, she lived in Islamorada from 1999-2007 where she was a journalist. She is currently a local English and journalism high school teacher.
She was raised in Hamilton, Ohio, and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1999. She majored in English (with a concentration in Journalism) and minored in Geology.
After graduating college, she moved to the Upper Keys where she worked as a reporter, then editor, then publisher/owner of her own newspaper. During her time as a journalist, Rebekah won 13 statewide awards from the Florida Press Association and Community Papers of Florida, including first place awards for feature writing, humorous columns and editorial pages as well as awards for investigative reporting, photography and outdoor writing. In 2002, she was hired as the editor of a start-up newspaper in Key Largo, and in 2003 she acquired the newspaper as its publisher/owner and CEO of its parent company, Neptune Newspapers.
In 2004, Rebekah was hired as the editorial director for an investor relations firm in Key Largo serving small-cap and mid-cap Wall Street companies.
When she moved to Jacksonville from the Keys in 2007, she obtained her teaching certificate and taught at Mandarin High School until she moved back to the Keys in 2014.
In her time off, Rebekah loves to travel and explore different countries and cultures. She has traveled to Fiji, Brazil, Belize, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Peru, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and she loves to visit Mexico, the Bahamas and the islands of the Caribbean any chance she gets!
Rebekah loves animals and has dwarf bunnies and chickens. She plays several instruments including the piano and bass guitar. She has a recording studio in her home and writes/records music in her spare time and summers. She also likes writing, backcountry fishing, kayaking/paddle boarding, yoga, and exercising. She serves on Islamorada’s Achievable Housing Committee and is active in local government.
Rebekah is also actively involved with Wild Women on the Water, www.wildwomenonthewater.weebly.com, a group of about 90 Upper Keys women who love boating.
