On the Move: Edelman Southwest Adds Kristena Lucky, Brooke Taylor, Kate Burton; GCI Health Hires FH's Kirsten Whipple; The S3 Agency Adds Leon Grassi

Kristena Lucky

Edelman Southwest has added Kristena Lucky, Brooke Taylor and Kate Burton to its leadership team. Lucky, who is a member of Edelman’s U.S. Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Council, has been named executive vice president, head of the Southwest brand practice, based in Edelman’s Dallas office. She most recently served as EVP of the brand practice at Edelman Chicago. Before coming to Edelman, she was a vice president with multicultural marketing agency Burrell Communications. Taylor has come on as senior vice president, head of the Dallas corporate practice. Most recently, she was senior vice president, client experience at Weber Shandwick. She will oversee a team of professionals helping clients in areas including corporate reputation, employee experience, crisis and issues management and business-to-business marketing. Burton has been named senior vice president, head of the Southwest health sector, based in Edelman’s Houston office. She most recently co-created and served as COO at MicrobiomeDX, a lab focused on microbiome-based cancer biomarker discovery. At Edelman, she is leading a team of highly specialized practitioners working for an array of clients including health tech companies, managed care providers and hospitals and health systems.

Kirsten Whipple

GCI Health has hired Kirsten Whipple as executive vice president, wellness and nutrition. Whipple joins GCI from FleishmanHillard, where she was senior vice president & partner and health & wellness practice lead, with clients that included Abbott’s Nutrition division, Walgreen’s and Beech-Nut Nutrition. At GCI Health, she will oversee the growth of the agency’s wellness and nutrition offering. “Kirsten’s unique expertise will be instrumental in helping us continue to support the needs of our clients and build our business across a burgeoning group of wellness and nutrition clients,” said GCI Health CEO Wendy Lund. The agency has also brought on dna Communications senior vice president Cindy Romano as a senior vice president. Romano will focus on overseeing some of GCI Health’s work in oncology.

Leon Grassi

The S3 Agency has brought on Leon Grassi as vice president sales & marketing. Grassi was previously VP of Sales & Marketing at The DSM Group. His experience encompasses the media, publishing, consumer electronics, information technology, and accounting sectors. In his new post, Grassi will be responsible for developing new business relationships and overseeing marketing strategy for S3. He will also be developing and implementing an overall marketing strategy for the agency, directly engaging and managing the marketing team, and working to translate the company’s business objectives into revenue-driving strategies.