Less than a week after hiring John Sheehy as president and publisher, and Claude Girard as executive director of travel, AFAR — a travel mag debuting in September — recruited Susan West to be its editor-in-chief.

West co-founded Health and most recently served as executive editor of Smithsonian.

Full release after the jump.

BREAKTHROUGH TRAVEL MAGAZINE AFAR NAMES INDUSTRY VETERAN SUSAN WEST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
-- Award-Winning Co-Founder of Health Magazine and Former Executive Editor of Smithsonian to Helm Fall 2009 Launch--

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 11, 2009) — Publishing veteran Susan West has been named editor-in-chief of AFAR, a new experiential travel magazine launching in September of 2009 from Afar Media. The announcement was made today by Afar Media CEO and founder Greg Sullivan.

"Susan West is an editor's editor," said Sullivan. "She brings to AFAR an intuitive understanding of our audience matched with the savvy skills of a master magazine maker. With a personal passion for international travel and adventure off-the-beaten path, Susan offers a distinctive editorial voice. AFAR readers are in for a real treat."

West is based in the company's San Francisco headquarters and reports to Sullivan. As editor-in-chief, she draws on three decades of experience in the publishing industry, both in print and online, to communicate the cornerstone of the AFAR style of travel—authentic experiences through personal connection.

Best known for co-founding Health magazine, which won four National Magazine Awards during her tenure, West most recently served as Executive Editor of Smithsonian. She has also been a developmental editor for Time Inc. Ventures, creating editorial plans for new magazine ideas. As a principal of West Gold Editorial Consulting, she formulated the editorial blueprint for Dwell magazine. Her other print clients have included Cooking Light, Reader's Digest, Consumer Reports, FamilyFun, Southern Accents and PC World; online clients include Time Inc/AOL, Discovery Communications, WebMD, and the New England Journal of Medicine. West is also on the faculty of the Stanford Professional Publishing Course and an academic director for Stanford’s Publishing on the Web Workshop.

West began her publishing career at Science News magazine, as earth sciences editor, before moving on to Science 80, where she was a staff writer. Her award-winning feature writing has appeared in Smithsonian, Reader’s Digest, and Forbes Life, among other magazines.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, she spent four years of her childhood in Bangkok, Thailand, and traveled around the world twice by the age of 10. As an adult, she roamed Asia and the South Pacific for six months and lived in France for two years. She has traveled to more than 45 countries, as well as Antarctica, where she spent a week as part of the National Science Foundation’s visiting journalist program.

West received her master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia. She currently resides in San Francisco.