NORWALK, Conn.– Kirsten Suto Seckler, chief marketing and communications officer for Shatterproof, has been named to the PRWeek Health Influencer 30 Class of 2022. The annual list honors inspirational leaders who are transforming healthcare communications, with honorees chosen by the PRWeek editorial board. The list is part of The Health Issue, PRWeek’s last print edition for 2022, which is devoted to health PR and communications and honors the most prominent players influencing healthcare and Pharma PR, including client-side communicators, healthcare executives at major U.S. and global PR firms, associations and nonprofits, and leading brands, and specialist health agency leaders.
In her executive role, Seckler oversees brand, marketing, communications, and digital fundraising for Shatterproof, a leading national nonprofit committed to protecting people from addiction, transforming addiction treatment, and ending the stigma and suffering of those affected by the disease. Shatterproof provides information and resources for those living with addiction as well as their families, enabling powerful new evidence-based approaches to help prevent, treat and recover from the disease. In addition, the nonprofit takes the issue of addiction and recovery to the steps of Capitol Hill and has helped pass 26 pieces of federal legislation in its nine-year existence.
More than 40 million Americans are currently living with a substance use disorder, which is a leading cause of preventable and accidental death. In 2021, there were nearly 107,000 drug overdoses in the U.S. — the most ever recorded. Additionally, more than 99,000 Americans died in 2020 from alcohol-related causes. Seckler’s work is dedicated to educating the public about substance use disorder as a chronic brain illness and not a character flaw or moral weakness. In the three years she has been with Shatterproof, she has helped launch several new programmatic initiatives for Shatterproof including a national strategy to end stigma that addresses structural, social and self-stigma, an addiction treatment locator, assessment, and standards tool and updated educational resources for individuals and loved ones impacted by substance use disorder. Seckler also led event marketing and brand engagement opportunities to that end, including the creation of new digital fundraising events, The Shatterproof Stronger than Addiction Challenge featuring Grammy Award winner Melissa Etheridge; and the Shatterproof Chairman’s Receptions featuring actress Jamie Lee Curtis, NBC News Anchor Craig Melvin, and Grammy Award winner Sarah McLachlan.
“The past few years have underlined once again the vital work carried out by PR professionals in the healthcare and pharma spaces across numerous areas of communication,” said Steve Barrett, vice president, editorial director of PRWeek US. “The outstanding PR pros on the Health Influencer 30 list are doing really important work and blazing a trail in best practice.”
Seckler developed Shatterproof’s first-ever digital strategy to drive an increase in traffic across all channels and fundraising, including the Rise Up Against Addiction Walks and the National Addiction Memorial — a place where families can honor their loved one lost to this disease. Seckler was also part of a team that developed the ATLAS® platform. ATLAS is a free, confidential first-of-its-kind platform that helps patients and loved ones navigate quality treatment by searching their needs, severity, geographic location, services offered, insurance accepted, and demographics.
Prior to Shatterproof, Seckler was with the Special Olympics for more than 20 years, most recently as the global chief brand and communications officer, where she led a worldwide team to creatively shape and challenge perceptions about people with intellectual disabilities through sports, health, youth and school programming, and engagement with the broader public. Through marketing, digital engagement, thought leadership, awareness, events, content creation, and storytelling, she and her team reframed the Special Olympics brand to be known as a global inclusion movement. One of her biggest achievements was securing ESPN to live broadcast the Special Olympics World Games.
Seckler is an Adjunct Professor with the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for Special Olympics District of Columbia, is a Washington Women in Public Relations Woman of the Year Award honoree, and is the only woman and an inaugural inductee of the North Brunswick Township High School, NJ Hall of Fame, her alma mater.
