Ruder Finn employees, Delaney Crowe (JMU Alumna) and Christine Anbar, kindly presented to Bluestone Communications this past Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Both had great insight into the PR agency world. Crowe, a recent JMU grad shared her experience starting off at Ruder Finn in the 12-week trainee program where she was later promoted to Assistant Account Executive. Anbar started working at Ruder Finn only months before the pandemic hit and holds the role of Managing Director in the Global Healthcare sphere. Anbar spoke on Health Communications and the power of agency work.
Crowe accredits a lot of her success to JMU, the School of Communication, but most specifically, Bluestone Communications for allowing her to get her foot in the door into the PR agency world. Anbar has been in PR for many years and has been with many different companies but has not strayed from Health Communication. Both Crowe and Anbar are appreciative of working in an agency because you “do a little of everything.”
Anbar has a love for Health Communication because of her passion for science and desire to learn about “all sorts of diseases that actually mean something.” As she puts it, she has become “the doctor of the family.” One of Anbar’s proudest projects launched last week, a feature documentary, The Quest for Sleep. The film features, 3D animation, illustration of what happens in your brain when you sleep, and real people testimonials. The comments on the film embodies why she does healthcare communication – because she is helping make a difference in people’s lives by bringing awareness to a healthcare issue which people feel as if they are struggling alone.
Crowe’s proudest project in her career thus far was for the MetLife account which focused on women in STEM trying to foster diversity, women, and people of color. It was the first project Crowe felt as if she had a major role and noted “it was incredibly rewarding watching the project come to life from the beginning.”
When talking about challenges, both Crowe and Anbar acknowledged that every idea is not going to be perfect, and more times than not you will have to take a step back to create a new strategy. Their advice when a challenge arises is to utilize the people around you – bounce your ideas off your team members and never be afraid to ask for help.
During Crowe’s time at Ruder Finn she has felt supported by the people around her and has learned and grown exponentially. While it might’ve been overwhelming at first, Ruder Finn took the time to invest in her, and the “support starting day one meant a lot.”
Crowe gave three key pieces of advice for students graduating: feel confident in your abilities, utilize the people around you as resources, and my personal favorite, every rejection is a redirection into the next opportunity.
Anbar left us with one final quote which I believe anyone, at any level can benefit from: “stay curious, want to learn, and follow your passion.”
A huge thank you to Delaney Crowe and Christie Anbar – Bluestone Communications appreciates you both.
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