Dallas (WBAP/KLIF) President Trump’s interim Communications Director has Texas ties. Hope Hicks graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2010 with a degree in English. While at SMU, she was a member of the Lacrosse team. The former child model is 28 years old and now one of the highest paid employees in the Trump administration, $179,700 a year. Hicks is no stranger to the Trump family, the Hartford Courant reports she used to work for the PR company that represented Ivanka Trump’s Fashion line.