PR Agency Strengthens Healthcare Team
FREDERICKSBURG, VA, January 2009—Susan Carol Associates (SCA) Public Relations has promoted Carla Young Harrington to head up the agency’s expanding healthcare public relations (PR) division. She will lead a team of branding and PR specialists serving clients locally and nationally. Since 1989 the full service agency has met the communications needs of clients in healthcare, finance and technology. Demand for healthcare marketing and PR expertise has been growing steadily, agency president Susan Carol said, and is expected to continue as these organizations face increased competition and greater communications risks in the changing media environment.

Other associates involved in the agency’s healthcare division include Jeri Phillips, of Spotsylvania, who manages many accounts, Sue Carrington of Alexandria, Va., who is a creative professional and talented writer, Ian Soper, a Fredericksburg web developer, and Peter Buttecali, a branding and design professional in Vienna, Va.

The local agency recently has served innovative medical specialists in dental, plastic surgery and radiology practices. Susan Carol Associates also has retained as clients a number of equipment financing companies and technology providers focused on the healthcare market. Clients have included Plastic Surgery Services of Fredericksburg, Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg and two national healthcare technology companies. The firm also serves Tygris Vendor Finance, formerly US Express Leasing (with a healthcare platform) in Parsippany, NJ.

Harrington, a Fredericksburg native, has been in a leadership position with Susan Carol Associates since 1990-- a year after the local public relations firm launched. Her work also benefits clients in a variety of industries and spans multiple continents. Harrington manages projects with clients operating outside of North America in Latin America, Europe and China.
The former Free Lance-Star newspaper reporter is an award-winning writer. Before joining Susan Carol, she worked as a media relations specialist for the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville, Va., and for the National Research Council in Washington, D.C. She is an honors graduate of the University of Richmond in Virginia.

The agency has more than 12 associates now with decades of experience and capabilities in strategic planning, project management, communications research, video production, web and print design, media relations, and event promotion. Their editorial team provides every writing style possible-- from slogans and broadcast copy to white papers, said Carol. More than half of the members are based in the Fredericksburg region while others are based in Northern Virginia, D.C, Maryland, Michigan, New York and Indiana.