LaToya Evans is strategic communications executive who has served as a senior crisis communications strategist and spokesperson for some of the world’s most notable brands including Walmart, Bank of America, IBM, Philips, and Compass Group. In 2017, she founded The LEPR (pronounced LEAP-er) Agency – an international, Edelman-affiliated strategic public relations, crisis communications and advertising firm based in Charlotte, NC.

 

Covering a broad spectrum of industries, LaToya has also worked with greats ranging from Detroit rapper Big Sean to the inventor of the IBM personal computer while her firm leads media and marketing initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, politicians, small businesses, nonprofits and celebrities. Notable clients of the LEPR Agency include the family of George Floyd and Attorney Ben Crump; Pastor John Gray; the late Miss USA Cheslie Kryst; presidential candidates Joe Biden, Andrew Yang and Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and corporations including Twitter, Coca Cola, Fifth Third Bank, Beam Suntory and James B. Beam Distilling Co., and Dentsply Sirona. Known across the globe as an expert and counselor in communications, in 2021, Evans was inducted in the PRWeek Women’s Hall of Fame for her achievements in the field alongside Judy Smith, the inspiration for ABC’s Scandal. In 02, Black Enterprise also announced the LEPR Agency became a seven-figure business and was considered one of the largest, independent Black-owned public relations agencies in the U.S. and the largest owned by a Black woman.  

 

Prior to founding the firm, Evans served in key c-suite and leadership roles in public relations and crisis communications at Ally Financial, Cisco Systems, Compass Group, Bank of America, Walmart Corporate, Philips and IBM. Prior to her career in communications, Ms. Evans ran a freelance writing business, working often for Glamour and People magazines.

 

Ms. Evans is also active in the community. She was appointed by the Charlotte City Council to the Community Relations Committee - which is designed to promote equality in North Carolina’s largest city - where she specifically works on the city’s crisis response efforts. Additionally, she sat on a c-suite advisory board for M&F Bank, one of the country’s largest black-owned financial institutions and is a member of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Media and Journalism Foundation and Alumni boards. Previously, LaToya served on the state committee for Miss North Carolina as the Director of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals overseeing fundraising and charity efforts for the state program. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has also previously been honored as a Rising PR Star by PR News (2016); one of Charlotte’s 50 Most Influential Women (2017); Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 (2018) and Charlotte Business Journal’s Top Women in Business (2021). Evans has also been an adjunct communications professor at Fayetteville Technical Community College for the last five years. 

 

She holds a M.A. organizational leadership with a concentration in crisis communications from Marist

College in Poughkeepsie, NY and a B.A. in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a graduate of E.E. Smith High School where the LaToya Evans Academic Excellence Scholarship has been given in her honor annually since 2004.