Esmeralda Corona with TJC President Dr. Juan Mejia (Center) at Career 4 Connections event hosted by the Tyler Area Business Educational Council and the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce, held at the Tyler Junior College. Career 4 Connections encourages local high school students to enhance their interviewing skills through training and participate in mock interviews with HR professionals from the community.

By Paula Jimenez

Esmeralda Corona has been the Chief Human Resources Officer for Smith County since 2019.

Ms. Corona is a native Tylerite and an Apache. She pulled down an associate degree from Tyler Junior college and snagged her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Texas at Tyler where she studied human resources development.

She is very passionate about assisting others; hence she chose to pursue degrees and career in human resources development.

Ms. Corona debuted her career as  Smith county probation officer in 2008. However, when a position became available in human resources, she took that opportunity in 2015  as human resource coordination.

But wait, that is not all.

In July 2019,  Corona became the chief human resource officer. She finds joy working with the youth because she passionately believes that helping them invest for a brighter future makes for a better Tyler tomorrow.

She started out as a probation officer for Smith County in 2008. Soon enough, a position in the Human Resources department later became available and Ms. Corona became the HR Coordinator in 2015, then the Chief HR Officer in July of 2019.

Helping the youth has been one of Ms. Corona’s grandest achievements. She firmly believes that helping them invest for a brighter future allows for a better Tyler tomorrow!

According to Ms. Corona, “As a Tyler native, my current role allows me to participate in many essential community engagement opportunities. I am proud to serve on many boards, including Leadership Tyler and United Way of East Texas. This helps me assist with the development of the Hispanic community and their needs in East Texas.”