When Meghan Parrish was fired from her first college internship at a local advertising agency, she was devastated. It made her wonder if she had chosen the right career path and whether she could be successful.
Despite her rocky career start and a series of odd jobs later, the 46-year-old’s journey resulted in her spearheading multiple successful marketing campaigns and transforming Baton Rouge General’s reputation through her role as vice president of marketing and communications for the local hospital system.
“I was never somebody who felt like they had a calling or knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Parrish reflects. “I was good at writing, and I enjoyed it, so I kind of gravitated toward the majors that had a lot of writing in them. I ended up in public relations and found it fun. That was important to me, to enjoy what I do and have fun going to work every day. And I think I found that.”
Parrish joined BRG in 2015 as director of communications, just a few months after the Mid City emergency room shut down. Two years later, she was promoted to her current role, where she has created marketing and communications strategies to help grow inpatient market share from 17% to 25% by focusing on authenticity and visibility.
As a natural team player and idea generator, she launched and led large-scale events, such as Holiday Lights at Baton Rouge General, the Protect Your Pumpkins campaign and pink pumpkin patches for breast cancer awareness, Mammos and Mimosas, and The Healthy Men Project. She also helped build a marketing team of 10 that produces internal and external communications for three hospitals and 30 clinics, employing grassroots marketing efforts and targeted digital marketing tools.
Parrish takes pride in having daily lunches with her marketing team and promotes a working-mom-friendly environment among her peers. She also encourages her team to adhere to a work-life balance that doesn’t require them to miss milestones and family events.
But it’s not always pink pumpkins and holiday lights for the Walker native. With a professional history in crisis communications, she has developed media and communications strategies for use during some of the hospital system’s most trying times and leadership transitions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led organizational vaccine logistics and communications and pushed for operational changes to improve holistic patient care.
Before stepping into her role at BRG, Parrish was on the communications team for former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Looking back, she says it served as a great training ground and she enjoyed the chaos of the position.
Outside of her work life, Parrish is a wife and mother of two teenagers. She and her daughter Elise volunteer together with the National Charity League, where Parrish is the River Road chapter’s vice president of membership. She is also a member of the Baton Rouge Rotary, St. Joseph’s Academy Mothers’ Club and volunteers at local organizations throughout Greater Baton Rouge.
With a decade of experience at BRG and years of diverse job and community roles under her belt, Parrish has become a respected and friendly leader both inside and outside of the office. Though she may not have known where her journey would lead her, she has learned a lot along the way.
“Something I didn’t realize when I was younger and starting out was that I was always scared to speak up,” she says. “In a meeting, I would look around and assume that everybody else had thought of what I was thinking. I didn’t realize till later that you would be surprised. Not everyone is thinking what you’re thinking and your perspective can be helpful. So don’t be scared to speak up.”
