Samantha Easter

Senior communications specialist
Mountain America Credit Union

Samantha Easter is a senior communications specialist at Mountain America Credit Union in Salt Lake City, Utah, concentrating on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging; personal finance; and professional development. Before this, she served as assistant vice president of instructional design, leading a team to craft  training programs, and as a human resources program manager for employee engagement and development.Easter, who is autistic/ADHD, passionately advocates for neurodiversity and enjoys speaking to workplaces to promote inclusive environments. She is a member on the Utah Workforce Development Council, Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities Council, the Adult Autism Treatment Council, the Center for Autism, and Disibility:IN.Easter holds a B.A. in journalism and a master’s degree in adult education and diversity from the University of Arizona, and an MBA from the University of Utah.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

The silent majority: How astrocytes shape the brain across scales

Melissa Cooper talks to Mac Shine about her new work that reveals how these glial cells—long dismissed as the brain’s housekeepers—wire together in precise, long-range networks that remodel in response to experience.

By Mac Shine
12 May 2026 | 3 min read
Research image showing brain activity related to sensory sensitivity and hypoconnectivity

Untangling genetic effects, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 11 May.

By Jill Adams
12 May 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of stacks of papers.

The next unit of science: Is the scientific paper due to be replaced?

Artificial intelligence is pushing scientific publishing to the brink. For a field as sprawling as neuroscience, the crisis may also be an opportunity to finally connect findings across subfields.

By Tim Requarth
11 May 2026 | 11 min read