We’re pleased to share that Angela Palm Hopkins was recently promoted to Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Coforma. An award-winning author and seasoned communications strategist, she has shaped heartfelt, human-centered narratives for diverse communities across multiple platforms with 20 years of cumulative experience as a writer, editor, communications and marketing leader, and arts community galvanizer.
Prior to Coforma, she worked as the editor in chief for B2B content at Creative Side Marketing, a consultant at Boston’s Grub Street writing center, an editor at WilliamsTown Communications, and Assistant Director of Administration at the Democratic National Convention Committee, among other civic and private sector roles. Angela brings a unique experience and voice to our leadership team, driving a values-driven brand identity and weaving our collective stories together to champion the positive impact in the communities served by our partners.
“Angela’s promotion is a direct reflection of the amazing work she’s done and how she’s inspired and mentored a team to enable us to continue to tell our stories in ways that resonate with us and our values,” shares Eduardo Ortiz, Coforma CEO.
3 Questions with Angela Palm Hopkins
We asked Angela to respond to the following questions as a way for others to get to know her a little better.
What have been the most memorable and/or rewarding experiences you’ve had with Coforma over the years?
I’ve been with Coforma since early 2019 and have been truly honored to help shape and support the company’s brand and direction in meaningful ways. Early on, I also worked on many of the company’s projects within and outside of government, including together.gov, 335forNC, Social Distancing Reporter, Shift5, and others. This gave me a hands-on understanding of what we do, how we work with partners on critical efforts, and how those efforts impact people’s lives. Collaborating with our designers and engineers in a project environment has informed my approach to shaping Coforma’s stories and marketing and allowed me to speak authentically about how we work.
Working alongside Arden Klemmer to develop our first intake framework was a standout moment. Articulating what was important to us in potential partners or projects and then determining how we’d measure that to make decisions made it clear to me that this would be a place where we mean what we say and really make an effort to hold ourselves accountable to our own stated values. Collaborating with Arden and Kate Murphy on the Coforma brand was another exciting opportunity to translate our passion for the company’s mission and vision as it was beginning to grow and take a clearer shape.
But the most rewarding aspect of my work at Coforma is always hearing from those audiences who primarily know Coforma through its digital presence that they were drawn to us because of what they read on the website or on LinkedIn. I hear this all the time and it’s the highest compliment. Because stories matter. Meaningful work matters. What we say and how we say it matters. It’s a truth I love being reminded of!
What is your long-term vision for Coforma’s presence in the public interest, Veterans services, and healthcare focus areas, and how do you plan to work toward those goals?
I think it’s wonderful we’ve consolidated a few of our focus areas into public interest, which provides a broad umbrella for many different kinds of opportunities to make a difference alongside our existing healthcare and Veterans services portfolios.
With these three portfolios all growing steadily through Coforma’s strategic plan, we’ll refine our brand identity and strategy, emphasizing these focus areas as a narrative framework for highlighting our contributions in these spaces beyond the delivery of digital services and products. This will involve taking on new partnerships to deepen our corporate sponsorship program, develop new volunteer opportunities, participate in more conversations about our work, and report more clearly on our successes and how we give back.
Our marketing and communications team will work closely with our subject-matter experts and stakeholders to create a fuller picture of our impact through storytelling that better centers the communities our collective work serves within each focus area as well as the outcomes of that work, while also spotlighting our team's talent in new ways.
What excites you most about your new role as VP of Marketing and Communications? What are your top goals and priorities for the coming year?
work with but also do excellent work, so this new role is not so much about my personal excitement but what it further enables me to lead and grow with the whole team and for Coforma.
There are several new things in the works to help realize that goal. First, everyone knows I’ve long wanted a blog on the Coforma website. I’m happy to share that the MarComms team has been hard at work with our designers and engineers to build that blog, which launched in October 2024 and will feature our top relevant content from the past several years as well as new, regular content by Cofolx and guest authors. The team is also working on landing pages for each of our focus areas, which is where you’ll soon see that broader picture of the impact I described.
On the marketing front, we’ll continue to develop new strategies and tactics for supporting more stages of our sales funnel, creating additional avenues of impact against our strategic plan. In 2025, for example, we’ll launch hosted events and publish our first playbook. On the communications side, the company’s needs are growing and evolving. There are more stakeholders to support across various operational areas, leading to a greater need for internal and change management communications. As a rapidly growing 8(a) and SDVOSB with now around 170 remote employees, we have an increased need for coordinated internal communications as well, so an internal comms strategy will be top of mind for 2025.