Team member Joyce Lofstrom has experience on both sides of the interview desk. A former journalist and now a sought-after PR professional, Joyce also managed a conference newsroom for 16 years for a leading health IT nonprofit. Her current post shares her insights for ensuring communications success as we head into conference season. Nine Tips…

Her career began with fundraising for nonprofit organizations. Then, Meredith Hilt managed a corporate foundation housed in a communication department, where she discovered she enjoyed all aspects of communication. “Corporate communications was a natural extension of fund development in that it requires writing that motivates people to act. I truly enjoy this work,” says Meredith,…

An engineer by training, Kapila Viges likes to solve problems. She describes her career path as one that zig-zagged across multiple stops, including telecom start-ups, a university life sciences incubator, biomedical consulting, and now, CEO of the MPN Research Foundation (MPNRF). Ritz Communications appears twice along Kapila’s career trajectory as the selected marketing communications firm.…

In the quest for the perfect partnership, Tom Lynch, then Director of Marketing Communications at Allscripts, didn’t have to look far. His decision was influenced by a favorable recommendation from his former boss, who had a successful collaboration with Ritz Communications. Seeking a local agency that would grant him priority, access to senior-level talent and…

Healthcare and pharma clients all hope to make a difference in the lives of patients and their families. Malekeh Amini is poised to change the entire paradigm of how mental health issues are diagnosed and managed. Malekeh is founder and CEO of Trayt Health, a technology company enabling programs across the country that are expanding…

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a good designer is priceless. Any PR professional knows that campaign success often depends on strong visuals to make the emotional connection. Ritz Communications projects come to life in vivid color with the work of Robert Viola and his team at Robert Viola Partners. Collaboration at…

In the Ritz anniversary story, the virtual agency is a character of its own. Now that remote work has become ubiquitous, it’s easy to forget how groundbreaking it was in 2003 to assemble a virtual team. “Elisabeth was ahead of her time,” says Joy Schmitt, a former client who is now a Ritz team member.…

The average agency-client relationship is about three years. Ritz Communications had the honor of working with Bob Consalvo for more than 15 years. “They weren’t just an agency, they were my team,” Bob says. “I relied on them as if they reported to me within the company. It was a deeper relationship—much more trusting and…

“How lucky I am to have something so special that makes saying goodbye so hard.” These words from the great sage Winnie-the-Pooh perfectly capture how we feel about former colleague Carrie Sessine. Carrie was a member of the Ritz Communications team for nearly a decade, beginning in 2003. Relationships are what Carrie remembers the most…

There’s a joke among the Ritz community that if clients get out of line, Molly Watson will slap them. It originated years ago, when Molly accompanied a client who was presenting at the annual meeting for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. It was a swampy, mid-summer day in New Orleans, and as the client…

Joyce Lofstrom was heading up the PR department for HIMSS when the Ritz team approached her with a memorable pitch. It was 2008, a few months before the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was enacted to promote adoption and meaningful use of health information technology. With the health tech community…

“It was such a gift,” says Joy Schmitt of “inheriting” Ritz Communications when she started a new role at Schering-Plough, which is now part of Merck & Co. “Our partnership was so collaborative. It was the ideal relationship to have with an agency.” The feeling was mutual. The chemistry the Ritz team shared with Schmitt…

20 years and counting … thank you for making it memorable As a marketing communications agency, we’ve been privileged to publicize milestones for countless healthcare clients over the years. However, as Ritz Communications begins our 20th anniversary year, I admit I wasn’t entirely sure how best to celebrate a team of extraordinary professionals who have…