Meet Lehigh County Authority’s 1st director of communications, strategic partnerships

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Throughout his career, Taylor Stakes has been a storyteller — learning about people and places in order to share those stories with others.

Now he’s bringing his talents to Lehigh County Authority.

“Communications and storytelling are the things that connect us,” Stakes said. “And when we can tell stories about people and what they do, I think it can break down a lot of barriers, especially in things that are confusing, like sewer and water.

“Everybody has a story, and so, throughout my career, that's what I've been — just a storyteller.”

Stakes, of Whitehall Township, late last month was hired as LCA’s first director of communications and strategic partnerships.

The new role, aimed at strengthening transparency, community engagement and collaboration with regional partners, will focus on communication and outreach efforts, including LCA’s lead service line replacement program, as well as other projects.

“LCA received quite a few very qualified candidates for this brand-new position,” Liesel M. Gross, chief executive officer of the nonprofit water and wastewater utility, said.

“Taylor presented LCA with a broad communications skill set and a true community-focused perspective that will be critical for this role.

"LCA’s work is sometimes very technical, and Taylor has a wealth of experience in translating technical information into easy-to-understand public messages.

“LCA cares deeply about the community we serve, and we believe Taylor will enhance LCA’s efforts to convey that care and concern to our customers.”

Provided

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Christa Neu

A Texan in the Valley

Stakes was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and got his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Describing himself as a “lifelong learner,” he went back to school at University of Incarnate Word, also in San Antonio, for a master's degree in communication arts.

“I was working for a city councilwoman in San Antonio as a council aide, director of constituency, and was really just doing a lot of comms,” he said.

“One of my good advisors recommended that I go get a master's degree. So, at night I would, after the meeting, go to class at UAW.”

After getting a master’s degree, Stakes went on to work at Trinity University in San Antonio as the college’s media production manager.

There, he started — and, over eight years, grew — the digital communications team.

It’s then that Stakes and wife, also a San Antonio native, started talking about leaving Texas.

“We wanted to escape the heat, really, and so we were looking at moving to the northeast,” he said. “My wife had some family that lived in Brooklyn, and my uncle lives in Pittsburgh.

"And the opportunity to join Lehigh University as their marketing and brand manager came up and they hired me.

“We moved up here Jan. 1, 2022. We jumped right into the cold weather. People thought we were a little crazy, but we loved it. We’ve loved having four seasons.”

After spending a little more than two years at the university, Stakes became media production manager for TimelyCare, a Texas-based mental health service.

However, when he saw the job opening at the LCA, he said, “Man, this is like my dream job.”

“The opportunity to get back involved in municipal government was something that I have always had in the back of my mind,” Stakes said.

“I would be just so excited to have it, and put my application in.”

Increase brand visibility, communication

Gross said there were several drivers for LCA to add the new position, envisioned last year as officials saw a growing need to connect more deeply with the community.

“We are kicking off new programs that will impact individual customers where they live, such as the requirement to identify and replace all lead pipes and the work needed to remove leakage from our sewer systems,” she said.

“These are critical programs that require LCA to enter customers’ homes and work directly with neighborhoods to manage other impacts such as road closures.

"In addition, these programs will be expensive, and customers need more information about why their water and sewer rates are increasing over time.”

And, earlier this year, the LCA’s communications assessment and planning effort found that there was a need for it.

“This assessment revealed that many people don’t know who Lehigh County Authority is or how much it actually costs to provide safe and reliable water and sewer services to their homes,” Gross said.

“It will be difficult to generate the level of customer participation in our programs if they don’t know who we are.”

Asked about his goals for the position, Stakes said he “just wants to listen and learn” for the first 90 days.

“Coming into this, this is a new role for LCA," Stake said. "And so, for me, just listening to our customers, listening to our municipalities, setting up meetings with them, finding out their pain points [and] how we can improve communications.

“Those are the types of things in the short term that are on my main priority list.”

In the long term, he said, he wants to “make the LCA brand recognizable as a leader in the water and sewer industry."

“When you see one of our trucks rolling down the street, I want our customers to get excited that you know our guys are out there fixing problems for our community and they know our name, they know our brand,” he said.

“So long term, I want to increase our brand visibility, increase our communication, so customers know exactly who we are, where to go when they have issues.

"But even when they don't have issues, they can learn about water consumption and saving water.”

Adjunct, commissioner, father, skier

Outside of his work at the LCA, Stakes also is an adjunct at Lehigh Carbon Community College, teaching two courses: video editing and digital field production.

“They had a need to fill an adjunct position, and so I originally was only going to teach one course," he said. "And they said, ‘Hey, we've got this other course. Do you mind teaching it?'

“I've been very lucky to have employers that are gracious to allow me to work my schedule around teaching those courses.”

He also is an incoming Whitehall Township commissioner.

Although Stakes was among three candidates interviewed this spring to fill the vacant seat created when Robert Piligian resigned on Feb. 12, he wasn’t chosen.

“I'm relatively new to the area, and they chose somebody who had previously served on the board to commit to serving the end of the term,” he said.

“And so I decided if I was going to put my name in for an application, I wasn't just going to not run.”

The Democrat won the seat during the recent election with 27% of the vote.

“We knocked on a lot of doors over the year, and I think we've had some really great wind at our backs, as far as some of the ideas that we can bring to Whitehall,” he said.

“I think Whitehall is facing a lot of challenges, so it'll be interesting. I'm excited, though.”

In addition to his career and political pursuits, Stakes is a father to three children — two boys and an adopted daughter Stakes described as “the queen of the house.”

“We have a 2-year-old who's going to be 3 the day after Thanksgiving," he said. "We have a 4-year-old, and then we have a 10-year-old.

“So we are always busy.”

In addition to frequenting area parks and playgrounds with his family, Stakes spends his extra time skiing nearby slopes, and taking advantage of the Valley’s proximity to major cities.

“I love to ski — we live 25 minutes from Blue Mountain, so that was one of the reasons we moved up here, is being close to ski slopes,” he said.

“And then also, just the proximity to Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, D.C. — we love going on day trips to New York City, going to museums there.”

Residents can reach Stakes at info@lehighcountyauthority.org with questions or comments. For lead-specific questions, residents should email leadfree@lehighcountyauthority.org.

For more information about the LCA and ongoing or upcoming projects, go to its website.