Ivan Potter
Tuesday, January 3, 2017 3:00 pm

Amanda Stamper, New Director of Communications, Governor's Office will now take full charge of Governor Bevin's message moving out into the media and public. She has an impressive record with Lexmark International and American Advertising Federation. Stamper is a graduate of University of Kentucky.

She will have the opportunity to continue to define how the Governor's Press Office will operate and function in the next three years of what is left of Bevin's elected term.

Way back in 1992, when the New Governor's Transition Manual was written by the Legislative Research Commission staff, the Office of Press Secretary was always considered to be one of the top tools for a governor to communicate with the public.

Public policy, new appointments to office, budget issues, travel by governor were first addressed to the public and Kentucky media through the Governor's Press Office. Under Governor Bevin, the concept of having only one key communications spokesman for the administration has been changed. Added to the office structure is the concept of having a Communications Director to oversee the traditional press office.

Unlike other compartments of the Governor's Office, the Press Secretary and staff usually average from 5 to 8 staff. Besides keeping up with the actions and movements of a Governor, the Press Secretary is expected to keep up with some 14 major media outlets and their staff. This is the small network that informs Kentuckians about their state government on a daily basis.

Amanda Stamper will move up from being the current Press Secretary to that of now being Director of Communications for the Governor and his administration. For several months she had replaced Jessica Ditto, who has resigned to take a job as deputy communications director for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign.

And Woody Maglinger has been named to Stamper's old job of press secretary for the office. Maglinger, an Owensboro native who worked for 15 years with the Green River Area Development district, moves over from the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet where for the last eight months he has been executive director of communications.