April Drugan (at left) and Emily Cortez. Photos provided.
SARATOGA SPRINGS – The Patient Experience Project (PEP), a full-service, patient-centric marketing and communications agency, announced the hiring of Emily Cortez as an account director and award-winning creative designer April Drugan.
In her role as an account director, Cortez is responsible for managing clinical trial recruitment and retention projects.
Cortez has more than 15 years of experience as an advertising account executive, with a specialty in clinical trial projects. Before joining PEP, she was a vice president, program director at TBWA\WorldHealth, Omnicom Health Group in Chicago, Illinois. Previously, she was a clinical trial recruitment services manager at Radiant Research also in Chicago. Over her career, she has managed various pharmaceutical-sponsored clinical trial accounts with a focus on patient recruitment, patient materials, clinical trial communications and compliance, advertising and media planning.
Cortez earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration and public relations from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
In her role as an associate creative director, Drugan is responsible for producing and supervising PEP’s high-level, quality work, from development and presentation through execution.
Before joining PEP, Drugan worked as a senior art director at Abelson Taylor, a healthcare marketing agency in Chicago, Illinois. She also was an art director at GSW, a healthcare advertising firm in Columbus, Ohio. Her clients included such pharmaceutical companies as Takeda, Sanofi-Aventis, Genentech, Eli Lilly, Abbott, Astellas, and Mallinckrodt.
Drugan earned her bachelor’s degree in graphic design and art education, with honors, from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She has won 18 healthcare advertising industry honors for her work including Effie, Rx Club, MM&M, PM 360 Pharma Choice, Global, and Aster awards.
For more information, visit the website www.the-pep.com.