LaToya Evans is a 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. Evans owns the LEPR Agency - the national public relations firm where she leads media and marketing initiatives for high-profile businesses, politicians and professional athletes. 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 and currently serves as the public relations leader for the family of George Floyd and the respective George Floyd Memorial Foundation. She has been a communications leader on U.S. presidential campaigns for both Andrew Yang and Mike Bloomberg and consulting on the Biden-Harris 2020 presidential campaign for national African American media. She’s also previously represented mega Pastor John Gray and The Relentless Church and the international skincare line Urban Skin RX.

 

LaToya most recently served as Director, Head of Corporate PR at Ally Financial and also Director and Head of Strategic Communications for North and South America, Cisco Systems. She also served as Vice President and Head of Communications for the U.S. corporate dining division of Compass Group, the world’s largest foodservice company, reporting to the CEO and overseeing all aspects of communications.  Prior to Compass Group, LaToya served as Vice President, Corporate Communications at Bank of America Corporate where she oversaw media relations for the east coast and northeast including crisis communications for the bank. Notably, in 2017, LaToya also served as chief communications officer to former Charlotte, NC Mayor Pro Tem Vi Lyles, serving as a spokesperson and chief writer for her mayoral campaign which resulted in Lyles being elected the city’s first African American woman mayor. She’s since maintained her role as an advisor to the mayor, leading Lyles’ re-election efforts in 2019 and consulting on numerous issues facing the state of North Carolina.

 

Prior to her role at Bank of America, she was Senior Manager of U.S. Media Relations at Walmart Corporate, the world’s largest company, where she headed strategic media relations for six retail divisions and served as a national media spokesperson. Prior to her role at Walmart, she previously lived in New York and oversaw media and various entertainment partnerships across the U.S. for Philips Electronics and managed communications for IBM’s global technology services division, writing for the inventor of the IBM personal computer and LASIK eye surgery. Prior to a corporate career, Ms. Evans ran a freelance writing business while pursuing her undergraduate education, working often for Glamour magazine. 

 

Ms. Evans is active in the community. She is a member of the Journalism Alumni and Friends Association Board at UNC’s School of Media and Journalism. LaToya also sat on the state committee for Miss North Carolina as the Director of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. An active member of the Junior League of Charlotte, LaToya served in a leadership role as the chair of public relations and marketing for the fund development council. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. LaToya has also previously been honored as PR News’ Rising PR Stars in 2016, one of Charlotte’s 50 Most Influential Women in 2017 and the Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 in the class of 2018. She is also an adjunct communications professor at Fayetteville Technical Community College for the last five years.  In 2021, she was honored as a PRWeek Hall of Femme inductee and as a Woman of Achievement in Business by the Charlotte Business Journal.

 

LaToya holds a Master of Arts in organizational leadership with a concentration in crisis communications from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY and a Bachelor of Arts 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.