The Suffolk News-Herald’s newest marketing consultant has deep roots in Suffolk and a close connection with many of the clients she will be serving.

Susan Wilkins, a graduate of John F. Kennedy High School, has taken over the West Suffolk territory, which includes businesses on the western side of North Main Street out to Windsor. That territory includes many of the people Wilkins came to know in her former career as a real estate agent — including her former employer, Cross Realty.

“I love the opportunity of working with businesses in Suffolk and look forward to servicing them,” Wilkins said Thursday.

Wilkins had left the real estate business to “refocus on my kids and my cheer gym,” she said. She is the owner of the Cheer Extreme Allstars franchise in Chesapeake.

The opportunity with the Suffolk News-Herald, though, “felt like a natural fit for me. I’m a very outgoing person, and I love to talk to people.”

Some folks in Suffolk will remember Wilkins from her time working for her father, who owned and operated Floyd E. Wilkins General Contracting in Suffolk for more than 40 years. That company built custom homes and metal buildings in the area.

When her father died in 2011, Susan Wilkins then pursued her real estate license, something she said he had always encouraged her to do.

Wilkins is the mother of two children, son Barrett, 14, and daughter Reagan, 10.

Email her at susan.wilkins@suffolknewsherald.com or call her at 934-9618.