According to a press release from Franklin County: James Franklin Hicks, III will begin serving Franklin County Government as Public Information Officer/Grants Administrator on January 24. Among his duties he will conduct professional public relations work including maintaining relationships with media entities, preparing press releases, facilitating website updates and supporting the administration of grants.
“I’m excited to join Franklin County and work with the county manager on developing new ways of delivering quality content and information to the citizens of the county,” Hicks said. “I believe Franklin County is in a position to do great things and I am excited to get started.”
Hicks comes to the county from the City of Creedmoor where he served as city clerk and public information officer. Hicks, a native of Greenville, S.C., earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of South Carolina Upstate in 2009 and a Master of Science degree in Media Management from Arkansas State University in 2019.
Prior to working in Creedmoor, Hicks spent a year and a half as a local government reporter for the (Greenwood) Index-Journal, a daily newspaper in Greenwood, S.C., where he garnered a statewide first place award in enterprise reporting from the S.C. Press Association for his coverage of economic development.
Prior to his work as a reporter, Hicks served for nearly a decade as a magistrate judge for Greenville County, S.C. He is an active member of the N.C. Association of Government Information Officers and is the outgoing chair of the Mass Communication division of the Southern States Communication Association. Hicks moved to North Carolina with his wife, Marie — who is a registered nurse at Duke University Hospital — and their two-and a-half-year-old St. Berdoodle, Riversong. For additional information, please contact Kim Denton, Franklin County Manager, at (919) 496-5994