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 describes her unique background as being a perfect combination of people and storytelling, both playing a large part of 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: Beyond Batten Disease Foundation (BBDF), 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

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)

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?