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She has more than 25 years of broadcasting and voicing experience, and she’s a published author, volunteer non-profit director, reading tutor, wife and mom. But Spectrio voice talent Sarah Woodard says, it all just evolved. “Starting out, I majored in sociology. I really didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up,” she laughs. But the decision was made for her as soon as she began talking in front of a microphone. The audience resonated with her voice. A transplanted Easterner, born in Massachusetts, Sarah’s family moved to the Oklahoma when she was very young. Raised in rural setting near Tulsa, Sarah considers herself “almost an Okie,” but without the accent.

After high school graduation in 1988, Sarah headed off to Northeastern Oklahoma A and M Junior College in Miami, Oklahoma, where she began working on the side at KGLC/KSSM Radio. When the station’s general manager made a career move to KKOW in Kansas, he offered her a job there, so Sarah transferred to Pittsburg State University, where she earned her degree in sociology, minoring in communications and psychology, while continuing to work in radio.

Assuming her broadcast career would end at graduation, Sarah was pleased when her station offered a full-time gig, combining sales, marketing, and afternoon drive announcing.  “Since I was a sales person, I didn’t always like the way the other DJ’s read copy for my clients. So I decided to voice commercials for them myself.”The voicing took on a life of its own. Eventually moving back to Tulsa, where she continued her radio career at KVOO/KICK 99 and MIX 96, Sarah combined sales and DJ work, and the voice over gigs continued.

After marrying her husband Jeff, they eventually adopted two daughters from a Chinese orphanage. When her first daughter, Adelynn, arrived in 2001, Sarah left full-time work in radio and intended to quit voicing, but the requests kept coming, so Jeff build her an in-home studio and www.voicebysarah.com began. About a year later, Sarah started voicing for Impressions on Hold, which eventually became part of Spectrio.  

Today, Sarah is still talking, and the flexibility of voice work allows her time to raise her two musically talented daughters, fifteen year old Adelynn, who plays the banjo, and 11 year old Mataya, an accomplished pianist, saxophonist, and cellist. After Adelynn’s adoption, Woodard wanted to give back to her daughter’s orphanage, so she wrote the book, “Daughter From Afar,” a valuable resource for adopting families, then donated the proceeds to help Chinese orphanages. 

 

In 2003, she officially founded Packages of Hope, www.packagesofhope.org, a Tulsa-based non-profit organization that now regularly gifts Chinese orphanages with playgrounds, surgeries, wheelchairs and other needed items. Sarah continues volunteering some of her time administrating Packages of Hope.

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She and her dog Maggie also visit local schools, where she volunteers as a reading tutor for kids who need extra assistance. “Kids who have anxiety issues with reading out loud, are less inhibited when they read to a dog,” she explains. Sarah says Maggie is a good listener. And when things quiet down at the Woodard home in the evening, Sarah voice tracks radio and TV station imaging and commercials, image liners, messages on hold, IVR’s, and tutorials.

She has a warm, caring, friendly voice, and a professional quality sound, which is why Sarah Woodard is Spectrio’s Voice of Choice this month.