Kathy Hieatt is the Public Information Officer for the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office, which operates the largest city jail in Virginia. Before joining the Sheriff’s Office in 2015, she worked for seven years as a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, covering public safety, courts and state and local government. She is a native of Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a concentration in business and Spanish. She worked as a communications consultant for Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle’s successful 2017 reelection campaign and serves as the spokeswoman for the Pungo Strawberry Festival and Secretary for the Virginia Beach Crime Solvers organization. Both are nonprofits. She is a member of the National Information Officers Association and the Public Relations Society of America, a certified Zumba instructor, a proud Navy wife, and a volunteer mentor at a local Title I school.
9:30 am–10:30 am PT —
Government agencies can leverage social media to share (sometimes critically) important information with their communities. With the plethora of social media channels and content formats available, finding creative ways to get that content out that will engage and inform can be challenging - but it's also an incredible opportunity to share your agency's work in unique formats.
This diverse panel will discuss: