Sam is Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at Penn State School of Theatre. Before that, they were Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at Millikin University. They completed their PhD at George Washington University, where their dissertation research earned the American Society for Theatre Research’s Helen Krich-Chinoy Dissertation Fellowship and the GWU Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Sam is a 2012 Mitchell Scholar and a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow. They received an M.Phil in Theater and Performance from Trinity College Dublin. Sam's thesis research examined how femininity and queerness occupied the same space in contemporary Irish documentary theater. They previously collaborated as a dramaturg, playwright, and performer with theaters such as the Abbey Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, The Samuel Beckett Centre, and New Harmony Theater, among others. Sam obtained their undergraduate degree from Centre College in Kentucky.