My Job
I split my time between our health practice and management of the Brussels office. Health policy is my first love, and I lead accounts where clients are aiming to influence European and global health agendas. Sometimes that may be specifically aiming to change one concrete aspect of policy, and sometimes it is about challenging everyone to start dreaming of a new way to think about how health systems work. My work runs the gamut of activities that could achieve those goals – reputation and positioning, direct lobbying, thought leadership and traditional media relations can be part of the solution. Whatever the approach, it’s always stimulating, particularly where I can lead a team of world-class consultants from all over APCO’s global network to change the face of health policy.
My Experience
I started my public affairs career in 2011 in APCO’s Washington, DC headquarters where I had a chance to help clients shape many aspects of the health policy that followed in the wake of passing Obamacare.
Five years into my APCO career I followed the winds of opportunity to a year-long secondment in Abu Dhabi as the communications director of a STEM institute of higher education, before making my way to Brussels and into EU Affairs in 2017.
Further back in my professional life I had stints studying science policy at a think tank in DC and working directly with patients in commercial and hospital pharmacies.
My Specialisms
My Proudest Achievements
Over the last five years I led the global APCO team which developed a series of indexes examining the preparedness of health systems around the world for forthcoming challenges in health policy for a major pharmaceutical client. In one month last year we were convening a group of leading experts in Africa to discuss pilot programs for increasing health system sustainability across the continent, polishing a paper about the limitations of data for assessing health system performance in Latin America, and collaborating with a major patient advocacy group in the EU to ensure that the future of health was meaningfully discussed as part of the Conference on the Future of Europe. The APCO team collaborated seamlessly across offices, and I got to witness a dozen of APCO’s best consultants operating at the top of their game to deliver meaningful results tailored to their individual markets, in a truly integrated global project.
My Education
- B.A. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder
- M.S. in Biomedical Science Policy and Advocacy, Georgetown University
My Languages
English
My Favourite Brussels anecdote
I’ve always known that Brussels was a bit of a “company town” for EU affairs, but that really hit home when I was attending my first in-person birth class for new parents ahead of the arrival of my new little one. Our class was 10 couples, and my husband and I were one of only two in which both parents are the same nationality. During the break the conversations were as much about recent policy developments as they were about the techniques we’d learned to calm a fussy baby. When a casual chat turned to the European Health Data Space I was kicking myself for not thinking to bring business cards along, in addition to the swaddle I wanted the instructor to show us how to use. You never know where you’ll meet someone interesting in Brussels!