WVB Award Winner 2013

Debbie Copeland-Bloom, APR, was the 2013 WVB recipient. She was honored at the Blacksmith Awards at the Hyatt Regency on Nov. 13. While she has changed professions over the years, Debbie will tell you that her calling is communications.

It started with visual communications…she earned a degree in Graphic Design from UC’s School of Design, Art, and Architecture. She worked as an art director for a small in-house agency, and then took time off to start a family. When she restarted her career, Debbie turned her attention from visual communications to the written word. She attended the Editing and Publishing Program at UC, interning with the Academy of Medicine. That led her to public relations at ChoiceCare, a local non-profit managed care organization. In her eight years there, Debbie transitioned from writing and producing publications to media relations and strategic PR planning. When ChoiceCare was sold to Humana, she transitioned from health insurance to health delivery, leading the public relations function at Mercy Health Partners for the next eight years. When she left Mercy due to a restructuring, she checked out a new industry…banking, developed new skillsets as a service center representative with Macys, and began freelance writing. It was through her freelance work that Debbie returned to the Mercy family…working for its parent organization, Catholic Health Partners. When CHP began implementing its electronic health record, she was hired to establish communications strategies and processes to support the 5-year, $350 million project. After creating a communications framework for the initiative, she transitioned to CHP’s corporate communications department where she now focuses on internal communications for Ohio’s largest health system and fourth-largest employer.