Audrey Perry Martin began her new position as Brigham Young University’s spokesperson as Utah was attracting national media attention for two reasons, neither of which were good.
Exactly a week after the first day of classes for the fall school year, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Utah Valley University’s campus at an event that 3,000 attended, including BYU students.
And then, nearly a month into class, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — which owns and operates BYU — released the news that church President Russell M. Nelson had died at 101.
“It hasn’t been boring,” Martin told the Deseret News. But “it was definitely a learn on the job type of experience,” she said, noting that through both experiences, the collaborative effort of her team allowed them to see it through.
Following a path she never planned
Before she became BYU’s head of communications, Martin’s career was also anything but boring. A 2001 BYU graduate, she worked for NBC Sports during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, before she attended law school at Georgetown University.
Specializing in election law, Perry Martin has always had an interest in politics. She worked in varying roles on the presidential campaigns of both former Arizona Sen. John McCain and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (twice).
“I love the adrenaline from politics,” she said, though she always envisioned herself on the reporting side, not the legal. “I always wanted to be a reporter, and really loved journalism,” looking up to women like American journalist and lawyer Greta Van Susteren. She even worked at BYU’s school paper in college.
But upon graduating from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in political science and journalism, “I was looking at jobs, and they were kind of dismal, like they didn’t seem really fun, and in places I wanted to go.”
She took the LSAT on a whim and “I got caught up in law school, and really liked it,” specifically to the political element of election law.
Before her new role, Perry Martin was a partner at Lex Politica, a national political law firm.
“I really feel like I haven’t been in control of my career. It’s been Heavenly Father directing me every step of the way, sometimes against my will,” she joked.
Her current job is no exception.
“I feel like God has been directing me and giving me these incredible learning experiences and opportunities,” she said. “I’ve definitely had to learn to put it in his hands, instead of trying to plot out my own way to do things. ... And sometimes I haven’t wanted to do it, but I can definitely see looking back his hand in basically everything.”
Where faith and profession intersect
Divine intervention, she believes, played a role in the conception of Project Elect, the nonprofit she founded after witnessing an experience at a school board meeting in 2019. There was a heated issue being debated, and a group, including a few Latter-day Saint women, had gone to voice their opinions. Perry Martin said she was just observing the meeting when a woman got up and spoke against what the Latter-day Saint women were saying.
“This woman got up, and she was really passionate, and she was in tears, and she was talking about her personal experiences and her daughter, and she came and sat down by herself, because there weren’t a lot of people opposed to it,” Perry Martin said. “And one of these Latter-day Saint women that I knew stood up from her group of friends where she was sitting and walked over and sat down right by this woman and put her arm around her, she didn’t know her, and said, ‘Thank you so much for sharing that, that was incredible to hear, and I really want to hear more about your perspective.’”
Watching that experience hit Perry Martin like a lightning bolt, she explained. Why weren’t women like this in politics?
“These women had so many skills and talents and abilities that would really help the political world right now. And it would be incredible if they were running for office and in these positions where they could collaborate and make decisions and listen and be Christ-like leaders. And so from there, I just gathered a few amazing women, and we started Project Elect.”
The goal of the nonpartisan nonprofit is to encourage Latter-day Saint women to get involved in civic service — whether in political office, on school boards or by leading commissions.
“I feel like there were a lot of entities out there helping people run for office — helping women run for office — but nobody was really talking to the women members of the church in the language that we communicate,” Perry Martin said.
Perry Martin would have Latter-day Saint women on her podcast where she would ask about why they ran for office and would let them share their stories.
“They all talked about their faith, and they talked about prayer, and they talked about guidance and inspiration and their families, and it was a safe place to talk about those things,” she said. “You don’t hear that in politics, and a lot of the women that I interviewed kept saying, ‘I never get to talk about this. This is incredible to be able to talk about this.’”
Coming back to BYU
Though she no longer runs the Project Elect nonprofit, she’s carried the importance of storytelling into her new role at BYU.
“I think taking stories and examples that can help people understand what you’re trying to communicate to them is an incredible opportunity,” she said. “To be able to tell these stories that can resonate with people and move them, and I feel like at BYU, we have such rich resources to derive from.”
Keith Vorkink, vice president of advancement at BYU, told the Deseret News the university was “thrilled” when she chose to come to BYU.
“She brings years of experience advising major institutions on a variety of issues. And she has a track record of building and maintaining relationships in the public square and an ability to engage productively and think critically,” he said. “She also studied broadcast journalism as a student here. She embraces our distinctive mission and already demonstrates a great rapport with students. We’re grateful she chose to come to BYU.”
Though she wasn’t looking for a career change when she was approached with the BYU role, Perry Martin, an Orem native, said it couldn’t have worked out any better for her and her family.
“I just feel so happy driving on to campus every day, and so much gratitude that I get to be here, and just this sense of purpose and love for this campus, the students and people who work here. It’s just amazing.”