Board Member
Experienced Healthcare Marketing & Communications Professional
As a Chief Marketing, Communications & Consumerism Officer, Deborah Fullerton has led brand development and marketing programs at five healthcare organizations across the United States. She has positioned brands for increased top-of-mind awareness, created memorable taglines, and built reputation monitoring programs. Deborah has orchestrated quantitative and qualitative research to guide developing sophisticated, metrics-driven strategies to increase volumes, revenue, and engagement. Her early foundation in journalism/public relations prepared her to develop strategic communications programs and manage media relations/crisis communications.
Deborah is a thought leader in the healthcare vertical, promoting consumerism/consumer experience and digital access, particularly to drive innovation and patient self-service tools and to empower consumers regarding their health. Deborah contributes regularly to national forums such as the Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development, the Scottsdale Institute, and Healthcare Internet Conference.
After many years in Chicago, Deborah has returned to the South as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications, and Consumerism at Prisma Health, a 14-hospital system based in Greenville, SC. Her responsibilities include strategic leadership of consumer insights/research, branding, marketing, internal and external communications, and consumerism.
Deborah brings extensive health care experience to her new role. Most recently, she oversaw the marketing, communications, and community relations team at AMITA Health in Chicago, IL. Prior to that role she developed the marketing/communications program at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. Her Chicago career started with her recruitment to Loyola University Health System to build its marketing/communications program, after a successful launch of the first marketing program at Duke University Health System in Durham, NC. She started her healthcare career at Duke in public relations after serving as a features editor at The Courier-Tribune newspaper in Asheboro, NC.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism & Media, Deborah also earned her MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business.
She has served on the Advisory Board of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism & Media since 2007 and participates in the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council. Deborah also served on the Board of Bottomless Closet in Chicago, a nonprofit that was devoted to assisting women to re-enter the workforce. She also previously volunteered with the Chicago Symphony and with the Taproot Foundation in Chicago.
Deborah and her husband Mark Fullerton have also long supported By the Hand Club for Kids, an after-school program in inner-city Chicago that transforms academically failing students into high school graduates equipped with skills for life and, most importantly, the ability to change their trajectory.
Deborah’s passions for health and children and empowering people through education merge thoughtfully for her Board role with Pilot Light.