Kat Romero, nee Walters, grew up in the Glade community outside of Laurel. She graduated from Northeast Jones High School, before going to Jones College and the University of Southern Mississippi where she double majored in English and Mass Communication with an emphasis in film production. She has been serving as the city’s public relations specialist since September 2021.
Romero began her career with Wyatt Emmerich newspapers working as a reporter and photographer for the company’s papers in both Laurel and Magee. During her tenure as a reporter, she won several AP awards for writing and photography. She is also a 2014 graduate of Leadership Jones County.
From 2017 to 2021, she worked for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health-- first in the public relations department of Ellisville State School as a videographer/producer of staff training videos and later as the Public Relations Director at South Mississippi State Hospital in Purvis.
She is a member of the Pine Belt Chapter of the Public Relations Association of Mississippi (PRAM). In December 2021, she obtained Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Her work in public relations has garnered awards at the chapter, state, and regional levels. In 2022, she was named one of Mississippi Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40.
She also works closely with the Laurel Main Street Association as the city’s representative with their Board of Directors as well as with their promotions committee.
She enjoys working to promote the many new projects that the city has undertaken as well as developing new programs, campaigns, and social media outreach initiatives to engage members of the community in building up the city and improving the lives of its residents.
In her free time, she enjoys reading, re-watching episodes of Parks and Rec, and shopping at the farm supply store.
She lives in Calhoun with her husband, Jason, their two daughters, and a multitude of cats, chickens, and assorted critters.
Public Relations is the management of relationships between an organization and its key publics. Key publics for the City of Laurel include residents, employees, members of the local media, elected officials, business and property owners, visitors, local civic organizations, external governmental organizations such as the Laurel School District, and the city’s contract partners such as WastePro and Veolia.
The City of Laurel works to engage these publics by maintaining a robust online presence that includes a website and several social media accounts, developing and maintaining strong relationships with local media outlets and several civic organizations, and responding to the concerns and inquiries of residents, visitors, and other members of the public.
