Keynote speakers – Emma Williams, Shaw Industries
As Environmental Communications Manager for Shaw Industries, Inc., Emma Williams manages stakeholder, marketing and internal communications relevant to Shaw’s corporate sustainability initiatives. Emma also manages the development and writing of Shaw’s annual corporate sustainability report, facilitates sustainability training and education for the Shaw commercial sales force, sits on the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility Charter Team, and represents Shaw as a speaker and presenter on corporate sustainability.
Prior to joining Shaw in 2008, managed the public relations team at The Johnson Group in Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of the state’s only full-service AAAA advertising, marketing and public relations agencies. In her role as Director of Public Relations, she oversaw strategic communications for a diverse portfolio of regional and national accounts. Emma handled crisis communications, stakeholder and corporate relations, media communications and the development/writing of numerous corporate and not-for-profit organizational annual reports. She has also consulted on a variety of public education campaigns and initiatives for non-profit and government organizations (including the Chattanooga Electric Power Board, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, the Bicentennial Volunteers Institute (BVI) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and One Clip at a Time, an educational non-profit dedicated to teaching diversity and tolerance).
Emma has also served as an independent marketing communications consultant, a senior communications strategist for Waterhouse Public Relations, and as a university lecturer and high school educator. As a former educator, Emma’s 12 years of communications experience also includes a unique perspective on the value of public advocacy and education in an increasingly media-cluttered world – especially when it comes to the complex and fast-moving intersection of sustainability and communications.
Emma earned a Master of Fine Arts in writing and rhetoric from the University of Maryland – College Park. She received an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and also completed studies at the University of Wales – Swansea in the United Kingdom. She resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee.