It doesn’t have the flash of say a firefighter, police, doctor, lawyer or actor.

The profession is a choice for grown-ups, an acquired disposition with maturity.

Suzanne Yeatts, Knightdale’s clerk and human resource director, says it’s often joked that children don’t say they want to be a town clerk when they grow up when the off-hand comment comes up in conversation at N.C. School of Government meetings in Chapel Hill.

Neither did Yeatts, but that doesn’t mean she’s not dedicated.

“All my life I’ve lived in this area,” she said. “I try to be a public servant.”

So much so, she’s been selected for the Mayor’s Award. It’s a program Mayor Russell Killen started last year to recognize outstanding public servants each quarter.

“I like to feel like I’m helping people,” she said. “If it’s an employee issue or helping a person on the phone, the variety interests me, and I like to stay busy. Busy’s good.”

Yeatts juggles responsibilities of attending all town council meetings and maintaining accurate records of proceedings with administering the town’s personnel policy, fielding questions on insurance and benefits, and managing the recruitment and selection process for town positions.

She also maintains town records, responds to citizen requests, publishes the town code, serves as Notary Public, and implements the employee incentive program.

Right now, she’s setting up the first assessment center the town has ever had, to make so a selection can made for chief of police. An assessment center uses town staff, residents, law enforcement professionals, and government employees from other towns in a process that includes interviews and conducting staff meetings.

She’s also setting up the review process that will be held in early January in which each employee is evaluated for a raise.

“As Human Resource Director I believe I look out for the employees’ interests, but I also need to look out for the town’s,” she said. “I want everyone to be treated fairly.”

Yeatts also said she likes working both with the public and with the elected officials. She enjoys town meetings because she learns about town business and what is happening in the town.

Yeatts, a second generation Knightdale resident, graduated from East Wake High School, Wake Tech, and was a Summa Cum Laude graduate of N.C. Wesleyan College.

Before joining the town of Knightdale as finance department in 1997, she was a staff accountant at Merritt and Petway of Zebulon. She worked into the position of assistant finance director and then applied for her current position in 2006.

“I like working with people,” she said. “That’s one thing about this position, I work with everybody — employees, elected officials and citizens. I try to treat people like I would want to be treated.”