DGE 6840  Samantha Walley

Club: Bay St. Louis

Samantha Walley is the owner of Comcepts, a Mississippi Gulf Coast-based company that provides answering service, call center, and medical transcription to the healthcare industry, and WorkWise, which offers virtual reception, administrative support, and accounting services to solopreneurs and small business owners. Over her career, Sam has worked in health information management, telecommunications, facilities management, and customer service.

When not running Comcepts and Workwise, she dedicates her time and talents to promote educational opportunities for students of all ages and backgrounds. She has held leadership positions in numerous school and community organizations and served as a recruiter and board member for the Mississippi School for Math and Science.

Sam was introduced to Rotary when her son accepted to serve as a Rotary Youth Exchange Goodwill Ambassador to Poland, but it was several years later before Sam joined the Rotary Club of Bay St. Louis in 2013. The following year she was elected club secretary and served in this role until she was elected president in 2017-2018. During her presidency, Sam brought service back to the forefront of club activities and led both service and social activities each month. Wanting to continue her work with youth, she joined the District Youth Exchange Committee and later accepted the role of District Youth Exchange Officer. With a vision for integrating Interact, RYLA, and Rotary Youth Exchange programs to better serve the needs of students, Sam accepted the position of Deputy Governor of Youth Services. In this role she created both Rotarian and student-led District Interact Committees, developed training programs, and worked with individual program leaders to collaborate and exchange knowledge and opportunities.

When the youth exchange student Sam’s club was hosting was stranded during Covid quarantine, Sam “adopted” Anniela. Together they created the Rotary Interactive Quarantine (RIQ), a platform for students in all of Rotary’s youth programs to stay connected and develop meaningful service projects during quarantine. The program has more than 900 registered members in 80 countries and thousands have participated in RIQ events. With the continued support of District 6840 and the endorsement of the RI Board, RIQ announced at a breakout session at the International Convention in Houston the transformation of RIQ into the Rotary Youth Network (RYN). RYN will continue to serve as a platform to connect Rotary youth, actively promote peace and goodwill, and develop sustainable projects around the world.

Sam is a Major Donor, multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Paul Harris Society Member, Bequest Society Member, and a graduate of RLI. She has hosted multiple foreign exchange students as well as Rotary Group Study Exchange and Friendship Exchange team members from Serbia, Australia, and Canada. Sam was honored to represent District 6840 on the Friendship Exchange trip to Calgary in July 2016. Sam is also a graduate of Goldman Sachs 10KSB program and WorkWise is a current nominee for Business of the Year through the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.

A mother of 4 and grandmother of 4, Sam lives in Bay St. Louis where she enjoys cooking and travel.