SENSEI masterful health communications

Linda Meredith
Senior Vice President

What is your role at SENSEI?
I'm Senior Vice President and I focus on a couple of areas that I've worked in for a long time: HIV and cancer. Internally, I help other SENSEIs who are crafting messages for the media to say as much as they can without promising too much. That, plus taking a look at the science the client provides and condensing it into something that is meaningful for marketing. Externally, if you've done this stuff like I have for all these years, you know someone who knows everybody... or you know them yourself. I've had a relationship with a lot of the clients. And a lot of the thought leaders.

How long have you been in healthcare communications?
I started working in this field in 1991. Before that I was on the client side for four years and before that I was an immunology researcher.

How did you get to SENSEI?
I ran a company called Medisolutions, a medical education company, while Susan ran Medisphere. Amongst the 40 or so small businesses contained under that umbrella organization, she and I found an affinity for each other. We got to do a lot of things collaboratively.

What are your areas of expertise?
Looking at science that is pretty complicated and picking the things that are most relevant to both the physician and patient, as well as the pharmaceutical company that has the drug, and bringing those forward. I enjoy the heavy, deep science-type products.

Did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up?
My father worked as the administrator of a state-run tuberculosis hospital when I was growing up. A lot of the kids whose parents worked at that hospital got summer jobs. All the guys got to work on the yard crew and get a tan and ride the lawn mowers and I got a job working in a hospital lab. I loved it. It just went from there.

Do you have a role model?
Eleanor Roosevelt. Because even though there was very much a glass ceiling when she was the First Lady, she had a large impact on what happened. I think that's cool. In my career, although people would give you lip service to say there's no glass ceiling, I certainly have a few splinters on my head.

Do you have a personal motto?
I don't know if it's a motto or a mantra, but I say a lot to myself, "Whatever, it's all going to be okay."

What are three things you couldn't live without?
My friends, my son and the space and room to take a deep breath.