Vincent J. Dollard, APR

Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center.

Associate Vice President for Communications

Vincent J. Dollard, APR, is Associate Vice President for Communications for Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center. The Woodruff Health Sciences includes Emory Healthcare; Emory University School of Medicine; the Rollins School of Public Health; the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing; Yerkes National Primate Research Center; the Winship Cancer Institute, and Emory’s basic science research enterprise.

In this role, he is responsible for strategic planning and implementation for communications, media relations, issues management, crisis communications, research communications, publications, web development, social media, and internal communications.

Before joining Emory in 2001, Dollard served as Director of Communications for the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Eileen Sheil

Medtronic

Vice President Communications

Eileen Sheil is the Vice President Communciations at Medtronic. Previously she was the executive director of corporate communications at Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation’s largest academic medical centers, and named the second best hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report (2016).

Eileen received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University (1990) and a master’s of public administration from Cleveland State University (2003).

She is a member of the Arthur Page Society, a guest columnist for PR Week, and was inducted into the PR News' Measurement Hall of Fame in 2016. She also is a member of the International Association of the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AMEC) Non-Profit Group. She also serves as a voting member of the Conflict of Interest and Innovation Management Committee at Cleveland Clinic. She has also taught a number of classes and given presentations on public relations and communications.

Eileen has worked on numerous high profile projects that have involved presidents, heads of states, innovative surgeries “first of their kind”, book promotions and international PR projects. She has extensive experience in crisis communications as well.  

Eileen lives in a suburb of Cleveland with her husband and two daughters. 

Carrie Strehlau

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Senior Social Media Specialist

Carrie is a communications, public relations, #socialmedia and media relations expert with more than 20 years of experience. 

As senior social media specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, she is responsible for increasing the recognition and understanding of St. Jude science, medicine and translational research through social media. 

She focuses on expanding and monitoring the hospital’s social media presence and reputation; developing content to elevate awareness, patient referrals, recruitment and company culture that fit within the hospital’s strategic plan; collaborating with hospital departments to develop content for social media posts and campaigns tied to their fields of expertise; and growing employee social media engagement and advocacy.

She started at St. Jude in 2003 on the media relations team following five years in communications at the Memphis Zoo. After about 13 years on the St. Jude media team, she transitioned to the first social media position created at St. Jude. 

With more than 72,000 followers, the hospital is across social media at @StJudeResearch (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, LinkedIn, YouTube).

Kristen Dattoli

Boston Children's Hospital

Director, Enterprise Communications

Public relations and communications leader with 20+ years of B2B and B2C experience on both the agency and client-side developing strategic campaigns that build brands and enhance thought leadership. Most of my day is focused on issues management, providing strategic council, and overseeing content development and positioning for earned and social media teams. I am also a frequent lecturer in public relations classrooms at Boston University.

Hobbies include running, theater, traveling, fitness and spending summers on the beach with my family.
On twitter @kdattoli 

Mary Masson

Michigan Medicine

Director of Public Relations

Professional communications director with more than 30 years experience in journalism, public relations, social media strategy, employee management and crisis communication. Currently a communication executive with Michigan Medicine, the 5th ranked hospital system in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Strong professional with a bachelor's focused in journalism and liberal arts from Central Michigan University.

Rebecca Priest

Michigan Medicine

Interim Director of Brand Management

Trusted marketing consultant and brand manager with more than a decade of health care marketingexperience. Emmy award winning producer and digital content marketing strategist. Consensus builderand collaborator across large, multi-faceted institution.

Keisha Ricks

American Diabetes Association (ADA)

Former Senior Manager, Organizational Communications

Keisha Ricks is an experienced communications, marketing and public relations professional, with more than 15 years' in the healthcare industry. As the former senior manager of organizational communications for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) located in Arlington, Virginia, she was responsible for executive communications, driving employee engagement, internal and external communications, media relations and marketing initiatives across all United States offices that comprise the ADA.

Ricks extensive background as a communications and health professional began while serving in the Maryland Hospital System on strategic health campaigns driven towards patients, physicians, employees and the overall healthcare community. She has successfully developed and implemented public relations and media plans on projects such as the Every Diabetic Counts Program for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services federally contracted quality improvement and disparities initiative for the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Keisha grabbed the attention of morning show producers by developing live television segments to address and demonstrate healthy holiday cooking options for those living with diabetes.

As the owner of Keisha Monique Public Relations, she has consulted for leading companies to create strategies for achieving efficient healthcare operations utilizing communications, event planning, program management and marketing. Having the ability to successfully create and pitch compelling healthcare campaigns, she landed media coverage in outlets such as Good Morning Maryland, local print, television and radio sources. Developing strategic relationships, her background also includes working in the media and entertainment industry for external outlets such as BET Television, Power 104.7 Radio and Social Influencers.

In addition to her extensive PR, story-telling and marketing experience, Keisha is an experienced graphic designer who was responsible for overseeing internal and external print, digital, and collateral materials for a wide range of clients.

A graduate of the University of Baltimore in Maryland, she holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) in health care policy and administration and a Bachelor of Science in corporate communications. She also received an associate degree from Catonsville Community College in Baltimore, Maryland. She has a certificate for Activity and Program Directing in skilled nursing facilities from the National Certification Council for Activity Professionals (NCCAP).

Keisha currently serves as National Executive Committee Board Member for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She is an active member of PRSA’s Maryland Chapter, Delta Epsilon Iota Academic Honor Society, and a proud Poodle of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated.

In her spare time, Keisha enjoys listening to music, singing, spending time with her family, mentoring entertainment and public relations professionals, traveling and serving the community through charity and advocacy work.

Cecilia Bloxom

Canadian Patient Safety Institute

Senior ​​Director, Strategic Communications

Cecilia Bloxom, APR, ABC, is accredited in communications by both the Canadian Public Relations Society and the International Association of Business Communicators. As the Senior Director, Strategic Communications for the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), Cecilia is dedicated to sharing awareness of healthcare safety across Canada.

Cecilia has worked in healthcare communications for 15 years and joined CPSI from a senior role in public affairs at Capital Health, Edmonton area. Cecilia is a passionate communicator and believes that Edmonton has serious talent. Cecilia and her team have received over 23 Communications Awards including two Gold Quills and numerous awards of excellence from the Canadian Public Relations Society.

With a diploma in advertising and public relations and a degree in public relations, Cecilia is currently pursuing her Masters in Leadership. When not busy working or supporting the Canadian Public Relations Society Board as President, Cecilia can be found running, skiing, listening to live music, or trying to make her community a better place.

Elizabeth Borycki RN PhD, IAHIS

University of Victoria

Director - Social Dimensions of Health Program, Director - Health and Society Program, Professor - School of Health Information Science

Elizabeth Borycki is the Director of the Social Dimensions of Health and Health and Society programs.  She is a Professor in the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria.  Elizabeth joined the University of Victoria 11 years ago.  Prior to coming to the University of Victoria, she spent over 15 years working in health care in varying roles in chronic disease management, geriatrics, case management and health information technology design and implementation management.  She has published over 150 articles, book chapters and books in the areas of:

• Patient and health information technology safety, quality and usability;
• health information technology management and strategy;
• health information technology competencies for health and health informatics professionals
• telehealth, home health, mobile health and wearable technology to support patient and citizen health

Elizabeth has served as Academic Representative for Canada for Canada’s Health Informatics Association (2007-2013), Vice President representing North America on the Board of Directors for the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) (2010–2013).  She founded the International Medical Informatics Association Working Group focusing on Health Informatics for Patient Safety and she is currently the Scientific Program Committee Co-Chair for Medinfo 2017.  Elizabeth will return to the Board of Directors of IMIA in August of 2016 as Vice President – Special Projects.  

Elizabeth received her PhD from the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, a Masters degree from the University of Manitoba in geriatrics and community health nursing and an Honours Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Lakehead University.

Agnes Bongers

St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton

Director of Public Affairs

For the past three years, Agnes has been the director of Public Affairs at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Her award-winning team is "small but mighty", and is interested in testing innovative ways of communicating. Prior to this she was with Hamilton Health Sciences, first as a Senior Specialist, then as Manager of Media Relations and Digital Strategy. 

Agnes was a journalist for about 25 years prior, many of those years with the Hamilton Spectator, working as an editor and reporter, covering many beats over the years, most often in feature writing. She holds a Master of Communication Management with McMaster-Syracuse.
 

Alexandria Anderson

St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton

Senior Public Affairs Specialist

Alexandria Anderson, MA, is an award winning communicator and public relations strategist. She began her career in the financial sector, then moved into health care where she is currently a Senior Public Affairs Specialist at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. As an experienced freelance writer, she has written and designed digital content for organizations across the GTA.

While not at work, she Chairs the Beasley Neighbourhood Association and is a member of the Canadian Public Relations Society. She holds a Master of History with York University.

Sao Bui-Van

Channel 4

Communications Director