Executive Vice President, Creative Services

Sara Stern brings to Lipman Hearne more than 20 years of expertise in managing complex demands, techniques, and tactics of large-scale integrated marketing and branding programs.

Sara came to Lipman Hearne from Rush University Medical Center where she was Associate Vice President for Marketing Communications. She led the institution's consumer marketing including branding, advertising, public relations, employee communications, and Web strategies. She and the strategic planning and marketing team repositioned the institution and launched Rush's first major, integrated marketing and advertising campaign that generated more than $20 million in new patient charges, tripled calls to its physician referral center, and increased queries to the Web site more than fivefold.

Prior to Rush, Sara was Vice President for Communications at the national Alzheimer's Association, where she led co-marketing efforts with the pharmaceutical industry, created public education campaigns, and developed a transactional Web site. She was head of public relations and marketing at Illinois Institute of Technology prior to her position at the Association. There she was instrumental in a marketing and repositioning strategy that changed the quality of the student body and led to transformational gifts from the Pritzker and Galvin families. She started her career at Burson-Marsteller and Ruder & Finn in Chicago and New York and worked on consumer product, advocacy, and business-to-business accounts.

Sara has an A.B. degree in political science from Smith College and has lectured on integrated marketing communication for The Forum for Healthcare Strategists, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).