Erin Seidler’s passion for politics and public relations began in earnest when she interned for Sen. Tom Harkin, (D-Iowa), in the early 2000s. After working on numerous political campaigns, she accepted an offer to join the Obama administration as a senior adviser for strategic planning at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Eventually, Seidler moved to Memphis to lead health comms for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and she is now with Real Chemistry in its Chicago office.

What was your role in the Obama administration?

I was one of a small number of politically appointed staff at the Department of Health and Human Services. It was an unintended experience in crisis communications because I was there during the launch of healthcare.gov while the Affordable Care Act was being implemented.

What lessons did you learn from the healthcare.gov launch?

I feel fortunate for the experience because I learned a lot from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She set a good tone to keep our eye on the ball of our ultimate goal, which was to sign up more Americans for health insurance.

The website certainly was a huge challenge for the first couple of months of open enrollment, but we were also educating millions of Americans about signing up for health insurance.

From a comms perspective, we treated [the situation] like a natural disaster crisis. We conducted daily phone calls with reporters at 2 p.m. to update people, even if you don’t have all of the information. By making ourselves available it helped calm some of the swirl that was happening, especially on Twitter.

Is there a particular campaign that stands out as a favorite or one that taught you valuable lessons?

I interned on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004, which was such a wild ride. Later, a friend from that campaign hired me for a Senate race in Oklahoma.

It was fascinating because I got to experience a part of the country I’d never seen before — we saw 77 counties in seven days for the last push.

In a way, it was a little bit of a culture shock, but I still have dear friends from that experience, even though we lost. That’s just part of politics and that’s so valuable for your career. It’s all about working hard and pushing to the end, even if you know what the outcome might be.

What was your experience like moving from DC to Memphis to work at St. Jude?

Memphis has a bit more bars than DC, that’s for sure. The interesting thing about St. Jude is it’s an international brand and patients from all over the world come to it.

Meanwhile, the history of Memphis is blues, barbecue and the Delta, but it’s got a specific ethos. I found the community to be diverse, and the way that St. Jude is such an incredible part of that community and their identity was just amazing to see.

Can you tell me about your involvement with the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago?

This was my second convention — I volunteered at the 2016 convention in Philadelphia. This year, I volunteered as a network liaison, so I helped TV networks fill their time with campaign surrogates throughout the day.

The feeling in the room is hard to describe. The excitement with Vice President Kamala Harris had a new beginning feeling.

It takes perseverance in politics — it has been a roller coaster from when I started my career two decades ago. But it has made me more resilient as a worker in PR.

What excited you about the future of this industry?

I’m really excited to be in a space such as healthcare where there is so much change, especially from a policy perspective, and opportunity to work within this really large, complicated and sometimes ineffective system, to make some incremental changes. It impacts every single person.