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When Barbara Leal first enrolled at Florida State University, she imagined that she would study medicine and, given her love of kids, become a pediatrician. But as she considered what she was most passionate about—“communication, storytelling and relationships,” as she told Fierce Pharma Marketing in a recent interview—her career plans took a turn.
Leal ultimately ended up earning her bachelor’s in communication and media studies. The first stop on her career path after graduating in 2021 was a stint as an account coordinator with bfw Advertising in Boca Raton. A year later, she joined emagineHealth as an account manager; in 2024, she was promoted to senior account executive.
In a Q&A for Fierce Pharma Marketing’s “Rising Stars” series, Leal shared more about how healthcare and pharma marketing combines the “best of both worlds” for her, and about the importance of empathy in our professional lives.
Responses have been lightly edited.
Fierce Pharma Marketing: What led you to pharma marketing, and what keeps you motivated in your current role?
Barbara Leal: I started on a pre-med track at FSU, and I was fully committed to a career in clinical care. But then I pivoted over to their interdisciplinary humanities track and started taking communications and digital media courses. I began to see how powerful communication is and how important it is in the grand scheme of things—not just professionally, but personally, too. That’s especially true in the highly regulated, high-stakes industry of healthcare and pharma.
The path I followed led me to a really great place, because I feel like I get the best of both worlds now: I’m still deeply immersed in the science and the medicine in my day-to-day conversations, but I’m applying it now through this business and communications lens, always helping to translate complex information into messaging that's clear, human, meaningful and empathetic.
FPMK: What has been one of the most rewarding projects that you’ve worked on?
BL: One that we just launched has been my most challenging and also most rewarding project. It was a full rebrand for a client that we took on about mid-2025. They wanted a brand-new logo, a complete website redesign, development, positioning and messaging, a full social media strategy—and all of this in a timeline of under six months. I still don’t know how we managed to do it.
My responsibility with this project wasn’t just hitting deadlines, it was also protecting my team and making sure that expectations were realistic, that workloads were sustainable and that I tried my best to keep morale high while delivering at a very high level with the support of my project manager.
FPMK: If you could give some advice to people who have worked in the industry for decades, what would it be?
BL: Remain open-minded and lead with humanity. The industry, as everybody knows, is quickly evolving. We have this digitally native generation stepping into more strategic roles, and with that comes new ways of thinking about content, channels and engagement—which, understandably, can be unfamiliar for the veterans of this industry. But those shifts are rooted in the deep understanding that the younger generation has about how audiences consume and connect with the information they get.
And then there’s the humanity side of it. I think it’s equally important to remember the human side of this work. My personal mantra forever has been “humans first, professionals second.” Everybody that we work with—clients, colleagues, partners—are all navigating a full complex life outside of their role at work.
FPMK: What do you like to do outside of work?
BL: Anything that gives me the space to slow down and be intentional, and that always leads me back to some kind of creative outlet. Other than that, I live by the beach, so spending time near the water has become a form of therapy for me.
I also place a huge emphasis on spending quality time with friends and family, whether it’s trying new restaurants together, cooking at home or going to a farmer’s market. It doesn’t matter how simple the activity is; I think those moments of connection and being present let me reset, disconnect and ultimately better show up in both my personal and professional life.