Erica Olenski

Bio:

Erica Olenski, BCPA, FACHDM, is a strategic communicator with more than 18 years of experience working in complex, regulated industries. She helps executives and organizations tell stories that align their mission with business goals, industry trends, and public impact. Her work includes executive ghostwriting, content strategy, media relations, and guiding companies through high-stakes or sensitive communications.

She founded #HITsm, a global health IT community that thrived on Twitter for more than 15 years. It became a go-to space for professionals to connect on topics like interoperability, patient engagement, and healthcare innovation. As social media evolved, the community dispersed to new formats, but its influence still echoes through digital health today.

Erica is a Board Certified Patient Advocate and Fellow of the American College of Health Data Management. Her work is shaped by her experience as the mother of a child who lived with extraordinary medical challenges. That caregiving journey informs her perspective on ethical technology, health communication, and the critical gaps patients and families face in care systems today.

She is also the founder and executive director of August’s Artists, a nonprofit that honors her late son through advocacy, hospital art supply donations, and support for trauma-informed, patient-centered care.

Erica holds a BA in Public Relations from Xavier University. Her insights have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, and Newsweek. She believes healthcare doesn’t just need innovation. It needs compassion, creativity, and an occasional box of window crayons.