Marybeth Edgecomb

Marybeth has specialized in corporate communications since graduating from the University of Virginia. She worked for two of the largest human resources and benefits consulting firms — Hewitt Associates and Towers Perrin — before starting her own agency in 1996. That company she started in her apartment bedroom is now Chemistry Communications, with clients from coast to coast and in dozens of industries.

She has won a Gold Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and several other awards from IABC and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She also has served on the Board of Trustees for PAWKids, a holistic family enrichment and empowerment center on the Westside of Atlanta. In 2025, she was elected to the advisory board of her church in Westside Atlanta, where she also volunteers in several capacities.

When not working, she is busy with her family — one husband, four boys from age 20 to 30, one cat, and two dogs. When she comes up for air, she can generally be found sewing, reading, powerwalking, or in front of her computer — working on her novel, an ode to small towns and baseball. She and her family moved from suburbia to inner-city Atlanta in 2015 and are loving every minute of it.

Favorites: Atlanta Braves baseball. Going to country concerts with her sons. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Her mother’s macaroni and cheese. Peanut m&ms. The smell of Coppertone suntan lotion. Long walks while listening to a Braves game, Freakonomics podcast, or audiobook. Re-watching all seven seasons of The West Wing sequentially. 

Prides Herself On: Her banana pudding and macaroni and cheese (different from her mom’s). Finishing three half-marathons. Recognizing actors in movies and telling you what other roles they’ve played before anyone else in the room (but she can never remember their names). Being the loudest mom in the stands at her son’s football games, usually with a cowbell in hand.

Funniest Communication Challenge: Explaining to employees what a “hazardous hobby” is and why it’s not covered by the Medical Plan. (In case you’re wondering, mud bogging is covered. Sky diving is not.)

Theme Song to Her Life: “Riff Off” from the Pitch Perfect soundtrack. Great lines and great tunes all jumbled together in a way that totally makes sense. 

Check out Marybeth's personal blog Life in Avoid. It’s been stagnant for a while, but it does a good job of explaining her move from the suburbs to Atlanta’s Westside (Bestside).