Belle Starr Sandwith

Belle Starr Sandwith is a California-based professional and Delegate Member of the Sierra County Democratic Central Committee whose career spans athletics, healthcare innovation, media production, culinary arts, and public service. Raised on Donner Summit outside of Truckee, California, she developed a lifelong foundation in competitive sports and community resilience. She earned a basketball scholarship to the University of Nevada, Reno, where she completed a Bachelor of Science in Health Education with a minor in Sports Medicine. Her academic and athletic background laid the groundwork for a career centered on physical performance, health education, and hands-on problem solving across multiple industries.
Sandwith built a dynamic and unconventional professional path that includes television production, live sports broadcasting, and culinary entrepreneurship. She worked for ESPN as a ScoreBug Operator and Production Assistant, contributing to live national sports broadcasts and traveling across the country for college athletics coverage. Her production career also included work with NASCAR Productions and Discovery Communications. Prior to television, she was a self-taught chef trained in her mother’s commercial kitchen for the State of California, later owning Bellstar’s Great Food Cheap Beer in Soda Springs, California from 2000 to 2003. She then became a traveling chef on the Champ Car Circuit (now IndyCar), cooking for racing teams, drivers, and sponsors throughout North America, Canada, and Mexico.
A significant part of Sandwith’s career is her work as an inventor. Drawing from her personal experience with multiple shoulder surgeries and a shoulder replacement, she developed and patented a specialized shoulder sling designed to improve comfort and recovery. Using her background in public health education and sports medicine, she spent six years navigating a complex patent process, ultimately securing approval in November 2020. A key design detail she initially considered minor became the critical feature that allowed the patent to be granted. She later sold the intellectual property to a company called The Sleep Sling, where she now serves as IP holder and advisor as the company moves through startup and launch development. In addition to her invention work, she remains active in politics, having run as the endorsed Democratic candidate for California Assembly District 1 in 2022 and currently serving as a voting delegate to the California Democratic Party, focused on advancing Democratic representation across California.

• University of Nevada - BS, BS/minor, Health Education/Athletic Training

• Endorsed Democrat for California Assembly District 1 in 2022
• Person of the Year

• Sierra County Democratic Central Committee
• California Democratic Party
• Nevada Inventors Assoc.