GRUBER COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTING, LLC

I'm going to tell you a little story, and it goes a little something like this: I just plain love navigating the art of integrated communications to devise creative, break-the-mold solutions to your most challenging problems.

 

I live and breathe for the betterment of patient health, awareness, empowerment and access through communications. 

 

I love a good issue. I thrive on learning from people who think differently than I do. I believe that this stems from my passion for traveling: I'm a constant explorer of new approaches grounded in trusted precedent, return on investment and proof that what I can do as a communicator simply "just works." 

 

It may have taken me two trips to Africa (East and West), and one to South America, to fully grasp the dire state our universe is in with regards to patient safety, health and access. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, I spent two weeks in Ghana.

 

By shadowing community health educators, I saw the firsthand impact of the lack of proper sanitation, access to health information and care, and above all else, an urgent need to expand the power and range of private sector, public sector and government partnerships to improve health worldwide as global public health leaders work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. 

 

I arrived in Kenya weeks after the tragic Westgate attack. That was my first sight of the beautifully broken world that inspired the photography you'll find on my portfolio site (http://www.sashasylvie.com). In times of crisis, political upheaval, security threats and of course, business threats, communicating to your stakeholders in the RIGHT place at the RIGHT time and in the RIGHT way has never been more essential. 

 

When I was hospitalized in Cusco after contracting a deadly combination of a parasite and a bacterial infection; and when I was hospitalized in rural Ghana for an intestinal infection (all cured, don't you worry), by sheer happenstance I witnessed the hospital and healthcare system first-hand.

 

What I learned is that: 

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• Patients must ALWAYS be front and center. Until you've walked a mile in their shoes, it is essentially impossible to truly identify them. We need stronger connections to the patient journey - the human journey - so that we can truly be telling impactful stories that don't just talk the talk, but create impact that lasts. 

• Health advocacy is lacking, and it is absolutely terrible. Severely lacking. Beyond awful. Education about disease, treatments, preventative measures in consumer-friendly language (think: Plain English) and access to multilingual information will help carry us in breaking down these barriers little by little. 

• As humans working with and for other humans, we can't forget the essence of humanity. I received the most compassionate care in developing, under-resourced countries than I did in a cold hospital room in the States. We need to bring connection and compassion back. Communications helps us do this.