Kelly Stern

Kelly Stern is a senior executive at Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan with $25 billion in annual revenue serving 4.8 million members in California.1 Her current role is Senior Vice President of Communications and Corporate Citizenship.12 In this position, she is responsible for:

Key Responsibilities

• Driving strategic communications to create clarity, confidence, and connection to the company's mission, strategy, and brand
• Helping protect and build Blue Shield's reputation
• Overseeing the Corporate Citizenship team, which focuses on corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability
• Elevating Blue Shield's presence in the community through corporate giving, volunteerism, and community engagement1

Professional Background

Kelly Stern has over 20 years of experience in corporate communications, including:

• Public relations
• Executive communications
• Employee communications
• Crisis and change communications1

She began her career in advertising in Los Angeles, working on various accounts including the launch of DIRECTV. Later, she joined the corporate practice at Burson-Marsteller in Washington, D.C., where she worked with Fortune 500 companies on challenges such as mergers and acquisitions, crisis management, and brand transformation.1

Achievements

During her time at Burson-Marsteller, Stern won the PRWeek Award for Crisis/Issues Management Campaign of the Year for her team's on-site support to the United States Postal Service during the anthrax crisis.1

Education and Early Career

• Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Started her career as a dancer, studying with New York City Ballet's School of American Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet School1

Kelly Stern is highly regarded in her field, with colleagues describing her as "an incredibly talented communications professional with the perfect mix of passion, creativity and experience".3