PR MONTHLY

KENDRA
BARNES
Regional Physician Public
Relations Coordinator
Baptist Health | Louisville, KY

Barnes works to

Kendra Barnes begins

her days in one of her
multiple, fast-paced
work environments,
which can be
anywhere from a
meeting with a client,
a photoshoot she is coordinating or
overseeing, having coee with members of

formulate the strategic

communication of
messages created by
the marketing teams in
her corporate region
with the public.

KENDRA BARNES

ALEX LEEPER

her marketing team, interacting with

vendors, or sitting in her oce reviewing
proofs of creative materials that are to be
published. Kendra is a regional public
relations coordinator for Baptist Health,
Kentuckys largest not-for-profit healthcare
system. In short, she works to formulate
the strategic communication of messages
created by the marketing teams of her
region with the public. In one sense, no
day is ever the same because we're always
working on new and dierent projects, she
explains. Yet at the same time, each day is
very similar because we use similar
strategies and processes for each project
we tackle.

Barnes has been in this position for
about a year and a half. Shes had a
longstanding relationship with Baptist
Health over the years, her mother having
been an employed nurse there for over 25
years, and she did her first internship at
Baptist Health's marketing/PR department
in Lexington, Kentucky during college.
Upon moving to Louisville, she took a
public relations position at Indiana
University Southeast, a university in
Southern Indiana, until ultimately ending up
at Baptist Health as soon as a position
became available. She holds a bachelor's
degree in public relations from Eastern
Kentucky University, where she was
fortunate to be part of an excellent
communications department that
graduated well-rounded students. The
program introduced her to many aspects of
the industry, from graphic design,
photography, video broadcast, news and

PR MONTHLY

feature writing, to
communication law,
research, and advertising
campaigns. It also required
a completed internship, a
completed portfolio of
works, a resume for review
and a mock interview prior
to graduation. she felt that
she graduated not only
with the skills she needed
to perform in her first job,
but also the confidence and interview skills
she needed to land the job.

According to Kendra, Public
relations is all about eective, strategic
communication. It's about building
relationships with consumers, community
members, other organizations, including
anyone who might be seen as an audience
of interest to your organization, and
working to strengthen and build upon
those relationships through the use of
open, honest and eective communication
strategies. She
does just that in
[Public relations] her career,
overseeing each
is all about
company
eective,
communications
strategic
communication. project from
inception to
-KENDRA BARNES
completion. She is
responsible for
determining the needs of the public,
creating a marketing and communications
plan, and working with copywriters and
graphic designers to bring deliverables to

KENDRA BARNES

ALEX LEEPER

fruition. Working with

Baptist Health is
other members of the
Kentuckys largest
not-for-profit
marketing team, she
healthcare system
facilitates needs with
Baptist Health's
operations team, who
are the direct connections to the physicians
and their oces. Daily tasks include
eectively communicating about marketing
physicians employed by Baptist Health,
both newly hired and existing, who have an
opportunity for increased business. When
asked of her credibility as a professional,
she explains that, There is always more to
learn, and I certainly don't think I have
mastered this industry in five short years,
but I do consider myself a professional
because of my education and experience,
along with all the projects and conflicts I
have dealt with on the job.

I love the people I work with,
exclaims Barnes, when asked about her
favorite part of her job. In my role, I get to
interact with dozens and dozens of people
inside our organization and out. I am
always meeting new people and creating
new relationships.

PR MONTHLY

I also love the creative aspect of my job.

Each need for marketing/advertising is like a
little puzzle that requires creative problemsolving to put together an interesting and
eective campaign. She also touches on
her love for the freedoms she enjoys to take
an idea, put her own twist on it, and create
something that she feel strongly about,
Seeing the finished product is always the
best part! No job is perfect, and she
describes her least favorite part of the job as
the back and forth with some of her clients
who are not familiar with marketing. They
often request tactics that are not feasible,
would not be eective, or are not in line with
our goals and objectives, she adds.
She currently reports directly to the
Assistant Vice President for Marketing,
Advertising and Public Relations of Baptist
Health. She works as part of a large
marketing team that supports the entire
state. There are approximately 30 or so
members on the team, most of which are
located centrally in Baptists corporate
headquarters in Louisville, and the
remainder are on the ground in each of the
market hospitals.

KENDRA BARNES

ALEX LEEPER

When speaking of her team, she talks of the

collective issues that aect their eciency
and reach: I would say the biggest thing
aecting my work today is the continued
emergence of new technologies and tactics;
especially in the digital realm. I'm
responding by trying stay educated and upto-date on new trends through professional
journals, blogs, etc. and by attending online
training webinars. She explains the
significance of new, rising mobile platforms
by describing how the team is adapting their
strategies to be more inclusive of digital
tactics, social media strategies, more video
content, and ensuring everything they create
is mobile friendly.

We recently invested in a product
called Accent Health, that places televisions
in all of our waiting rooms. We create video
content to be played on these televisions to
advertise various initiatives that are
important to our organization.

When asked what she wishes she
had known before she became a
communications professional, Barnes was
quick to answer. I wish I had known that

PR MONTHLY

you're really not expected to be an expert

at everything on your first day on the job.
felt so much pressure to be perfect, or to
know exactly how to handle any situation,
and felt intimidated that I may encounter a
situation I wasn't fully prepared for and I
was! This is normal. For the most part,
employers are looking for someone with a
competent skill set, a good attitude, and a
willingness to learn. If you're willing to ask
for help, be proactive and do your research
when you don't know how to do
something, or aren't as comfortable as
you'd like to be. There are so many
resources out there that you can learn from
if you're willing to invest the time, and so
many people in the industry who would be
willing to help you if you are willing to ask.

She continues, One of the keys to
success in this industry is to be willing to
be a lifelong learner. She elaborates on
how technology is constantly evolving,
changing the way consumers want and get
their information, and ultimately changing
the way we should approach
communication. Being willing to embrace
new tactics and to learn as they emerge
will keep you current and relevant as a
communicator. She encourages young
people to keep their innovative way of
thinking: In your first job, you may be
tasked with the not-so-glamorous sides of
communications, but I would challenge you

KENDRA BARNES

ALEX LEEPER

to embrace those tasks as opportunities to

improve your skills, learn new things and
improve upon what you are given. Look for
ways to make
things better,
Participate in lifelong
more ecient
learning, because
and more
eective. Take
communications is a
time to
field that will never run
consider
out of new avenues to
things from
learn.
your end-KENDRA BARNES
user's point of
view and to
really think about the best ways to reach
them. In other words, dont get stuck in
the trap of thats-how-its-always-beendone strategy, but rather, be intentional in
your work and always strive to improve.

Barnes drives home the message of
individualistic innovation to complete the
interview. It is clear that she is not one to
stick to the status quo in a
communications field that is constantly
expanding, becoming more accessible,
and becoming more complex. She
welcomes the future of her career path,
and oers a simple but clear mantra for
incoming public relations professionals:
Participate in lifelong learning, because
communications is a field that will never
run out of new avenues to learn. #