Wunderman Thompson Health Chief Medical Officer Dania Alarcon spent 2022 using her knowledge and experience to advocate for greater equality in health care. As an Afro-Latina woman with a background as a cancer researcher, Alarcon was able to launch Wunderman Thompson Health’s Health4Equity practice and receive a grant from WPP’s Racial Equity program to jump-start the initiative.  

“[The grant] has allowed us to establish not only the practice but then to drive a lot of the partnerships with nonprofit organizations, with community organizations and advocacy groups,” Alarcon said. “Then in partnership with our clients, we could really do a lot of purpose-driven meaningful work to help historically marginalized communities improve their outcomes in health.”

In 2022, Health4Equity focused on Black maternal mental health and increasing earlier screening for prostate cancer for Black men. In the next year, she plans to look at how marginalized communities are often left behind during infectious disease outbreaks. 

Alarcon also partnered with behavioral science consultancy BVA to establish a health equity index that is free to use for government organizations, nonprofits, brands and anyone else with a vested interest in health equity. She also made educational inroads with the African Science Academy to expose young female students in Africa to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

What advice would you give your younger self? 

Embrace and welcome change, instead of fearing it and delaying giving in, almost begrudgingly. The best things are often waiting on the other side of change. 

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? 

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was changing careers from a lab bench as a scientist and postdoctoral fellow to an advertising office as a medical strategist nearly 20 years ago. And yet, it was the most natural transition, as I have always loved the storytelling and writing aspect of communicating the relevance and application of medical information.  

If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you be doing and why? 

I would be putting my vegan chef certification to good use and/or going back to being a fitness instructor. Both are in line with my passion for health and wellness and the often-delivered, basic guidance from physicians that it all starts with good nutrition and consistent exercise. 

What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks? 

It’s not so much what the industry should do to encourage women and people of color to go into its ranks but rather to stay in its ranks. It all comes down to creating and sustaining a culture and environment where women and people of color are included, heard, valued, feel a sense of belonging and see the pathway and potential to advance and grow.

How do you expect emerging tech like Web3 and AI to impact your job in the future? 

Web3 and AI will only increase the need for medical strategists or make them busier, since you will need someone to pull the data to train the AI, to craft the questions to test the AI, to validate the accuracy of the answers from the AI and to infuse the humanity into the responses from the AI.