Mary Benton

Mayors are the elected officials who are closest to the people. The mayor I work alongside is dedicated to ensuring that every resident knows they are an essential stakeholder in our city. I make sure his voice resonates through external and internal messaging and media relations. In my role, I work with communicators in more than twenty government departments across the city of Houston to ensure the public understands the mayor's priorities and accomplishments. My team is responsible for handling social media, ceremonial documents, media relations, and open records requests. 

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As a former journalist, I kept people informed about their government and told positive stories about the community. Now, my role is to coordinate with elected officials, community leaders and other communicators to keep the public informed. I am passionate about communicating directly to people to help them understand our city's programs and services. People want to know what is being done to address issues like infrastructure, public safety, affordable housing, parks, homelessness, resilience and sustainability. Every day presents new challenges, new opportunities and new successes. This job is rewarding every day, but during times of emergencies, disasters, and major events it truly feels as though you’ve accomplished something significant.

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