City names public information officer
By From staff reports
Published in News on July 10, 2018 5:50 AM
LaToya Henry
A Goldsboro native with nearly 20 years of experience in journalism, social media management and public affairs started as the city's public information officer Monday.
LaToya Henry, formerly the public information specialist for the city of Norfolk's Department of Utilities in Virginia, brings 16 years of experience as a communication professional and was the top candidate selected out of a pool of applicants, including several from the Goldsboro area, city officials said.
"I am excited to come back home to Goldsboro to help tell our city's story," she said. "We are growing in so many ways, and I look forward to being a part of the wonderful things happening here."
Henry began her career as a newspaper reporter and spent time working for The Free Press in Kinston before moving on to public relations. She also worked for the city of Durham where she managed social media in the city's public affairs department and coordinated public relations for the water management department.
During her time in Norfolk, she coordinated public relations planning and executed a wide variety of information and outreach initiatives, including public notifications for the department's large multimillion-dollar capital improvement program.
"I feel very fortunate to have someone with LaToya's communication skills and background of working with a large public utility and a North Carolina city as our public information officer," said City Manager Scott Stevens. "She has a good understanding of municipal operations, and I believe she will help the city better engage with the community."
The search for a public information officer spanned multiple states, Stevens said, but ended up attracting several people with ties to Goldsboro and Wayne County.
"Four out of the five either were from Goldsboro or had spent a significant amount of time here, which I thought was interesting," Stevens said. "Several of them had addresses that were not in Goldsboro, and I didn't know because we don't require high school information on the applications. But once we got talking to them, we had a Goldsboro High person, a Southern Wayne person and so on."
Henry will earn an annual salary of $48,658, Stevens said.