Rhonda Kay Smith

Rhonda Kay Smith, a public relations specialist, has worked with city, state and federal government agencies; and nonprofit and community organizations during the course of her 20–year career in public relations and media relations. Beginning her career as an award–winning news reporter and writer, her duties and responsibilities have included providing communications support services in the areas of issues management and crisis communications, serving as a media spokesperson, and working closely with the mass media to organize press events on behalf of various agencies and organizations.

 

A native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Smith attended Vicksburg public schools and is a graduate of Vicksburg High School. She studied Distribution and Marketing Technology at Hinds Community College (Raymond, Miss.), before transferring to Jackson State University where she earned her degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in Public Relations.  Attending the university on a full academic scholarship, she graduated Magna cum Laude and with other distinctions.

 

She is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed, award–winning Mississippi Mass Choir and has served on the choir’s General Board and chaired the Publications and Archives Committee.  She also has worked behind the scenes to help stage various special events such as the Mississippi Gospel Music Awards, the Mississippi Gospel Music Gathering, the Farish Street Festival, and the Salute to Women in Gospel and the Installation Services of the Mississippi Gospel Announcers’ Guild. She continues to use her formal education and professional experience to support gospel music ministries and community organizations.

 

After relocating to the Atlanta area in 2001, Smith became a member of the New Beginning Full Gospel Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia where the pastor is Bishop James H. Morton. She accepted her call into the ministry in the spring of 2004. In addition to serving on the ministerial staff at New Beginning, she is also a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) where she has served as the Public Relations Chair and represents the chapter as a member of the GMWA National Evangelistic Board; while continuing to maintain her affiliation with the Mississippi Mass Choir.