Shonda Knight leads strategic communications, community engagement and reentry transformation efforts for the Leon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO).
The Community Affairs division disseminates critical public safety information to residents and media partners, while also coordinating and promoting LCSO’s outreach initiatives to build and sustain meaningful community partnerships. Under Knight’s leadership, LCSO earned the Florida Public Relations Association’s top statewide Community Relations Awards in 2018 and 2019, along with numerous additional professional honors.
In November 2025, Knight’s role expanded to include oversight of reentry efforts at the Leon County Detention Facility. Reentry focuses on supporting individuals returning from incarceration as they transition successfully back into society with the tools, resources, and opportunities needed to thrive. Under her leadership, the agency has reimagined its reentry approach, including the opening of the facility’s first on-site chapel—an inclusive space for multi-faith worship and reflection.
Prior to joining LCSO in March 2017, Knight served as Executive Producer and Anchor at WCTV-TV in Tallahassee. A veteran journalist with more than 17 years of newsroom experience, she oversaw daily newsroom operations and anchored both The Good Morning Show, the station’s most-watched newscast, and Eyewitness News at Noon. She was the first African American to anchor morning news at WCTV.
Knight also served as an adjunct professor at Florida State University for eight years, mentoring students who now work as anchors, sportscasters, reporters, and producers in markets across the country.
She is a 2011 Distinguished Alumni Honoree of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and a graduate of the Certified Public Management Program at Florida State University. Knight is a multi-time Florida Associated Press award-winning journalist and previously served as Vice President of the Florida Associated Press Broadcasters.
Her community involvement includes service on the Board of Directors for First Commerce Credit Union and as Board Chair of the North Florida Fair Association. She is a graduate of Leadership Tallahassee, Class 36 (2018) and a member of the Florida Public Relations Association, the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
In 2024, Knight published her first children’s book, My OmniLocks, inspired by a conversation about hair with her daughter. She released her second children’s book, My OmniLife, in December 2025.
She is the proud mother of two children, Zya and Zekiah.