Ann Marie joined AdventHealth in Central Florida in May 2020 and served as Internal Communications Manager for Population Health supporting internal and external communications outreach. A completely new way of approaching community healthcare, Population Health strives to achieve value-based, whole person care. She provided executive communication support and public relations counsel to the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Operating Officer as well as leaders of Home Care, and more. In April 2022, Ann Marie transitioned to the rapidly growing West Florida Division in Tampa and currently provides communication support and public relations counsel to the President, Chief Medical Officer and other leaders of the AdventHealth Medical Group.
Prior to establishing her own consulting firm in 2018, Ann Marie served as Communications Manager for Duke Energy Florida directing overall communications for the nation’s largest electric utility throughout 35 counties in the state. In 2017, Ann Marie spearheaded the comprehensive communication plan for the company’s 2017 settlement agreement. The plan included internal and external components, the development of an intranet page and external website as well as a comprehensive 22-page briefing document with background, key messages and an extensive Q&A. To create “one clear voice,” this document was used by the Corporate Communications team for media interviews, by the customer service team for questions from customers and by external facing team for questions from elected officials, key leaders and large account customers. External facing teams also received email templates and phone scripts. Visit Building a Smarter Energy Future. The media coverage and reception from customers was positive to neutral. Ann Marie also served as Assistant Public Information Officer during Hurricane Irma, and much more. She worked for Duke Energy (previously Florida Power) for a total of seven years throughout her career.
From 2013 to 2017, Ann Marie served as Communication Manager responsible for the overall planning, coordination, organization and direction of the communication strategies and public information activities for Orange County Government, Florida. She led the activities of a team of more than 30 professional and technical staff engaged in County public information, community relations, digital marketing, events and special projects, web page development, graphic design and branding, video production, and external communications. She served as a member of the County Administrator’s cross-functional senior leadership team and worked closely with the Mayor and her staff.
For reputation protection and enhancement, Ann Marie immediately implemented processes and procedures to expand and enhance media coverage and improve issues management. To expand collaboration and consistency across the Central Florida region in messaging in good times and bad, Ann Marie launched the Central Florida Communicators Group, which included communication professionals from all industries. This group continues to meet twice annually.
Ann Marie also led the emergency communication (ESF-14) function for the County, which spans 13 towns and cities and is home to more than 1.2 million residents as well as a top destination for more than 75 million travelers and tourists from around the world. During 2016, she led the County team through the Pulse Nightclub tragedy in June and Hurricane Matthew in October. Throughout her tenure with the County, she implemented changes to improve media coverage, expand information outreach among multiple platforms, enhance issues management, ensure knowledge management and information sharing, as well as fine-tune event production and implementation. She significantly enhanced media coverage and increased proactive communication outreach as well as the use of social media to connect to targeted audience segments. She was the driving force behind the County’s real-time Newsroom Media Center.
During her 12-year tenure at Rollins College, Ann Marie developed and implemented an effective, strategic integrated communications campaign incorporating earned media with internal and external partnerships to tell the Rollins’ story and achieve specific outreach goals. She also created the College’s first Emergency Communication Plan in 2001 and handled a variety of issues and crises for the College including four consecutive hurricanes in 2004, an alleged sexual assault on campus, a residential housing shortage and much more. She was a driving force in the selection and deployment of RaveAlert in 2011, a multi-modal emergency communication tool, which is still used today campus-wide.
Under her direction, her teams at Rollins College and Orange County Government garnered more than 50 industry awards for excellence in the field of PR and digital communications, including a 2017 Harvard Ash Center “Bright Idea in Government” for the County’s digital transformation. The Orlando Area Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) named Ann Marie as Central Florida’s 2004 PR Professional of the Year. In 2006, Ann Marie was named the PR Professional of the Year in the Academic Institution category of the PR People Awards 2006 by PR News. Winners were chosen for their leadership, creativity and results-driven activities during the 2005 calendar year judging period. The winners of this national, annual program set the benchmark for public relations and underscore outstanding PR achievements made in the previous year.
Ann Marie received both a bachelor’s degree in English/Speech Communication and a master’s degree in Human Resources from Rollins College. Her education and experience included a focus on culture, leadership, organizational change and development, bridging the generation gap in the workplace, and the synergies between public relations and marketing as well as public relations and human resources. She holds the designation of Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), a symbol of distinction and professionalism overseen by the Universal Accreditation Board and administered by the Public Relations Society of America.