Shelley Ducker Communications launched when Shelley (that’s me), a 20+-year heath care communications, public relations and advocacy veteran, left the full time in-house corporate communications world to provide direct, cost-effective, resource-leveraging freelance communications support to a broader variety of projects and clients.
I provide strategic cost-effective support on a project-by-project, freelance or retainer basis that can engage key stakeholders, mobilize consumer action, amplify visibility and tell a more powerful story in today’s increasingly crowded and fragmented communications landscape.
My Bio: Life Before Shelley Ducker Communications...
I've led corporate communications at bio-pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. I bring that broad experience in strategizing and implementing communications initiatives to my clients.
I was most recently director of communications at the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, leading many of the association's consumer education and health advocacy campaigns focused on driving consumers' safe and appropriate use of over-the-counter medicines. I oversaw planning and implementation for the national Know Your Dose campaign with the Acetaminophen Awareness Coalition, led the Up and Away and Out of Sight safe medicine storage campaign in conjunction with the CDC and its PROTECT Initiative, and managed the Treat with Care campaign focused on appropriate use of over-the-counter medicines in children.
Prior to my Washington D.C. trade association work, I was associate director of communications at the molecular diagnostics company Qiagen, where I led consumer health communications, advocacy building, social media community building and public relations/media relations initiatives focused on cervical cancer prevention and human papillomavirus (HPV) testing.
While living the good life out on the West Coast earlier in my career, I directed corporate communications at California biotechnology companies Genentech and Chiron, with experience leading communications to support clinical trials, scientific publications, FDA advisory committee reviews, FDA product approvals (and stumbles) and commercial launches.
A former reporter with pharmaceutical business newsletter The Pink Sheet, I've written about a broad range of issues ranging from FDA policy and enforcement, drug advertising and promotion campaigns, FDA reform, and more. I began my career in the healthcare practice arms of public relations agencies APCO Worldwide and GTFH Public Relations.
I'm a graduate of Columbia University and have a passion for cities and for travel. My wanderlust has taken me to more than 80 countries to date. I don't let my two kids slow me down, and at this point, they are almost as comfortable in a rickshaw or tuk-tuk as they are in a taxi or car. I've shared our travel adventures and misadventures at www.ShockinglyShelley.wordpress.com and CrazyTravelerKippahs.com.
I provide strategic cost-effective support on a project-by-project, freelance or retainer basis that can engage key stakeholders, mobilize consumer action, amplify visibility and tell a more powerful story in today’s increasingly crowded and fragmented communications landscape.
My Bio: Life Before Shelley Ducker Communications...
I've led corporate communications at bio-pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. I bring that broad experience in strategizing and implementing communications initiatives to my clients.
I was most recently director of communications at the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, leading many of the association's consumer education and health advocacy campaigns focused on driving consumers' safe and appropriate use of over-the-counter medicines. I oversaw planning and implementation for the national Know Your Dose campaign with the Acetaminophen Awareness Coalition, led the Up and Away and Out of Sight safe medicine storage campaign in conjunction with the CDC and its PROTECT Initiative, and managed the Treat with Care campaign focused on appropriate use of over-the-counter medicines in children.
- Highlight: re-launching the CHPA Educational Foundation to formalize the association's underwriting of white hat educational campaigns and open the door to more productive partnerships with third party organizations and stakeholder groups.
Prior to my Washington D.C. trade association work, I was associate director of communications at the molecular diagnostics company Qiagen, where I led consumer health communications, advocacy building, social media community building and public relations/media relations initiatives focused on cervical cancer prevention and human papillomavirus (HPV) testing.
- Highlight: representing Qiagen when we partnered with the First Lady of Rwanda and Merck to bring HPV testing and HPV vaccination to the girls and women in Rwanda as part of a national cancer prevention campaign.
While living the good life out on the West Coast earlier in my career, I directed corporate communications at California biotechnology companies Genentech and Chiron, with experience leading communications to support clinical trials, scientific publications, FDA advisory committee reviews, FDA product approvals (and stumbles) and commercial launches.
- Highlight: Leading communications for Xolair (omalizumab) as it moved from phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials and through the FDA regulatory review process to become the first FDA approved biologic for the treatment of asthma.
A former reporter with pharmaceutical business newsletter The Pink Sheet, I've written about a broad range of issues ranging from FDA policy and enforcement, drug advertising and promotion campaigns, FDA reform, and more. I began my career in the healthcare practice arms of public relations agencies APCO Worldwide and GTFH Public Relations.
- Highlight: Covering the explosion of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of Rx medicines in the late 1990's...and FDA's evolving enforcement actions surrounding DTC initiatives
I'm a graduate of Columbia University and have a passion for cities and for travel. My wanderlust has taken me to more than 80 countries to date. I don't let my two kids slow me down, and at this point, they are almost as comfortable in a rickshaw or tuk-tuk as they are in a taxi or car. I've shared our travel adventures and misadventures at www.ShockinglyShelley.wordpress.com and CrazyTravelerKippahs.com.
