Geisinger Chief Communications Officer Joins Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc.
<0> Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Inc.Morgan Ribeiro, 615-254-0575 </0>
Susan Alcorn, former chief communications officer of Geisinger Health System (Danville, Penn.), has joined healthcare communications firm as a senior vice president, officials announced today.
“Susan brings our clients her rich perspective from leading communications and positioning at one of the country’s most innovative and highly regarded healthcare systems,” says David Jarrard, president and chief executive officer of Jarrard Inc.
“In her 15 years of leadership at Geisinger, Susan tackled many of the communications challenges facing hospitals and health systems across the country: mergers and acquisitions; healthcare reform; re-engineering; and physician and employee relations. Our clients will be well served by Susan’s experience.”
At , Alcorn led a team responsible for all public relations, marketing communications, media relations, employee communications and issues and crisis management across the $4-billion integrated health services organization.
She is also the former president of and a past member of the board of directors for the American Hospital Association’s , the professional association for hospital communications, marketing and planning professionals.
“It’s a truly exciting – yet challenging – time to be in healthcare,” says Alcorn.
“Now more than ever, health systems need the expertise of skilled communicators and strategists. I’ve known the team at Jarrard Inc. for many years and am excited at the opportunity to work with the team and health systems across the United States on their most important initiatives.”
Over the last decade, Geisinger has grown to be nationally recognized as a model for how healthcare will be delivered and financed in the future. The system today is comprised of more than 19,000 employees, including a 1,000-member multi-specialty group practice, six hospital campuses, two research centers and a 413,000-member health plan.
Prior to Geisinger, Alcorn served as vice president of public relations and marketing for Solaris Health System in Edison, N.J.; as corporate director of public relations for Union Hospital in Union, N.J.; and as director of public relations for Saint Mary’s and Saint James hospitals in Orange and Newark, N.J. Recently, Alcorn and Jarrard co-authored which was published through .
Based in Nashville, Tenn., with an office in Chicago, Jarrard Inc. is the premier strategic communications firm for any hospital in the nation experiencing a time of significant change, crisis or opportunity. The firm publishes healthcare newsletter and ranks among the top 15 healthcare PR firms in the U.S. For more information, visit or follow us @JarrardInc.