NOTE: Throughout the month of July, BrownwoodNews.com is publishing stories daily on 40 standout citizens under the age of 40 making a positive impact and contribution within the Brown County community.
Aaron and Amy Gill are taking different avenues to positively affect the lives of Brown County citizens, working in two significantly different fields.
Amy, 35, is the Marketing and Communications Director at TexasBank while Aaron, 32, is the Director of Strength of Conditioning for Howard Payne University Athletics.
Amy said of her job, “Now that we’ve merged with our sister bank in the Fort Worth area we have 14 total locations and I manage the marketing, public relations and advertising for all the locations, as well as the internal communications and the overall policy and procedures that go along with that.”
As for Aaron’s position, he said, “I’m responsible for overseeing all the strength and conditioning programs for our 12 sports, which is about 400 student-athletes.”
Regarding what she enjoys most about her line of work, Amy said, “TexasBank is such a community-focused organization. It’s a great quality of life to work there. They want us to always be a part of the community and invest in the community and they make it easy to do that just by the work environment and how much involvement that they have in the community. It always feels like something positive, like we’re giving back even at work.”
The highlights for Aaron in his position are, “two-fold,” he said. “One, it’s creating relationships. In my role I spend a lot of time with our athletes, in some cases I spend more time with them than their sport coaches do. I like to joke when kids come in on recruiting visits that the weight room is their new home and I’m their new best friend. It’s about creating relationships with kids and then seeing them grow and getting to aid them in reaching their athletic potential.”
In terms of future plans in the work force, Amy said, “I would say with our recent merge with our sister bank we have grown and almost doubled in size just this year. I would like to see the bank as a whole go to a different level with our capabilities of reaching our audiences and new communities and that would involve new technology as far as marketing goes and new opportunities to hit different target markets and grow each of our communities that we’re invested in now with the growth that we’ve had. I look forward to continued growth and continued success with a good company.”
As for Aaron’s intentions going forward, he said, “I want to continue to expand the strength and conditioning department at Howard Payne, continue to see our resources grow, and continue to see the success our athletic programs grow as it has in the first four years that I’ve been here. I want to watch the athletic department grow into something that can be competitive on a national level for a long period of time.”
Outside of work, “We’re active members at Midtown Baptist Church and involved in all the 18 million things are kids are involved in,” Amy said with a laugh. “I’m the vice chair for the board of the Pregnancy Care Center, I’ve been on that board for about 5 years now. Previously I was on the board with Hope Home Ministries. I just have a deep passion for helping women in tough situations find a new beginning and see their way out of that.”
The couple has three children – 8-year-old Eli, 6-year-old Luke, and 4-week-old Owen.
Looking 10 years down the road, Amy said, “Our kids will be in high school playing sports, and we just want to live it to the fullest and enjoy every minute of it. We want to enjoy every stage of life not only with our family but in our careers too. We’re really honored to be in a community where that’s celebrated and we’re excited to continue to grow in the direction that Brownwood is growing, too.”
Asked about the importance of being so active in the community, Amy said, “I grew up here and left for a long time. Coming back with kids and establishing myself and my career as an adult just means the world to me. Having my family here and that support, and not just my family but the community that we’ve built as family, it’s just unmatched. We feel like we have help, we have advocates, we are known definitely in every facet of life and there’s nothing more encouraging than that. Of course, to raise our kids in such a loving environment where they have friends and don’t have to worry about who your kids are playing with and what’s going on all the time, it’s very encouraging to live here in this community and be a part.”