Emily Willson

Emily is the co-founder of Workhorse Collaborative, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm specializing in marketing and organizational strategy for small businesses, nonprofits, and arts organizations.Emily has spent her career helping nonprofits, arts organizations, independent creatives, and small businesses tell their story and grow their company despite their shoestring budgets and scrappy teams. As the Director of Marketing at Carnegie Museum of Art, Emily implemented an overarching communications strategy that successfully married the museum’s revenue and fundraising goals with its mission-driven activities and messaging. She led PR efforts for the 57th Carnegie International, more than doubling the press coverage from the previous exhibition (over 50 local stories and 80 national/international stories including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal). As the head of marketing at Pittsburgh-based Bricolage Production Company, Emily transformed the theatre’s print-heavy advertising approach into a robust and dynamic digital-based strategy that doubled ticket revenue and broke all prior fundraising records. She dramatically increased the company’s social media followers (Instagram by 340%, Twitter by 45%, Facebook by 66%) and overhauled the website, resulting in a 660% increase in yearly pageviews (2014 v. 2017). Emily has a BA in graphic design and MS in communications. She loves a challenge and would love to help with yours.