Social Media & Digital Advocacy
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More than two decades ago, Kathi Cullari founded CCG on the commitment of a single client who recognized her superior skills at building relationships, forging strategies, and bringing to life partnerships that prompt priority audiences to listen, consider, and enact positive change.
CCG has long since skyrocketed to the global stage, with senior consultants currently serving a diverse roster of select clients that have one thing in common: a need for comprehensive, world-class stakeholder alignment and engagement services.
Even while experiencing exponential growth, CCG has maintained the boutique qualities that our clients love and have come to expect from us — a personal touch, a customized approach, and unparalleled results from our team, all of whom are senior level and passionate about the work we do.
“What differentiates us in the marketplace? Our people are resilient, our network is agile, and our relationships are deep.”
Kathi Cullari, Founder & CEO
Leadership
Every CCG team member is senior-level and able to serve our clients at the highest level, tactically and strategically. Our diverse professional backgrounds, coupled with our integrated team approach and creative, “can-do” attitudes, ensure we can can meet our clients’ needs and exceed their expectations.
Leadership Team
Kathi Cullari
Jenifer Wagner
Michelle Gillespie
Tiffany Nagle
Victoria Kennedy
Jayme McCormick
George Guido
Global Leadership Team
Steve McCormick
Jennifer Garratt
Nick James
Tom Parker
Strategists & Subject Area Experts
Emily Bonaparte
Tamitha Walker McKinnis
Samantha Willner, MPH
Elizabeth Bates

Elizabeth is an industry veteran with over 20 years of dynamic, cross-functional leadership and advocacy development experience for our clients. Her market access and advocacy background has been shaped by a career at leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies,...
Stephen Graves

As a talented and versatile professional, Stephen demonstrates an unwavering commitment to serving others while possessing the attributes of a transformative leader. Stephen has added value and return on investment through his work in Inclusion, Diversity, Equity...
Susan Manns
Catie de Montille
Field Team Specialists
Silvina Martinez
Tim Nagle
Cindy Komar
Samantha Darwak
Stephanie Darwak
Alix Floyd
Allison Griffin
Chris Lato
Elaine Sachette
Jennifer Wilson
Our Reach
Headquarted in Hershey, Pennsylvania, CCG is anchored and engaged in projects with our clients around the world.

“I don’t think in my history in the Assembly, I have ever had a bill that garnered as much support as this bill.”
Services

Corporate
Advocacy Function Building
Executive Engagement
Insight Gathering
Advisory Boards
Listening Sessions, Panels, Audits
Social Media Monitoring
Stakeholder Mapping
Environmental / Landscape Assessments
Stakeholder Engagement
Consensus Building
Mobilized Change Campaigns
Legislative & Policy Advocacy
Traditional and Social Paid Media
Traditional and Social Media
Comprehensive Media Relations Services
Complete Suite of Digital Tools (see list)
Specialized Expertise
CCG has deep ties to specialized areas in the healthcare space, and is ready to provide the needed insight and expertise for your specific needs.
Biopharmaceutical Industry
CCG has 22 years of experience representing clients in the biopharmaceutical industry. This is a highly specialized area of CCG focus — we understand the industry’s issues, lingo, and unique needs and challenges. In particular, CCG is a leader in helping companies to optimize their patient advocacy functions and strategically plan and tactically execute on comprehensive stakeholder engagement with a vast universe of external individuals and organizations.
Oncology
A SPECIALIZED CCG FOCUS
As oncology product development accelerates at an unprecedented pace, complex challenges around patient-provider engagement — as well as reimbursement and access barriers — are rapidly and permanently changing the landscape and rules of engagement.
Safely, affordably, and effectively delivering truly innovative treatments to patients requires dynamic integration of the patient voice across the continuum of product development and delivery.
In response, CCG’s Precision Oncology Advocacy Team provides our oncology-focused clients with current, expert and customized consultation to develop and implement innovative strategies that create meaningful outcomes.
Our Precision Oncology Advocacy Team members are senior-level oncology strategists with a minimum of 15 years of experience in their respective fields, including stakeholder relations, communications, psychosocial oncology, advocacy engagement, government relations, healthcare, non-profit management, marketing, public relations and social media communications.
CCG’s Precision Oncology Advocacy Team ensures world-class, high-integrity advocacy relations that unite the patient voice with your business goals.
Precision Oncology Advocacy utilizes an integrated approach to create transformational advocacy strategies through:
- Customized strategic solutions that foster goal alignment internally across the business
- Design of innovative advocacy relations infrastructure and standard operating procedure (SOP) optimization
- Efficient and effective utilization of resources (fiscal, personnel and other assets)
- Targeted external stakeholder engagement and environmental shaping
- State and federal policy shaping and support
- Internal advocacy relations management
- Elevation of the Advocacy Relations function across the business — integrating the patient voice into pre-launch, launch and post-launch market strategy
- Impact Measurement and internal communications — Identifying meaningful metrics and positioning value across the business
Rare Disease
The rare disease space is unique, and patient and caregiver involvement and input are necessary to achieving higher drug development success rates, new therapeutic options, and improved health outcomes. In spite of this, addressing the tremendous unmet need in rare disease remains compounded by a continued lack of multi-stakeholder coordination, alignment, and collaboration.
CCG is perfectly positioned to be your firm of choice for developing stronger partnerships between industry and nonprofit patient advocacy groups; between regulators, payers, and drug developers; and between patients, families, and caregivers. Working with our specialized R.A.R.E (Ready, Aligned, Responsive, and Educated) Engagement team, you will immediately benefit from our 20-plus years of hands-on experience.
CCG’s R.A.R.E. Patient Engagement Team will support your development and implementation of a comprehensive rare disease advocacy strategy that serves as a connection point between the patient community and the company; raises awareness of a disorder and possible therapies; facilitates a free flow of information; helps to discover and address patients’ unmet needs, and creates an environment receptive to innovative solutions to improving health outcomes.
Our insights separate us — and our clients — in the highly sensitive and specialized rare disease space:
- Orphan drugs face many market access hurdles due to their small target patient populations. Access to patient data and recruitment for clinical trials is a challenge and, at times, results in a lack of safety and efficacy data
- Real-world perspectives can significantly enhance the value story of any innovative drug.
- The brand experience isn’t limited to the treatment; it includes the client’s interactions with the patient and caregiver community as a whole.
- Building and, more importantly, sustaining trusted relationships with key stakeholders across the rare disease ecosystem is critical from the earliest stages of drug development.

Silvina Martinez

Silvina Martinez seeks to build sustainable partnerships with advocacy and community-based organizations, business groups, elected officials and the media. Through long-established relationships in diverse communities throughout California, Silvina also helps clients cross ethnic and cultural lines to tap into emerging and rapidly growing markets. A former newspaper reporter, Silvina has written in both English and Spanish throughout her career in Latin America and the United States.

Emily Bonaparte

Emily Bonaparte is a public affairs professional with a decade of expertise in grassroots and stakeholder engagement, digital innovation, media relations, and advocacy campaigns. As Senior Director of Communications and Advocacy, Emily supports client advocacy initiatives at CCG with special expertise in brain health and diabetes management.
Before joining CCG, Emily helped establish the Policy and Advocacy department for an advocacy consulting firm. She provided strategic counsel in public affairs, public health, and advocacy to over twenty biotech, life sciences, and health tech companies globally and within the United States. She also led the policy and advocacy strategy to assist early-stage startups in integrating the patient perspective into product launches and awareness campaigns.
Emily also has experience in the non-profit and government sectors. As the sole project manager at EmblemHealth, she managed projects across a team of 200 communications and marketing professionals. Emily also served as a Director at the New Orleans Health Department, where she led FIT NOLA, a multi-sector initiative designed to address health disparities and chronic conditions through advocacy partnerships and communications campaigns.

Tim Nagle

Tim joins Cullari Communications Global (CCG) with a strong background in customer relationship management and marketing. Before joining CCG, Tim worked at Morgan Stanley in private wealth management, where he maintained trusted client relationships and handled evolving workflows. His expertise in new client onboarding, complex project coordination, digital marketing, and compliance process management is essential to his role at CCG. Tim leads stakeholder mapping and landscape analysis, develops and manages complex events and meetings, and oversees social media strategies for our clients.

Tamitha Walker McKinnis

Tamitha offers CCG clients facilitation, coaching, project and knowledge management services. She has led strategy, capacity building, and narrative change initiatives and projects partnering with multi-sector groups, consultants, policymakers, public and private funders, researchers, grantee partners, organizers, advocates and community leaders. Through engagements designing and leading organizational change, strategic planning, thought leadership, meeting, retreat and convening planning, she has also designed and implemented racial equity and inclusion plans within strategic planning, grantmaking, and evaluation initiatives with grantee, consultant, government and peer philanthropic leaders and partners.
After earning a BA in Public Health as well as a MHS degree in Health Policy and Management, both from Johns Hopkins University, and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary, Tamitha completed doctoral coursework in Public Affairs and Administration focusing on public/nonprofit management and finance.

Cindy Komar

Cindy is a dynamic and innovative leader in patient and public policy, driven by a passion
for amplifying patients’ voices, improving access to specialty healthcare, and advocating for innovative medication therapies. With over 20 years of proven success in marketing and promoting patient access within the rare disease community, Cindy combines corporate sales, patient advocacy, and nonprofit leadership experience. She also possesses a strong understanding of the patient journey, interests, and concerns.

Samantha Willner, MPH

Samantha is a seasoned patient advocacy consultant and biotech expert with a broad background in strategic relationship building, healthcare education, operational leadership, and project management within patient engagement. Before joining CCG, Samantha was the Director of Patient Advocacy at Prevail Therapeutics and led Patient Advocacy Operations at Spark Therapeutics. In these positions, she developed a unique skill set, designing strategic patient engagement plans while skillfully managing high-priority projects and patient communications to ensure their smooth and timely implementation.

Elizabeth Bates

Elizabeth is an industry veteran with over 20 years of dynamic, cross-functional leadership and advocacy development experience for our clients. Her market access and advocacy background has been shaped by a career at leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Roche, Genentech, and Lilly. Elizabeth has helped bring more than 30 breakthrough products to market across various segments, such as rare diseases and specialty care. Her passion for creating pathways to improve outcomes for patients and providers is deeply rooted in her dedication to delivering effective, patient-centric market strategies for companies both large and small.
She is a skilled communicator and experienced community facilitator who leads peer-driven dialogues that empower patients and caregivers to shape meaningful research goals and effective post-launch market strategies. Elizabeth has designed, recruited for, and facilitated a variety of engagement programs aimed at uncovering and addressing the unique unmet needs of rare disease patient communities at local, national, and global levels.
Elizabeth specializes in patient advocacy, launch readiness, and cultivating key stakeholder alignment to drive the results that matter most to the patients they serve.

Stephen Graves

As a talented and versatile professional, Stephen demonstrates an unwavering commitment to serving others while possessing the attributes of a transformative leader. Stephen has added value and return on investment through his work in Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility. His areas of expertise include facilitation, strategic planning, project management, education and training, and performance improvement. Additionally, he has shown dedication to clients and team members by successfully completing projects and initiatives involving language access, people analytics and data reporting, employee resource groups, and cultural humility and diversity training. He has previous healthcare experience working on and leading Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility efforts at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, SC), Novant Health (Charlotte, NC), and the University of Vermont Medical Center (Burlington, VT). Understanding the power of the “collective intellect,” Stephen is a compassionate collaborator who promotes team-based work in his pursuit to cultivate a sense of belonging for all and improve the lives of others. Stephen completed his Master’s in Health Administration at the Medical University of South Carolina and holds an Executive Certificate in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion from Georgetown University.

Kathi Cullari

With two decades of experience in government, trade associations, and the private sector, Kathi founded CCG in 1997 to better unify and represent the patient voice to policymakers, media, and other important audiences. She quickly built a strong client base and earned a stellar reputation for helping companies develop deeper relationships and more meaningful collaboration with patient advocates and broader stakeholder communities.
Under Kathi’s leadership, CCG has expanded into a global leader in stakeholder engagement while remaining committed to its core mission of amplifying the patient voice in important discussions that improve access, care, and health outcomes.

Jenifer Wagner

Jenifer has been with CCG for over 25 years and is a skilled strategist for CCG clients. She also serves as the firm’s COO, overseeing team coordination, talent acquisition, and quality assurance. Jen started her career in Pennsylvania state government as press secretary for the Lieutenant Governor during the Ridge administration. Before joining CCG, she worked at GlaxoSmithKline as a state government affairs manager covering a multi-state region.

Michelle Gillespie

Michelle has more than 25 years of proven consulting experience in public relations, public affairs, and stakeholder engagement. She is a skilled strategist with a track record of devising successful national and state stakeholder alignment campaigns around access to care and broader healthcare issues on behalf of a wide range of clients.

Tiffany Nagle

Tiffany’s experience in non-profit senior management at both the American Diabetes Association and American Cancer Society fully prepared her to excel in diverse stakeholder relations, communications, clinical trial strategy, and disease awareness and education. With more than two decades of experience, Tiffany leads and manages several rare disease projects, delivering measurable outcomes to achieve public policy, advisory boards, and business goals, all while enhancing corporate reputation, as CCG’s North America President.

Victoria Kennedy

Vicki assists CCG clients in delivering innovative oncology care by developing and executing patient engagement strategies that define patient value, enhance quality of life, and improve health outcomes. As a licensed oncology social worker, Vicki previously served as Vice President of Program Development & Delivery at the Cancer Support Community (CSC), where she was responsible for the development, delivery, and quality assurance of CSC’s clinical programs worldwide.

Susan Manns

Susan Manns offers CCG’s clients Health Care Policy Strategy. She researches and analyzes policy issues and then provides clients with strategic advice and helpful resources to manage and advance their health care priorities. Susan has over 25 years of experience in the health care industry and brings a diverse and valuable background. After gaining practical knowledge as a pharmacist, Susan earned a master’s degree in public health with a focus on health care policy, communications, and education. Over the past 20 years, she has held roles in policy for national associations like NACDS and PhRMA, as well as key positions with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies such as AstraZeneca. Additionally, Susan’s analytical skills deliver targeted insights into which stakeholders to engage to move priorities forward.

Jayme McCormick

Jayme develops and executes communications strategies across advocacy and stakeholder engagement, disease awareness, corporate reputation, issues management and product communications. Her experience spans the public, private and non-profit arenas. Jayme now resides in London, where she leads global programme implementation for industry-leading pharmaceutical clients.

Steve McCormick

As an award-winning broadcast journalist and news producer, Steve McCormick has over 25 years of experience. After nearly 20 years with BBC News, Steve joins CCG as a successful media strategist with a proven track record of creating and delivering engaging, creative content for both global and local audiences. His multimedia skills bring an imaginative approach to communicating complex and important messages. Having worked at the center of some of the busiest and best newsrooms, production houses, and broadcasters, Steve is now committed to providing CCG clients with his editorial vision and media content strategy and development.

Jennifer Garratt

Jennifer has worked in healthcare communications for over 20 years. She has worked across global, pan-European and UK accounts in a wide range of therapeutic areas. Jennifer has created many corporate and internal programs for a range of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. She has a Pharmacology BSc from Leeds University and a PhD in Neuroscience.

George Guido

With over 30 years of experience, George drives fully integrated national and international stakeholder engagement, public affairs, PR, advocacy, and communication campaigns, including projects in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe. George held the position of U.S. Alliance Development and Global Stakeholder Relations with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals for eight years. He also led worldwide healthcare and public affairs constituency relations for an international public relations firm for more than a decade.

Nick James

Nick has extensive experience in providing multi-country media and public relations consulting services in ethical and consumer healthcare. He has nearly 20 years of experience and business contacts in advocacy, journalism, and high-level media across various therapeutic areas. Based in London, Nick works with a broad range of stakeholders and advocacy groups across Europe and around the world.

Tom Parker

Tom brings over 20 years of experience to CCG with deep knowledge of European public policy and the broader corporate affairs environment. He has spent significant time building relationships across business and political communities throughout Europe and globally. Tom advises governments, industry associations, and major corporations, with particular expertise in the life sciences sector. He lectures on EU policy and political communications and is an active commentator on European politics, policy, and Brexit in the media. Tom is fluent in both English and French.

Samantha Darwak

Samantha supports the priorities of CCG clients across the US, focusing on state and federal issues. She has experience at the international, national, and state levels, working with not-for-profit organizations and advocacy groups, such as London’s Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) and The Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine. There, she managed the Blood Pressure UK database and consumer outreach programs. She also has proven experience in social media, public affairs, and organizing patient and caregiver meetings, as well as supporting ambassador meetings.

Stephanie Darwak

Stephanie helps CCG’s clients to achieve their objectives in state and federal health policy through comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategies that include coordinated advocacy and media approaches. With over 20 years of experience in ally development and government affairs, Stephanie is well-connected with a wide array of health-related stakeholders nationally and throughout the Northeast.

Alix Floyd

Alix drives stakeholder engagement and improves corporate positioning through partnership development, issues and crisis management, and strategic corporate communications. Her 12+ years of experience includes patient advocacy and engagement at Alexion Pharmaceuticals and serving as vice president at a global public relations firm. Alix is based in Washington, D.C.

Allison Griffin

Allison works with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, healthcare providers, and healthcare advocacy organizations to impact legislative and regulatory issues at the state and federal levels through fully integrated public affairs campaigns. She previously managed media relations for the Texas Medical Association and worked on the Hill in Washington, D.C. She was named a “Rising Star” by National Journal among Capitol Hill staff members.

Catie de Montille

Catie has over a decade of experience in designing, leading, and executing integrated marketing and communications strategies for various corporate, foundation, government, and non-profit organizations.
Before joining CCG, Catie was the Director of Communications at the AB InBev Foundation. She managed efforts to align the Foundation’s initiatives with relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals, set goals and targets for its programs, and worked to increase visibility of its public health impacts and contributions. Besides AB InBev, she has collaborated with Bank of America, Nike, and Unilever, among others.
Catie previously led the Digital & Social Media practice at a global consulting and technology services company and served as a Vice President at a worldwide public relations firm, where she advised on strategic communications and engagement at the intersection of corporate social responsibility and sustainable innovation.
She has previously served as a guest instructor at George Washington University. Catie earned her M.Ed. in Organizational Leadership and B.S. degrees in Psychology and Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University.

Chris Lato

A strategic communications professional with over 25 years of experience, Chris’s specialties include public and media relations, grassroots and stakeholder engagement, event planning, and marketing campaigns. His experience spans working with a variety of healthcare, non-profit, charity, and public policy clients. Chris has earned an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), one of only about 5,000 professionals to hold this credential.

Elaine Sachette
