Sandra (Sandy) Waite is Global Leader, Pharmaceuticals Communications & Public Affairs. In this role, Sandy leads our global communication and public affairs strategy across our worldwide Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine organization.
Sandy brings more than two decades of experience to this role and a broad knowledge of communications practices in the healthcare industry across health plans, pharmaceuticals, and vision care.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Sandy was the Chief Communications Officer at Guardian, where she was responsible for the development and execution of communications strategy for the company. In addition, she led a team of cross-functional communicators who drove all aspects of internal and external communications, including issues and crisis management, reputation and thought leadership, local and national media relations, corporate social responsibility, and meetings and events.
Previously, Sandy served as Vice President of CEO & Enterprise Communications at CVS Health where she led the team through the COVID-19 crisis. Sandy joined CVS Health through the CVS merger with Aetna where she was Vice President of Communications, and strategic advisor to the President of Aetna.
Sandy held advancing leadership roles with growing responsibility at Novartis which culminated in her overseeing communications for the Drug Development organization, where she provided direct counsel to Novartis’ Chief Medical and Scientific Officer and the current CEO. At Novartis Sandy gained international experience while living in Switzerland including as Global Head of Franchise Communications, Retina and Respiratory, which included experience in AMD, DME, RVO and CNV, alongside COPD and severe asthma.
Sandy developed strong experience in Vision as Head of Communications, America’s for Alcon (a NVS company), where she was responsible for developing and implementing communications programs aimed at delivering key objectives for Alcon’s surgical, pharmaceutical and consumer/vision care businesses in the US, Canada, and Latin America. In this role, Sandy was a member of the North America Commercial and Global Communications leadership teams responsible for the strategic, operational, and financial priorities of the North America business and Communications function. Sandy also spent time at CIBA Vision where she had roles of increasing responsibility in the communications and public relations function.
Sandy started her communications career on the agency side spending time at both Matlock Advertising & PR and Porter Novelli.
Sandy holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Spelman College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Sandy serves as a Trustee on the Board of The Jackson Laboratory, an independent, non-profit biomedical research institution leader in mammalian genetics and human genomics research.