San Francisco-based marketing and communications network W2O Group has teamed up with nonprofit the Lagrant Foundation to establish a fellowship program that will focus on minorities pursuing careers in healthcare communications.
Los Angeles-based Lagrant provides scholarships, career and professional development workshops and internships to minority undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of advertising, marketing and PR. The foundation, which has provided $1.83 million and 331 scholarships, was founded in 1998.
W2O has pledged a three-year, $50,000 commitment to fund the Future Leaders in Healthcare Fellowship Program, which will place two students each year in a 10-week paid fellowship in one of the W2O's offices.
The program, which was spearheaded by W2O Group founder and CEO Jim Weiss and TLF CEO and chairman Kim Hunter, was established to provide fellows and prospective healthcare communications pros careers in the workforce and the opportunity to work with top healthcare client partners. The program ultimately serves to diversify the industry and increase the number of minorities in these fields.
W2O, the network parent of WCG, Twist Marketing and Brewlife, accounted for more than $95 million in net fees in 2015, according to O’Dwyer’s rankings of PR firms. The agency holds additional offices in San Diego, New York, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Boston, Basel and London.
Lo Isidro, senior director at Real Chemistry with more than a decade of strategic communications and PA experience, has joined Narrative Strategies.
Nelson Fernandez, former North American chair of APCO Worldwide and managing director of Burson-Marsteller, has joined Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires as director of communications and PA.
Lilit Bargar, who was most recently an EVP in the healthcare practice at Weber Shandwick, comes on board at GCI Health as EVP, corporate practice lead.
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