As a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, Leroy Towns continues a career in government and journalism.

From 1980 to 2001, he served as chief of staff for Rep. and later Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, managing all aspects of the Washington and state offices. He directed eight successful U.S. House of Representatives campaigns and two U.S. Senate campaigns. He was the senator's principal advisor and speechwriter and served as his staff for the Senate Committee on Ethics. Before joining Roberts' staff, Towns was press secretary to Kansas Gov. Robert F. Bennett.

Towns served as political reporter and Sunday editor of the Topeka (Kansas) Capitol-Journal and as state correspondent for the Harris Newspapers. He won awards from the Kansas Press Association for column writing and from the American Political Science Association for political reporting. As a student journalist at Kansas State University, he won numerous awards for news writing from the Hearst Foundation. He also served as founding editor of Kansas Business News, a statewide magazine covering business and economic development.

In addition to his duties with the Program on Public Life, Towns will teach political communications courses in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

He was born in Colby, Kansas, and received a B.A. in journalism from Kansas State University. He has a M.A. from George Washington University where he received the Paley Award as valedictorian.

Office phone: 919.843.5388
Office location: 355 Carroll Hall
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