Kristi Hayes, Public Information Coordinator for Ponca City Public Schools, has been named the new Ponca City Board of Education Clerk and Executive Assistant to the Superintendent beginning July 1, 2022. In addition, she will continue to serve the district as Public Information Coordinator.

Kristi spent 25 years in journalism as the Education Editor and later Managing Editor of The Ponca City News before serving as an Editor at KOTV-News on 6 in Tulsa. She was hired by Ponca City Public Schools last May and served as Public Information Coordinator for the school district during the 2021-2022 school year.

She is a graduate of Guymon High School and majored in English at Oklahoma P a n h a n d l e State University. She has earned various awards throughout the years, including a Marshall Gregory Award from the Oklahoma Education Association for five consecutive years as the Education Reporter of the Year and served on various committees with the Oklahoma Press Association during her tenure at the newspaper. She was inducted into the Quarter Century Club for Oklahoma journalists last year.