In 2020, Chief Client Officer for Health+Commerce Krysta Pellegrino, KLN ‘00, realized that she and her company could be doing more to find solutions to the lack of diversity in the public relations industry. Collaborating with Klein’s Diversity Advisor to the Dean David Brown and Major Gift Officer Jose Zeron, the company has begun a partnership with Klein College of Media and Communication. At the core of the partnership are the Health+Commerce PR Scholarship and annual financial support for the Temple University Black Public Relations Society (TUBPRS), as well as speaking engagement opportunities.

Pellegrino is not new to the idea of supporting students. A President’s Scholarship recipient as an undergraduate at Temple University, Pellegrino was able to earn her bachelor’s degree without paying tuition. This enabled her to pursue opportunities such as internships or PRSA involvement that may not have been accessible to her otherwise, had she needed to hustle to pay her tuition bills. These opportunities have clearly paid off, and she has made it her mission to give back ever since.

“I really am so grateful for my time at Temple, and I don’t think there’s been a year since I’ve graduated that I haven’t tried to contribute something,” she said. “As I think about my career, I just feel like my time at Temple got me off on the right foot, and I'm grateful for that.”

So, when confronted with the data about the lack of diversity in public relations, Pellegrino and her team took a look at their own company. While proud to be a women-founded and led company, she noticed that the demographics were disproportionately dominated by white women, both within her own company and throughout the industry. To decide what to do next, she looked to the experts — she got in contact with Brown and Zeron, and expressed her concerns and her team’s ideas.

“She was hearing from the employees of the company, ‘Where’s the diversity at Health+Commerce?’, and it was really driven from the bottom up,” Zeron said.

Zeron and Brown both commented that it is a testament to both Pellegrino and Health+Commerce that their leadership not only recognized this issue from their employees, but that they are taking action toward accountability.

The strategy to create accountability and responsibility at Health+Commerce and in the public relations industry is three-pronged. First, Health+Commerce has committed to giving TUBPRS a yearly stipend to increase career advancement opportunities which would allow more students to attend conferences and other professional development activities. Second, the company has established the Health+Commerce PR Scholarship Fund for students from backgrounds underrepresented in public relations looking to enter a career in the field. Finally, the partnership involves opportunities for Pellegrino and others from Health+Commerce to interact with students and speak with them about the work of healthcare PR professionals. This is to give Klein’s PR students from all backgrounds who might not, at first, be familiar with the healthcare niche until they find themselves in the job market, a chance to see themselves working with firms like Health+Commerce.

This three-pronged approach will not only help address the lack of diverse candidates in the PR hiring pool, but will help young professionals and students understand the many angles from which one can approach a career in public relations. When overall interest in the industry increases, companies are able to benefit from hiring diverse candidates.

“Being able to attract more folks into that profession — that segment of the profession — is critical,” Brown said. “One thing we’ve learned throughout the pandemic is that people from diverse backgrounds are not only underrepresented; they are also overrepresented in issues around health disparities, illness and so forth. Being able to have more diverse people around the table to talk about how to address these issues — that’s also part of the business model.” 

The intention for this partnership is to create a pipeline of success from college PR courses to successful health PR careers — careers in which graduates are promoted and able to continuously succeed in the professional world.

“We hope this will help students pursue real-world opportunities,” Pellegrino said.