T2B May Comm Convo: Reaching and Valuing Every Generation
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Comm Convo pricing:
Complimentary for T2B Pro and Student community members (log into your T2B account and access your promo code here)
$40 for Basic members (access to live event only, not the recording)
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COMM CONVO: REACHING AND VALUING EVERY GENERATION
Biopharma communicators' audience has never been more generationally varied, and neither have our teams. We are crafting patient and HCP campaigns for people whose information habits, trusted channels, and decision-making cues look almost nothing alike across age groups, while managing corporate affairs and IR functions where unexamined assumptions and real tensions around ageism, authority, and what experience is actually worth are playing out in real time. And survey data backs this up: nearly 40% of both Baby Boomers and Gen Z workers report having experienced age-based discrimination at work or during their job search (iHire 2025 Multi-Generational Workforce Report). This Comm Convo brings a panel of voices spanning multiple experience levels to share what it takes to reach every stakeholder regardless of their generation, whether they're a patient, an investor, or the person sitting next to you.
WHY ATTEND
Exchange perspectives on advising C-suite and brand teams on audience segmentation strategies when patients, caregivers, and HCPs across five generations trust fundamentally different sources and consume information through entirely different channels.
Describe what genuine age inclusion looks like on corporate affairs teams, including where ageism surfaces in hiring and mentorship, how experience and digital fluency get weighed against each other, and whose ideas actually get championed.
Examine how cross-functional credibility shifts when generational assumptions, about who holds institutional knowledge and who brings fresh thinking, shape how comms teams are perceived and resourced.
Consider how biopharma communications, as a field that directly shapes public trust and patient engagement, can lead on building workplaces and campaigns where every generation's perspective is included.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Mike Kuczkowski, Founder and CEO, Orangefiery
Kyndel McKnight, Corporate Affairs Development Program, AbbVie
Catherine Woodwell, Associate Director, Corporate Communications, Mirum Pharmaceuticals
PANEL MODERATOR
Kelley Dougherty, SVP, Global Head of Corporate Affairs, Teva Pharmaceuticals
MEET OUR SPEAKERS
Kelley Dougherty, SVP, Global Head of Corporate Affairs, Teva Pharmaceuticals (Moderator)
Kelley Dougherty has been leading innovative and collaborative healthcare communication advances for more than 25 years. Kelley is currently SVP, Head of Teva Global Corporate Affairs, following 5 years as VP, North America Communications & Brand at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Previously Global Head of Reputation, Branding and Digital Media at Merck, Kelley had responsibility for enterprise-wide reputation initiatives, global branding and co-leadership of the global enterprise social media and digital efforts for both global communications and marketing.
Prior to leading North America Communications at Teva, Kelley joined Merck in 1998 to manage the company’s global HIV communications and policy initiatives and held positions of increasing responsibility within global and US-focused communications. Notably, Kelley served as head of communications for Merck’s vaccine business – leading the external launch of four flagship vaccines – led corporate and policy global media relations, forged critical global partnerships and relationships as corporate social responsibility leader and acted as manager of global policy and access.
Kelley came to Merck with 7 years of unparalleled communications, advertising, medical education and policy experience from her agency work at Nelson Communications (Sciens Worldwide) supporting multiple multi-national pharmaceutical, nutriceutical and consumer goods brands. Kelley received her undergraduate degree from Rowan University.
Mike Kuczkowski, Founder and CEO, Orangefiery
Mike Kuczkowski is the founder and CEO of Orangefiery, a strategy consulting and communications firm. With 30 years of experience in journalism, politics and communications, Mike founded Orangefiery on the principle that strategy and communications are critical to helping organizations navigate today’s dynamic business environment. He is passionate about helping clients solve complex problems with curiosity, rigor and collaboration.
Mike helps clients adapt and evolve their strategies and communications to drive change. His work with leaders at innovative startups and Fortune 50 companies has helped create new markets, launch new products, fuel business growth and transform organizations.
A two-time graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, Mike holds a bachelor’s in newspaper journalism and a master’s in communications management. Before building Orangefiery, he was an entrepreneur within Edelman—the world’s largest public relations firm—as a first-generation Global Client Relationship Manager, the founding president of Edelman Consulting and lead of the company’s first global team exclusively dedicated to serving a large multinational client with multiple service lines. He has deep experience in healthcare communications, corporate branding, market development, change management and crisis management. He is actively involved in the communications industry, serving as a Trustee of the Institute for Public Relations and on several non-profit boards.
Kyndel McKnight, Corporate Affairs Development Program, AbbVie
Kyndel McKnight is a participant in AbbVie’s Corporate Affairs Leadership Development Program, where he is gaining experience across rotations within Corporate Affairs and developing his career as a communications professional. A 2025 graduate of Northern Illinois University, Kyndel earned a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate & Organizational Communications and a minor in Journalism.