Business Women Awards 2025
INDUSTRY LEADER GOVERNMENT/QUASI-GOVERNMENT:
Emily Martineau, R.I. Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives deputy director of communications
GROWING UP in a family of “political nerds,” Emily Martineau, the deputy director of communications for the R.I. Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, was destined for government service.
Martineau recalls dinner table conversations when she was a child and how her father has been a huge advocate of giving back.
“He’s always done volunteer work,” Martineau said. “He’s always said, ‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ You have to give back and try to help the people around you and make your community a better place.”
In helping lead communications for House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, D-Warwick, Martineau’s career positions her to make a positive impact on the Rhode Island community at large. By all accounts, she embraces every opportunity to do just that.
“ ‘Whatever it takes’ is her mantra,” said Larry Berman, the office’s communications director.
Martineau is in charge of speech writing, particularly for Shekarchi, and Berman says she regularly goes above and beyond in her role.
“She prepares almost all [of Shekarchi’s] remarks. He can speak at two or three events a day,” he said. “But there are other representatives who will come to her and say, ‘I need help with this, I need help with that.’ Whether it’s preparing some remarks for them, or social media posts, or even looking for advice, she’s always there to help the other representatives as well.”
Martineau is making generations of family members proud through her civil service. She reflects on her recent interest in doing genealogical research, a hobby that took flight because she feels a lot of people worked really hard so that the next generation could have more opportunities than they did. Through her research and – as luck would have it – a recent Capitol TV segment about a historical timeline, she discovered the name and year that one of her great-grandfathers served in the state’s House of Representatives.
Martineau finds meaning in her roots and in the sacrifices her family members made throughout the generations. She reflects on her father, who turned down opportunities to run for a seat in the R.I. Senate due to his busy job but who she says would later get involved in their local town council, frequently bringing Martineau to meetings. She thinks of the women trailblazers in her family as well, including her great-grandmothers who worked as a head bank teller and labor organizer who worked “at a time when most women didn’t work outside the house.”
Martineau has demonstrated exemplary communications leadership well before working in the House Speaker’s office four years ago. Her government service career began in 2007 as an aide to then-Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, who went on to serve 11 years in U.S. Congress and is now CEO and president of the Rhode Island Foundation
Martineau garnered additional government communication positions, such as the external communications director for the R.I. Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp., assistant public information officer for the R.I. Office of the Attorney General, director of public affairs for the Providence Public School District and as the city of Warwick’s press secretary, among others.
Martineau was also chief of staff for the Providence City Council for a year. Overall, Martineau enjoys getting a “front-row seat” to the political process.
“I feel like I’m learning so much every day, but it’s also awesome to feel supported and to feel like I’m in a space where women’s voices are elevated,” Martineau said.
She feels particularly connected to Shekarchi’s legislative work, such as his involvement in helping pass the pay-equity legislation in 2021. She considers working with the Warwick Democrat “catching lightning in the bottle.”
“When Speaker Shekarchi became the leader of the House, he made it a personal priority to ensure its passage, and he got really involved in the negotiations of the bill,” Martineau said. “To see work like that happening, to have a front-row seat for all of that, is awesome.”
