Using strategy, storytelling, and stakeholder engagement to build a stronger brand for Virginia

As the newly appointed Director of Marketing and Brand Management at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Sarah Muse is stepping into a role designed to help modernize and unify the voice of the state’s leading business advocacy organization. It’s a challenge she’s well prepared for, both through her professional background in communications and her ongoing studies in William & Mary’s Online MBA program.

“I’ve always admired William & Mary,” Muse said. “I’m from Fairfax, so I was familiar with the school growing up. I spent a lot of time visiting friends there during undergrad. Its academic integrity really stood out to me, and it just felt like the right fit for this next phase of my career.”

Muse began the Online MBA program in 2024 and expects to graduate in August 2026. The decision to return to school wasn’t spontaneous. It had been on her mind for years. “You graduate, get the job, work the job, and then at some point, you just want more,” she explained. “I’ve always been a big proponent of lifelong learning. I love being in an academic setting, learning from my peers in different industries, and challenging myself to think differently.”

Her experience at William & Mary has already begun shaping her strategic thinking. “I’m really enjoying courses I didn’t expect to,” she said. “Business analytics and accounting with Professor Erin DiFabio, especially. She’s just a great instructor. Also, macroeconomics I’ve enjoyed. It’s helped me better understand what I’m seeing in both my personal and professional lives.”

Muse’s career began in public relations, working in federal tech communications in Northern Virginia. “It was very fast paced,” she recalled. “I had a lot of clients and spent my days pitching stories, writing op-eds, and developing messaging.. That work laid the foundation for how I approach communications today, which is with a very strategy-forward focus.”

During undergrad, an internship with the Public-Private Partnership Office at Virginia Commonwealth University introduced her to the intersection of policy and business. That experience helped guide her transition from agency work to a role in the transportation sector with Transurban later on, where she served in various marketing and communications roles.

“Transportation is such a dynamic space. At Transurban, I was able to shift my focus to the customer side and hone my marketing skills while still pulling from my PR background,” she said.

At the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Muse now brings that experience to a statewide platform. The role she stepped into was newly created to lead marketing and brand management efforts and help unify the Chamber’s voice across Virginia’s diverse regions.

“The Chamber exists to serve the business community,” Muse explained. “That starts by listening. Right now, we’re doing that through the Blueprint Virginia 2035 Tour, traveling around the state to gather input from businesses and stakeholders. I’m helping with the development of message frameworks and the design for the physical copy of the Blueprint Virginia 2035 publication we’ll eventually present to the Governor-elect. It’s an incredible opportunity to shape how we present and promote the Chamber’s impact.”

She sees tremendous potential to elevate the Chamber’s brand by aligning messaging and improving clarity across platforms. “We want to be a trusted partner across all regions, but we can only do that if we’re clear, not just clever,” Muse said. “Clever messaging might get attention, but clear messaging builds trust and drives results.”

That commitment to clarity and cohesion extends to her work aligning sub-brands and coordinating with regional chambers across the state. “There’s always going to be regional nuance,” she said. “Urban and rural communities have different needs. The key is showing up, listening, and then distilling those insights into meaningful messaging. Our government relations team at the Chamber is out in the field, doing that work now.”

It's clear just how quickly and voraciously Muse dove into her work at the Chamber just by looking at her office setup—on her desk is her computer and a hard copy of the Blueprint book, a single framed photo sits on top of an empty filing cabinet, and a lone tower fan hums in the background. It’s an important role, one that blends her communication skills with a growing foundation in business strategy that she is building at William & Mary.

“The MBA program has made me more comfortable diving into the numbers,” she said. “I’ve shifted from being task-oriented to strategy-driven. Understanding how to interpret data and apply it to brand strategy has been a huge value-add.”

Muse points to a natural curiosity and a desire to connect as the reasons why she was drawn to marketing and brand management as a career. “I’ve always been people-oriented,” she said. “I want to understand what’s going on, what’s changing, and how people are responding. The MBA program has reinforced that mindset of always iterating, always learning.”

Mentorship, she adds, has been another critical part of her growth as a leader. “I’ve had incredible mentors who’ve exposed me to projects of all sizes and encouraged me to think beyond the day-to-day,” she said. “They’ve given me the space to talk about things beyond work, and they challenge me with new perspectives. That’s shaped how I want to lead.”

William & Mary’s leadership curriculum has also had an impact. “One of the first classes in the program focuses on management and leadership, and we explored concepts like empathy and design thinking. It helped me zoom out and think more holistically, which is especially important now that I’m in a role that involves people management and cross-functional collaboration.”

As she leads branding efforts at the Chamber, Muse remains focused on what she sees as the fundamentals of a successful brand, particularly in the policy and advocacy space. “We want our audience—whether it’s a Fortune 500 executive or a small business owner—to understand who we are and what we stand for the moment they interact with us,” she said. “That consistency builds credibility. Our team is incredibly mission-driven and it’s important that our external messaging reflects that.”

Outside of work and school, Muse says she stays grounded by staying connected. “I hang out with friends, I hike, I practice yoga. I try to keep balance. I’m not going to pretend that I have a perfectly defined routine, but I know when to unplug.”

She’s also preparing for a trip to Kenya with longtime friends, many of whom graduated from William & Mary. “My best friend lives there now, and it just felt like a now-or-never moment to go visit. These are the same women I used to visit on weekends during undergrad, and now we’re going halfway across the world together. That’s the kind of community William & Mary has fostered. It stays with you.”

Muse’s work at the Chamber is just getting started, but her strategic approach to brand management, her belief in clear and consistent messaging, and her ability to integrate insights from William & Mary’s Online MBA into real-world scenarios suggest a promising path ahead.

“It’s a different lens from selling a product,” she said. “This is about membership, public trust, and stakeholder engagement. But it all comes down to the same thing: building strong relationships, telling clear stories, and delivering value.”