Katherine Nicol to Lead Hager Sharp’s Health Practice

WASHINGTON (July 21, 2021)—Today, Hager Sharp announced the appointment of Katherine Nicol as executive vice president to lead its health practice. Nicol brings more than 25 years of strategic communications experience to the role. During her nearly 16-year tenure with Hager Sharp, she has led numerous health client engagements and national campaigns, including COPD Learn More. Breathe Better^®, Million Hearts^®, and HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention, among many other notable initiatives.

“Throughout her career, Katherine has led with integrity and conviction, and her success over nearly 16 years with the company reflects her client and team leadership, her many achievements leading public health campaigns on many of the most challenging public health issues of the past two decades, and her commitment to our founder’s legacy of communications for the public good,” said Jennifer Wayman, Hager Sharp’s president and CEO. “Katherine has proven herself exceptionally qualified to lead and grow the company’s health practice.”

“I am delighted and proud to lead and build on the important work in Hager Sharp’s health portfolio,” said Nicol. “I have been extremely fortunate throughout my career to work with so many wonderful clients and to oversee national public health and safety initiatives that have helped millions of Americans lead healthier, safer, and happier lives. I am excited to expand this commitment to mission-driven communications at the helm of this exceptional health practice with colleagues who believe, as our founder Susan Hager did, that you can do well by doing good.”

Since arriving at Hager Sharp in 2005, Nicol has contributed strategic counsel and communications leadership to efforts around challenging health topics including ALS, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes, nutrition, vaccination, and tobacco control and prevention for the firm’s nonprofit, association, government, and private sector clients. She has led the firm’s work with the President’s Cancer Panel since 2009, overseeing coordination and execution around the national release of the Panel’s report. She is also project director for Hager Sharp’s engagement with the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including the “The New Nutrition Facts Label: What’s in It for You?” campaign, and the Feed Your Mind agricultural biotechnology education initiative. Katherine led Hager Sharp’s award-winning work on the HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention campaign for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, providing strategic counsel and oversight for a national social marketing effort that effectively changed the conversation around the HPV vaccine from transmission to cancer prevention. Prior to joining Hager Sharp, she worked with clients including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Academy of Dermatology, National Institute of Mental Health, Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, PBS/Reading Rockets, American Planning Association, and Department of Homeland Security’s SAFECOM initiative to improve public safety interoperability.

Katherine is a member of the National Press Club (NPC) and NPC Communicators Team, National HPV Vaccination Roundtable, Society for Health Communication, Social Marketing Association of North America, and International Social Marketing Association. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science in television, radio, and film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Hager Sharp is a full-service integrated marketing and communications firm with in-house research and evaluation; strategic planning; creative; digital, paid, earned, and owned media; partner and stakeholder engagement; event management; and campaign development and implementation expertise. Since Hager Sharp’s founding nearly 50 years ago, we have worked solely with organizations that take on critical issues like fighting for equity in education, improving public health, empowering vulnerable populations, and transforming communities to create and execute ideas that make a difference. Visit us at www.hagersharp.com.