WILMA’s Leadership Institute: Meet Christina Beam

WILMA’s 2024 Leadership Institute, an annual nine-month program, gives area women the opportunity to learn from leaders in the region, visit a range of local companies, and serve as each others’ personal board of directors.

The program is part of WILMA’s Women to Watch Leadership Initiative, created to help develop more women leaders in our area.

Meet institute member CHRISTINA BEAM.

Christina Beam

Title: Director of Communications

Company: New Hanover County Schools

How long have you been with your current employer? Since 2017

Alma Mater: Vassar College

Prior career experience: I’ve spent my entire career communicating about public education. I started as a daily reporter on the education beat, then served as director of communications for a two-year college and a K-12 school system in Wisconsin. After we moved here in 2017 I worked as a teacher assistant at an elementary school for three years, which gave me invaluable experience and insight into what was happening at the school level. I joined the NHCS Communications Division in 2021.

Current job responsibilities: I oversee internal and external communications for the school district, which has 25,000 students and 3,600 employees. This includes writing and photographing feature stories about the good things happening in our schools; media relations and crisis communications; branding and marketing; speechwriting and executive communications; and social media management and web design.

Hobbies: The hobby I’m most passionate about is documentary photography, and I had my first gallery exhibit downtown Wilmington this spring. I also love to write, travel, and spend time with my three teenage kids.

To learn more about WILMA’s Leadership Institute and Initiative, go to wilmamag.com/women-to-watch.

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