UK-based international healthcare communications agency, Makara Health, has promoted Katie Bright to director, responsible for the agency’s engagement offering.

Bright will work alongside PR and communications specialist Helen Laurence, recently appointed director at Makara Health, as the agency expands its senior leadership team to support continued growth.

Bright joined Makara Health in 2015 as an associate director and has since been leading a range of local and international accounts. In her new role as director, she will focus on engagement programmes spanning training, medical education and patient engagement, a fundamental part of Makara’s offering alongside brand and communications. 

With over 16 years of experience in healthcare, Bright has worked extensively in the field of patient and healthcare professional engagement and was most recently senior solutions director at Spoonful of Sugar, the behaviour change consultancy. After a degree in psychology and physiology, Bright started her career in OTC and consumer advertising before gaining a Master's in neuroscience. Since then, she has focussed on healthcare communications with positions in global agencies including Sudler & Hennessey and Publicis Life Brands.

“Katie’s self-starter attitude epitomises the culture at Makara Health and her collaborative approach means that colleagues and clients alike love working with her,” says Louise Sharp, owner and managing director of Makara Health. “Katie brings unrivalled experience across a spectrum of engagement and brand activities and we are delighted that she will now be taking on the role of director at Makara and helping to fuel our continued growth.”

Bright adds, “I’m thrilled to take up the role of Director at Makara and help drive the next stage of growth for the company. Since joining Makara, I’ve seen how the combination of the senior team and a truly flexible working model allows us to deliver high quality, innovative programmes and I’m looking forward to growing and managing our engagement offering to deliver even more powerful results for our clients.”