Gov. Asa Hutchinson has tapped Shealyn Sowers, an executive producer at the KARK and Fox 16 television stations in Little Rock, as his new director of communications, the governor's office announced Monday.
She will fill the vacancy created by the departure of the Republican governor's previous communications director, Katie Beck, whose last day in the office was May 14. Sowers will start work June 16.
Sowers will be paid $90,000 a year as the governor's communications director, the same salary as her predecessor, said Alison Williams, Hutchinson's chief of staff.
Sowers started as an associate producer at KARK in 2012 and worked her way up to produce every newscast, the governor's office said in a news release. In 2019, she was promoted to executive producer and producer of KARK's political show, "Capitol View."
Sowers grew up in Clinton, graduating from Clinton High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Ouachita Baptist University and a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Central Arkansas.
"To put it simply, Shealyn knows the Natural State," Hutchinson said in a news release. "She has an intimate understanding of Arkansas and Arkansans that has prepared her well to serve the state as my director of communications."
Hutchinson has served as governor since 2015, and his second four-year term will end in January 2023.