Willamette Valley Medical Center

Cyndi Leinassar

Cyndi Leinassar, the Marketing and PR Director at Willamette Valley Medical Center, brings nearly three decades of experience in community relations, nonprofit and healthcare. Her relationship-driven approach shapes community engagement, authentic storytelling and communication between the medical center and the communities it serves.

Strengthening Communities Through Authentic Relationships

Leinassar describes her career as having “fallen forward” from one opportunity to the next. Nearly 30 years ago, she began at the Humane Society before moving into drug prevention, United Way fund development, hospital community relations and healthcare marketing. Each role expanded her skills, from grant writing and community forums to fund development, business relationships, patient-care issues and community partnerships.

For Leinassar, relationships have always created opportunities. People who saw how she approached her work and followed through often became the people who opened the door to her next role.

At Willamette Valley Medical Center, she took on unfamiliar technical responsibilities, including website management, social media, digital content management and other functions beyond advertising, copy development and public relations. As a oneperson department, she describes the transition as a “fast, fun and furious climb.” Every new responsibility became an opportunity to learn, adapt and evolve professionally.

Making Healthcare Marketing Reflect the Community It Serves

When Leinassar joined Willamette Valley Medical Center, she saw opportunities to strengthen local media relationships, social media and the way the hospital shared patient and provider stories. Her approach was shaped by the realities of rural healthcare, where a nurse or provider may also be a neighbor, Little League coach or local board member.

She found it odd that the hospital relied heavily on stock photography instead of showing the people actually caring for the community. She began putting physicians and team members in front of the camera, making the hospital’s communication reflect the community it serves. Team members later told her they were being recognized around town after appearing in hospital communications. For Leinassar, those moments reinforced the value of putting real faces behind the care.

Grateful patient storytelling became another important part of that approach. These stories can highlight provider expertise and compassion, give others facing similar challenges a point of connection, demystify healthcare and help people understand the care available close to home.

She does not see community needs and brand-building as competing priorities. For Leinassar, every story, community partnership and patient interaction is an opportunity to demonstrate who the organization is and reinforce why people can trust its care.

Keeping Healthcare Communication Human and Useful

Leinassar points to the growing complexity of healthcare as a pressing challenge for patients. Deductibles, co-pays, coinsurance, prior authorizations and network requirements can create confusion while people are already managing health concerns. She sees communication as part of easing that burden, with clear information about costs, available resources and patient options helping people feel informed and supported.

The same principle applies as AI becomes more prevalent in healthcare marketing. While it can accelerate content creation and help teams work more efficiently, Leinassar believes speed and volume should never replace authenticity. AI should remain a tool that supports communication, not a substitute for the empathy, relationship-building and genuine patient and caregiver experiences at the center of healthcare.

Building Credibility Through Every Commitment

For Leinassar, trust is earned long before you need it. She encourages future healthcare marketing leaders to invest in relationships with physicians, nurses, media professionals, kitchen and cleaning team members, community partners, grateful patients and organizational leaders.

She also believes credibility is built through simple acts of integrity, including being honest, finding the right information and following through. Over time, those actions shaped her professional reputation, which is an extension of the hospital system. Technology and tactics will continue to change, she believes, but integrity, authenticity and relationships remain constant.