Born in 1961 in Davis, California, Kendra Santos grew up in a rodeo family and began her journalistic career as a teenager with Roper’s Sports News. She roped her way through college with the Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Mustangs rodeo team, receiving a journalism degree and thereafter earing a masters degree in business administration.
Santos commenced her professional career as Features Editor for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s ProRodeo Sports News and ultimately worked her way up to Editor and PRCA Director of Communications. She was instrumental in developing Spin to Win magazine and contributed to the foundation of American Cowboy magazine and Pro Bull Rider magazine. Santos has authored several books including Roughstock: The Mud, the Blood and the Beer and Ring of Fire, served as managing editor of the PRCA’s The Finals: A Complete History of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. She won the WPRA Media Award in 1997 and the PRCA Media Award in 2004.
In 2009 the National High School Rodeo Association established the Kendra Santos Communications Scholarship, and in 2010 both Kendra and her father were inducted in to the California Rodeo Hall of Fame. For her many contributions to rodeo and western culture, Kendra Santos received the Tad Lucas Memorial Award from the Rodeo Historical Society in 2011.
