Speaker to discuss digital and social media communication in healthcare

Guest Speaker Heath Nettles will speak in the University Center on Feb. 27.

Heath Nettles, the director of digital and social media in the Marketing and Communications Division of Mission Health System, will be guest speaking at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27 in the University Center’s Catamount Room.

Nettles will talk about his experience with digital communication and content marketing for healthcare. The event will also will also give current and future students the chance to learn more about the job market for the Communication Department’s new health communication concentration.

The department’s website defines the new concentration as, “A program that focuses on how people, individually and collectively, understand and accommodate to health and illness and the role of communication and media in shaping professional health care messages and public acceptance of these messages.”

Dr. Scott Eldredge, an assistant professor in the Communication Department, is responsible for bringing Nettles to WCU.

“As the Communication Department launches a new health communication concentration for communication majors, I thought it was important to give students the opportunity to hear from, and talk with a professional working in communication within a healthcare environment,” said Eldredge. “With technology really transforming the way we communicate, particularly within the world of health care, Heath can really speak to how important digital and social media technologies are changing the way we deliver health care and promote healthy behaviors.

Nettles is also an adjunct assistant professor of management and accountancy at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. To learn more about Nettles, visit his website or his LinkedIn page.