Ms. Heather Pierce is an experienced health communications specialist with more than 10 years’ experience helping clients reach their target audiences with effective, engaging campaigns and messages that result in measurable outcomes and desired behavior change. Her background includes public relations and strategic communications, publications management, editing, and plain language writing. She has applied her critical thinking and strategic planning skills to a broad range of health-related issues—from public health policy and breast cancer advocacy to chronic disease prevention, biotechnology, and consumer health care.
At Palladian, Ms. Pierce currently leads accounts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), including projects such as a national initiative to prevent heart attack and stroke and a sodium reduction public education campaign. Ms.Pierce also has overseen web content strategy and redesign projects for the HHS Office on Women’s Health’s womenshealth.gov, NCI’s Science Serving People website, the TriService Nursing Research Program, and CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.
She was previously a vice president at the public relations firm MSLGROUP, where she provided strategic communications, media relations, and issues management support for a broad range of healthcare and biotechnology clients, such as Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Gerber, Nestlé Medical Nutrition, and Philips Medical Systems. Prior to that, Ms. Pierce served as managing editor for the National Breast Cancer Coalition, a grassroots advocacy organization; publications manager and editor with a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, where she oversaw the production of self-care consumer newsletters and books; and senior policy analyst for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, where she coordinated briefings and developed issue papers related to primary care and genetics policy, including newborn screening.
Ms. Pierce holds a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University and an M.P.H. in health services from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health.
