Our Team

Emily Armstrong

Communications Manager

Emily Armstrong serves as a Communications Manager at SAM, where she utilizes her experience in communications, theatre, and social work to approach complex problems with a creative eye. She also serves as the SAM Employee Connections Manager, where she manages and drives SAM efforts to bring culture and connection to life through staff activities and experiences. She describes her unique background as being a perfect combination of people and storytelling, both playing a large part in who she is as a person and an employee.

As a Communications Manager, Emily works to execute and manage effective and brand-affirming projects that support the overall communication goals of partner associations.

She is a native Californian but a lover of new places, and Emily left her hometown to graduate from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a bachelor's degree in strategic communication and minors in theatre and social work. She then chose to move to Austin with the desire to expand her worldview and ultimately seek discomfort.

Partners: Fast Growth School Coalition (FGSC), Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT), Texas Psychological Association (TPA), Texas Public Power Association (TPPA)

Family: Mother Jane, father Marc, brothers David and Matt, nephew Nolan

Outside of work, I love... taking advantage of Austin's art scene! Music, theatre, comedy, I love it all.

My workplace superpower is... empathy. I hear an “I feel” statement and will suddenly materialize into the room. I’ve got strong shoulders made for leaning on!

Assessments: Promoter (Predictive Index), 2 (Enneagram), ESFJ (Myers Briggs), The Visionary (Adobe Creative Type)

What inspires me about working with associations: Association management is the perfect combination of all of the things I love: organizations with a mission, exciting events, teamwork, and days that are never the same.

My unique skills or passions: I am a firm believer that having a theatre background allows me to have skills beneficial to any career for the rest of my life. Public speaking, empathy, time management, teamwork, bravery, and a "the show must go on" attitude, just to name a few, are all skills that I gained from theatre that have been extremely useful in association management.

Favorite SAM core value: Practice empathy. Is my enneagram 2 showing?