Cindy Wakefield Email & Phone Number

Baton Rouge, La, Us

Corporate officer responsible for the communications and brand strategy for $4 billion healthcare company. Manages award-winning creative team consisting of almost 40 communications and marketing professionals responsible for corporate advertising, public and media relations, visual and graphic design, internal communications, marketing communications, crisis management, thought leadership, executive communications, M&A communications, social media, document management and language services. Serves as company spokesperson.Developed executive communications and thought-leadership strategy for CEO and executive leadership team.Assisted in launch of company’s Employee Resource Groups (ERG), and served as the inaugural chair of the WOMEN of Blue ERG.Member of company’s Incident Management Team, responsible for directing the response to natural disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastating hurricanes that directly hit Louisiana in 2020 and 2021.

Franklin, Tn, Us

Responsible for the external communications and brand strategy of a publicly-traded health services company that is a leading provider of fitness and well-being improvement programs. Provided strategic communications counsel and support for the CEO and executive leadership team. Responsible for proactive and reactive media relations, crisis communications and served as media spokesperson. Led the external communications strategy and execution for the July 2016 divestiture of the company's total population health unit and the go-forward strategy. Responsible for corporate brand, including a large-scale, multi-million dollar re-branding project that included a new corporate name and brand strategy.

Indianapolis, Indiana, Us

Held progressively responsible corporate communications and leadership roles, providing strategic communications counsel and support for various business units and c-level executives within a Fortune 40 company. Served as the corporate communications lead for Anthem's Commercial and Specialty Business Division, including communications counsel and support for the President and CEO of Commercial and Specialty Business, and the external communications lead for Anthem's Government Business Division, including the Medicare and Medicaid Business Segments. Managed crisis communications for internal clients, as well as for privacy and security and natural disasters. Consulted with Anthem’s leadership teams and legal counsel to strategically communicate messages to key constituents that include media, group customers and members; and mitigate negative news when possible. Member of the lead communications team responsible for the strategy and execution for responding to the January 2015 cyber-attack against Anthem, which impacted approximately 80 million individuals. Responsible for developing key messages, responding to media inquiries and B2B communications to Anthem's Commercial and Specialty Business customers, including consultants, brokers, employers and members. Responsible for required communications under HIPAA and state breach laws, including media notices, advertisements and HITECH notices. Launched and directed external communications for Anthem's collaboration with IBM utilizing the Watson technology. Early roles at Anthem include Regional Director of Communications and Director of Public relations for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia.

Atlanta, Ga, Us

Responsible for promoting the patient-care areas of Emory's Health Sciences Center, including Emory Healthcare. Interacted with local, national and international media on a daily basis promoting the health sciences at Emory, including features in Newsweek, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC and the Discovery Health Channel.

Us

Directed Public Relations for a HealthSouth-owned hospital.