Emily Schmitz has more than 25 years of medical communications experience, including a stint in television news as a medical reporter and producer.

 

This broadcast experience gives her an edge in understanding how the media can effectively promote a business, educate or tell a compelling story. Emily has solid editorial judgment and knows how to creatively pitch a story to media outlets including broadcast, print, bloggers and trade publications.

Leslie Branon is a marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Prior to joining MedVoice PR as a project manager and outreach consultant, Leslie was the marketing and community relations director for the largest orthopedic surgery practice in Central Texas. 

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Leslie’s time leading the marketing efforts for a private practice gave her the opportunity to wear many hats. From operations and strategy, business development, community outreach and event planning, Leslie has been involved in all aspects of running a marketing and communications department. She is able to leverage her strong community and provider relationships to build client brand awareness and meet strategic goals.  

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Leslie graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas State University with a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration and a minor in Mass Communications.
 

Alyssa’s 15-year career in public relations stems from her longtime love of writing and wordsmithing. Her portfolio includes press materials, testimonials and case histories, social media content, marketing collateral, and everything in between – you name it, she has written it!

 

With prior stints at agencies in Chicago, Houston (Vollmer Public Relations, since acquired by Edelman), and Dallas (The Richards Group), Alyssa has supported clients in a variety of fields such as energy (Shell/Shell Chemicals), and technology (Questia.com). She also has promoted iconic national brands like American Standard (Plumbing/Heating & Air Conditioning) and worked as an in-house marketing specialist for the Society of Petroleum Engineers, a technical organization boasting more than 140,000 members worldwide.

 

In addition, her media relations efforts have garnered coverage in Forbes, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, on television (Bob Vila's Home Again), and in local business journals, and industry trade publications. She also possesses event planning and trade show experience. Alyssa received her bachelor’s degree in French and International Relations from Lake Forest College and is a former member of PRSA (Public Relations Society of America).

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Susan Jahns brings 25 years of expertise helping brands and non-profits define their markets, engage their best customers, and make sense of today's ever-changing media landscape.

 

With a background in marketing and public relations, she aligns media strategy with business goals to identify opportunities, leverage content and pursue the most cost-effective media. She has planned and purchased national, regional and local media across the spectrum, including television, digital, mobile, radio, print, and out-of-home.

 

Susan holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations and has received national and statewide awards for her work. Her agency is certified as a City of Austin WBE/DBE and Texas HUB. You can click here to learn more. 

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Byron Johnson is a communications and issue advocacy professional with two decades of experience using strategic communications to solve the business, legislative, regulatory and perception challenges facing health care entities, nonprofits organizations, government agencies and trade associations on a local, regional and national audiences.

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He supports clients with a variety of expertise, including strategic communications planning and implementation, media outreach, issue advocacy, media relations engagement, key audience outreach, event management and crisis management.

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Prior to working with MedVoice, Byron developed grassroots capacity for the Minnesota Medical Association and developed and implemented a communications campaign to support regulatory and legislative advocacy supporting a client in the at-home kidney dialysis space. He also created a comprehensive regulatory campaign to support an advanced nursing trade association in their efforts to secure Medicare payments for services performed.

 

Byron graduated from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Currently, Byron serves as a board member of First Candle, a national organization focused on improved outcomes for African American and Hispanic mothers and newborns.

Todd Rogenthien is an award-winning video storyteller with more than two decades of experience in communications.  With more than 100 industry awards for video production, marketing and communications, Todd brings a wealth of experience and knowledge as a consultant to MedVoice PR.

 

Prior to working with MedVoice PR, Todd worked for Scripps Health in San Diego as a video production specialist on the MarCom team. Todd worked to bring their video marketing in house and build the video unit from the ground up. Upon moving back to Austin, Todd consulted with LCRA for 6 months, working with their communications team to help train their staff and put in place a system of policies and procedures for their video team to work more effectively. Before embarking on a career in marketing, Todd worked for two decades in television journalism and live sports production in various markets all over the United States.

 

Todd has been honored 14 times as Photographer of the Year by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the National Press Photographers Association, the Radio and Television News Directors Association and the Associated Press.  He has been honored with more than a dozen Emmys, Tellys and Bernays Awards for his creative storytelling and communications.  He won back to back national Edward R. Murrow awards for videography in 2006 and 2007.  

 

His career started as a public relations intern and has come full circle as a versatile communications specialist who will effectively market your brand and ideas to your clients with video.

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Emmy award-winning journalist Jeff Salzgeber has over 25 years of experience in broadcast news and public relations. Jeff has degrees in English and Telecommunications from Indiana University and began his career working in public television.

 

Prior to working with MedVoice PR, Jeff served as senior media consultant with GCI Read-Poland (now Cohn & Wolfe) and launched his own consultancy, Radiant Media Group, in 2007.

 

Jeff also spent more than a decade with CNN, where he served as correspondent, producer and, most prominently, senior assignment editor.  In this capacity, he was responsible for coordinating CNN’s coverage with its domestic news bureaus and 900+ local television affiliates.  It was in this role that Jeff and his team won a special Emmy for the network’s 9/11 coverage.

 

As a PR practitioner, Jeff provides public relations services to consumer brands and B2B clients, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.  He has leveraged his national media contacts and yielded unparalleled results for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Extend Fertility, TourDeFit, and the Heimlich Maneuver awareness campaign.  He has also developed and executed PR campaigns for numerous non-profits and state government agencies such as the CDC’s Office of Smoking & Health, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Communication Service for the Deaf, and the CATCH My Breath Youth E-Cigarette Prevention Program.

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A professional writer and editor for more than 40 years, Steve specializes in developing written communications on a wide variety of topics that are comprehensive, clear, concise and compelling. For five years until his semi-retirement, he rose to become communications manager at Seton Healthcare Family. He was responsible for working closely with regional, state and national media, earning Seton widespread news coverage. He also contributed content to Seton’s website and intranet (internal) news portal.

 

Before that, Steve managed external and internal communications; state and local government relations across the country; and corporate philanthropy for over 21 years at a global, Fortune 500, Silicon Valley-based company, Applied Materials. He also managed top executive visits and related communications throughout the U.S. and Asia and to Israel and Germany.

 

He started as an award-winning reporter, editorial writer and editorial page editor for over 12 years with three California daily newspapers. Steve’s commitment to charitable causes dates back to promoting food drives in high school. He has served on the boards of the Capital Area Food Bank (now called the Central Texas Food Bank), United Way/Capital Area (now United Way for Greater Austin), Any Baby Can, Ballet Austin and others.

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