Thomas Beam - North Carolina Journal for Women

Yokima Cureton:
"Commitment To Education Leads To Continuous Improvement For Young Communications Professional"

When Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark, visited the California facility of Novozymes, the Danish biotech company with operations in the U.S., company leaders needed a capable speaker to serve as master of ceremonies. They found her in Yokima Cureton, communications manager for the U.S. division of the company.

“Yokima did a wonderful job during the prime minister’s visit,” said Lidiya Manukyan, a Novozymes employee who attended the reception. “She was professional, calm and on point, and did an excellent job at the event.” Always a good writer, her time behind the podium with a head of state was a long way from her first job as a technical writer.

Cureton takes the podium during the Danish Ambassador's visit to the Davis, CA Novozymes site.

“I always knew I enjoyed the written craft,” Cureton says. “But that was a solitary job, and I didn’t know how much I enjoyed and missed human interaction.” So she shifted her role at the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina from technical writing to a communications position and was able to significantly improve the media coverage of MCNC. That move began a pattern of improvement that has followed her career.

“There’s so much out there to know and do,” she says. “I wanted to do more…gain more insight.”

Cureton’s desire to improve her skill sets at every turn may be traced back to a commitment to learning she got from her family. Her mother is the current president and CEO of the University of Wisconsin at Richland Center. Her grandmother became the principal at the same elementary school where she once worked in the cafeteria; she had seven children before returning to college to get a bachelor’s and then her master’s degrees. Coming from that background, Cureton always knew she would pursue higher education.

She finished her collegiate career with a bachelor of arts in English from the University of South Carolina and a young son, D.J. With the support of her family, she found a fresh start at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she got a master’s in English and her first job.

“When I had D.J., I became so much more focused and driven,” she recalls. “I had to be a role model, and walk the talk.” Her next job brought her to North Carolina as a technical writer before she landed at MCNC.

Yokima and IndyCar Driver Buddy Rice promoting ethanol at BIO Convention in Chicago.

“The need at MCNC evolved into more of a communications role, primarily externally focused,” she said. Her work there to increase the visibility of MCNC and its president was recognized by the Triangle Business Journal when she received the “Top 40 under 40” award in 2002. While at MCNC, Cureton participated in a public relations group in Research Triangle Park with Jamie Nunnelly, then the communications director for the Research Triangle Foundation. The two hit it off immediately and consulted each other regularly on media strategies and other creative ideas.

“Yokima has been a star from the beginning, which was easy to notice because she’s very bright, had good ideas and creativity and has been very effective keeping up with the latest PR trends,” says Nunnelly.

After a reorganization, she ended up in Greenville at East Carolina University, where she improved media coverage of the College of Education. She branched out in new directions there by improving the process for applying for grants (the result being more than $2 million in secured funds), developing training for the communications and leadership staff on sensitive issues and establishing and maintaining professional development programs. Her time at ECU also gave her the opportunity to take on a community-oriented project for the first time. She became involved in an effort to launch the Eastern Carolina Technology and Education Academy, which supports alternative programs to put prospective teachers in North Carolina classrooms.

“I’ve always believed very strongly in the importance of good teachers,” Cureton says. “The academy was important because it helped put enthusiastic and qualified people in classrooms across the state.”

After ECU, Cureton found her way to Novozymes, the biotech company with facilities in Franklinton, N.C., Salem, Va. and Davis, Cal. Novozymes has a full corporate communications staff in Denmark but had no communications resources in the states before Cureton took the job in 2005. Novozymes had been called “the best-kept secret in biotech.” The location in Franklinton—instead of RTP, where most people would assume a biotech company would locate—may have contributed to that low profile. Since her hiring, the company has been in regional and national print as well as television.

Yokima Cureton

“We’ve been in the news a lot since she was hired,” said Tom Chambers, a production manager and long-time employee of Novozymes in Franklinton.

Cureton has also discovered something else interesting about Novozymes. The company is committed to sustainability—the integration of financial, environmental and social performance—which makes it a great fit for someone who is interested in social and environmental issues.

“At Novozymes, industrial or ‘white’ biotechnology is used to produce and develop new enzyme and microbial technologies that meet the demands of industry and consumers while at the same time remaining in balance with nature’s resources and the environment,” she says. “It has great potential to change the chemical industry because our operations employ biological processes that involve cleaner production methods with less waste and less impact on the environment.”

She is also a member of the Franklinton facility’s community relations committee. She has been involved in a number of community projects from home repair for a resident who couldn’t afford to pay to major fundraising projects for Franklin County non-profits.

“Novozymes’ commitment to sustainability makes it a very appealing employer for people who are interested in environmental and social issues,” she added. The company has been one of the top-ranked biotech companies in the world in the Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index for the past six years.

Being a one-person communications operation for a business that operates on both coasts presents a number of challenges. Cureton has developed a team of Novozymes employees and individuals outside the company to help her in specific areas like writing, editing, design, media research, and advertising. That team has allowed her to grow her function and capabilities without adding permanent staff.

“I think I’m good at surrounding myself with great people,” she says. “I become a better person from the people I end up working with.”

The task of raising the profile for Novozymes has been more interesting over the last year or so because of the company’s involvement in biofuels, for which there is a high level of interest. Cureton will continue to leverage that interest to help people understand that Novozymes is involved in other products as well including orange juice, bread, lawn fertilizer, contact lens solution, pesticides and detergents.

When she’s not busy explaining the intricacies of biotech research and development, she’s a hockey mom for D.J. Her son plays on a team that travels around the country to play in tournaments. Cureton attends the games and is a very “vocal” supporter of the team.

“I love to watch his games,” she says. “But sometimes I can hardly talk on Monday after a tournament.”

If she tackles “hockey mom” duties with the same zeal she brings to “communications manager” duties, expect her to get louder and louder as the season goes on.