Kathryn Metcalfe has held leadership positions in healthcare communications for the past 30 years, working on both the agency (Noonan Russo, Cohn & Wolfe) and the client (Novartis, Pfizer, Aetna, Bristol-Myers Squibb) sides of the business, working across the pharmaceutical, insurance and most recently—as senior vice president and chief communications officer of CVS Health—pharmacy sectors, dealing with some of the biggest communications in the health world.

In her current role, she is she is responsible for all internal, external, crisis, and reputation communications across the organization, and has helped CVS address a range of issues including accessibility and health equity, the opioid crisis, and vaccine hesitancy in the wake of the Covid pandemic, while supporting one of America’s most high-profile female CEOs, Karen Lynch.

For her efforts on these issues, Metcalfe will receive our SABRE Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement, to be presented as our annual awards dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street, New York, on May 2.

Metcalfe began her career on the agency side of the business, and rose to become CEO of the New York office of Cohn & Wolfe before moving to the client side of the business in 2004, first with Novartis, and later with Pfizer and Deloitte.

Metcalfe joined insurance giant Aetna, now a CVS Health company, in 2016 as chief communications officer. After leading the communications around the integration between CVS Health and Aetna, she assumed the same role at CVS Health in February 2019.

She then joined Bristol Myers Squibb, where she led corporate affairs, including internal and external communications, global advocacy, state and federal government affairs, and global policy. In 2020, she helped the company expand its patient support programs for those impacted by the pandemic, created industry-leading commitments to equality, and built the company reputation and new brand following its acquisition of Celgene Corporation.

She returned to CVS in her current role in April of 2021.

Metcalfe holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She is an advisor and former faculty member at NYU School of Professional Studies. She served on the board of the Boise Urban Garden School and built a park in her hometown of Boise, Idaho. She has three children.