Risa Goldman Burgess
Risa Burgess has 12 years of healthcare communications experience and joined Schwartz Communications in 1998.
Risa has executed award-winning product and company launches for breakthrough medical devices and diagnostics in depression, orthopedics, oncology, epilepsy, cosmetics and has extensive experience working with biotechnology, health technology and life science companies. She has designed and implemented PR campaigns to support regional sales efforts, regulatory milestones, scientific communications, M&A activity, pre-launch market conditioning, issue awareness, celebrity-driven consumer awareness, corporate communications, clinical trial recruitment and special events. Her client portfolio includes emerging growth companies such as Leerink Swann, Southern Research Institute, Cyberonics, Wright Medical, Artes Medical, etrials, High Throughput Genomics, Verdezyne, SONIC innovations and Oridion and market leaders including West Pharmaceutical Services, PerkinElmer Life Sciences and CMGi.
Risa has secured innumerable high impact placements for her clients in media including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Investor's Business Daily, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Dow Jones, Reuters, Financial Times, Boston Globe, Nature Review, BioITWorld, Pharmaceutical Executive and Drug Discovery and Development. She also has a solid track record of broadcast coverage on CNBC, CBS, NBC, FOX and ABC.
Under her guidance, Risa's teams have been recognized for PR excellence by the Publicity Club of New England with top honors including best product/service publicity business-to-business campaign for Leerink Swann in 2009; best news release: regional for Cyberonics in 2006 and best investor relations/financial campaign for Cyberonics in 2005.
She is on the Board of Directors as immediate past president for the Publicity Club of New England and she manages the Agency's submissions for the annual awards competition. She also leads training and professional development programs for the healthcare practice and is actively involved in recruiting and interviewing new hire candidates.
Prior to joining Schwartz, Risa worked as a research associate at RAMS-FIE in Gaithersburg, MD. She also dipped her toes in culinary PR at Blue Plate Communications, a Newton, Mass. public relations agency focused on the food service industry. Risa holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Maryland with a specialty in public relations and writing. When she isn't at the office, she is spending time with her husband chasing after her toddler.
