Greg Donaldson
Greg Donaldson is an innovative, results-driven and award-winning multidisciplinary senior communications executive with nearly three decades of experience in broadcast journalism, Fortune 100 and legacy non-profit corporate communications settings. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Corporate and Marketing Communications for the American Heart Association (AHA) at its international headquarters in Dallas, TX.
At the Association, Donaldson guides the nationwide corporate communications function in the execution and implementation of comprehensive, data driven, marketing communications strategies and initiatives. He works closely with AHA business units and local market teams across the United States and around the world to lead seamlessly coordinated, data driven earned media relations, public relations, media advocacy, consumer promotions strategies and crisis communications management efforts. In addition, Donaldson works to leverage the AHA brand internally through strategically enhanced organizational communications efforts.
Before joining the Heart Association, he worked as an independent consultant providing strategic communications counsel to clients, including one of the nation’s largest investor-owned hospital corporations. For nearly 15 years before that, Greg Donaldson served as National Vice President of Corporate Communications for the American Cancer Society where he oversaw that nonprofit’s award winning brand building efforts as “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays™”.
Prior to joining the American Cancer Society, Mr. Donaldson served in a similar capacity for Humana Incorporated, a publicly traded Fortune 100 health-benefits company headquartered in Louisville, KY. In his role with Humana, Mr. Donaldson managed the company's enterprise-wide corporate public relations and news media relations activities. He also provided executive leadership for Humana’s nationwide employee communications programs.
Early in his career, Donaldson also spent more than ten years as an award-winning broadcast journalist and television news executive in markets throughout the Midwest and Southeast United States.
He has been the recipient of numerous professional awards from the Associated Press Broadcasters Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi (SPJ), as well as both the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) — where his teams won two prestigious PRSA Silver Anvil Awards in 2010 and two more in 2017 — and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). He was invited to join and is currently a member of the prestigious Arthur W. Page Society.
Mr. Donaldson is an honors graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit honor fraternity and a past recipient of multiple special student and alumni honors from the Diederich College of Communication.