Kathleen Larey Lewton, MHA, MSJ
Fellow, Public Relations Society of America
Kathleen Lewton is one of the most experienced professionals in the field of healthcare public relations and marketing, with a career spanning 23 years in scientific and healthcare organizations (academic medical centers, HMOs and physician associations) and 13 years as a senior executive at several major U.S. PR agencies, working with pharmaceutical, biotech and healthcare provider clients.
In 2005 she established her own consulting practice, providing strategic counsel to clients including The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, The University of Cincinnati and its Foundation, The Lasker Foundation , Thomson Corporation’s Scientific and Healthcare businesses and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2006, she led a 60-person team that developed and executed a 44-market, six-month consumer education campaign on the new Medicare Prescription
Drug Benefit, on behalf of the National Council on Aging and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
Ms. Lewton was 2001 President of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She is the author of Public Relations in Health Care: A Guide for Professionals, the only textbook of its kind (third edition now in progress) and writes and speaks extensively on the role of public relations in healthcare organizations and American corporations, including being a featured speaker at the prestigious Economic Club of Detroit in 2001.
Ms. Lewton received a bachelor’s degree from Illinois Wesleyan University where she is a member of the Board of Trustees. She has a master’s degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a master’s in health care administration from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and the School of Public Health.
The trade publication pr reporter cited her as one of four “most admired” professionals in health care public relations, and Working Woman magazine profiled her as one of the “key people making news in hospital marketing." She was also the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award winner from the Health Academy of PRSA. Her work has received dozens of awards including PRSA Silver Anvils, IABC Gold Quills and the American Hospital Association’s Touchstone Awards.
During her agency career, Ms. Lewton has worked with CEOs and senior management at leading corporations and voluntary organizations, providing counsel on strategic positioning, organizational reputation management, and crisis communications.
• She was a senior vice president at Hill and Knowlton in 2004, and prior, a senior vice president and partner at Fleishman Hillard from 1999-2003 where her work included management of corporate reputation and product marketing programs for clients such as Abbott Laboratories, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies; CV Therapeutics, a California-based biotech firm; Alza Pharmaceuticals; Medimmune; United Healthcare, AARP, McKesson Corporation, the University of Virginia Medical Center and the Iowa Hospital System.
• From 1993-1999, as co-director of the U. S. health care practice for Porter Novelli public relations, her clients included the American Medical Association, American Heart Association, Zimmer, Eli Lilly and Co., Pathogenesis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, the Illinois Association of HMOs, Intermountain Health Care, the Catholic Hospital Association, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Iowa Hospitals and the American Psychological Association.
Prior to her agency career, Ms. Lewton served as senior vice president for public affairs and marketing at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, and at University Hospitals of Cleveland, and similar positions at St. Vincent Medical Center and Flower Hospital-Crestview Center, in Toledo, Ohio. She spent five years in PR at Bowling Green State University focusing on the basic sciences and began her career as a newspaper reporter in Illinois.
Her areas of particular expertise include consumer awareness and education programs, healthcare financing and reimbursement issues, managed care, physician relations, health system integration, public affairs and grassroots advocacy campaigns, strategic and marketing positioning for health care organizations, as well as issues management and crisis communications, and stakeholder relations with influential audiences.
Contact Information:
Voice phone: (917) 734-5376
Fax: (203) 968-6816
E-mail: klewton@lstllc.com
Web: www.LSTLLC.com
29 Pony Trail Road
Stamford CT 06903
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