Weill Cornell Medicine has hired Eileen Sheil as assistant vice provost for communications and public affairs, effective on February 1, 2024.
Sheil will report to dean Robert Harrington and serve on his leadership team, working closely with mission deans and other executives. She is set to succeed Mason Essif, who led the division for nearly a decade. Steven Singer has served in an interim capacity since January, according to a statement from Weill Cornell Medicine.
Sheil will co-lead the office of external affairs with Lucille Ferraro, assistant vice provost for development, and oversee its more-than-40-member division of communications and public affairs, which encompasses functions including editorial, multimedia, media relations, social media, marketing and brand and government and community affairs.
Sheil will also collaborate with Cornell’s comms leadership in Ithaca, New York, as well as with counterparts at hospital partner NewYork-Presbyterian, and affiliates including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Rockefeller University and Hospital for Special Surgery.
The communications and public affairs division is focused on increasing Weill Cornell Medicine’s profile as a “premier global academic medical institution” to the general public, patients and peers in academic medicine, it said in a statement.
“I’m excited to join the Weill Cornell Medicine team and work to further enhance the reputation and educate key stakeholders about the organizations’ strategic priorities,” Sheil said via email. “I’m eager to test and invest in innovative approaches to tell the world about its incredible discoveries, medical education and advancements in patient care that benefit so many.”
Since March 2022, Sheil has served as medical technology company Cue Health’s chief communications officer. Before that, Sheil was VP of global external communications for Medtronic and executive director of corporate communications for Cleveland Clinic.
Before joining Cleveland Clinic in 2002, Sheil was manager of comms, public affairs and media relations for the Ohio region of Kaiser Permanente and a media relations manager for Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. Sheil also served as a governor-appointed trustee of Ohio University, where she serves on the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine advisory board.
Sheil was a member of the PRWeek Health Influencer 50 list in 2016.
This story was updated on December 1 with quotes from Sheil.
This story originally appeared on PRWeek US.
