Jonathon Hosea graduated from Anderson University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations and a minor in Peace and Conflict Transformation (PACT). At AU he went on study abroad trips including Costa Rica, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. He currently works at Roche as Head of Operations for Corporate Communications.
During your time at Anderson you minored in PACT, how do you think this has helped you in your career?
This program was so important in my professional and personal growth. It helped me develop critical thinking skills. The classes required a lot of reading, writing, discussing and debating complicated topics. This helped me figure out how to critically think and be able to discuss really complicated topics. It also gave me a global perspective on things. Many classes focused on international issues and the cultural awareness was really helpful especially working for a global company now.
While at AU you participated in multiple travel abroad experiences. What do you think the importance of traveling to different countries was for you and how has it helped you professionally?
I love to travel and I made some great relationships with people I went on trips with. Traveling abroad really helps to gain some cultural perspective. This is important because we work with so many different people in different cultures. Travel is a part of my job and these trips have really helped me prepare for this part of my job. I’m glad that I got the opportunity to broaden my perspective early on because of the opportunities provided by these trips.
You are the Head of Operations, Corporate Communications at Roche, tell me more about what a normal day looks like in this position?
My role is kind of unique. I am on the corporate communications team for Roche Diagnostics. We make different diagnostics tests, Covid 19 testing being the most commonly known right now. I am on the communications team which includes public relations, media relations, digital and social media and community engagement. My role is helping lead strategy and day to day operations. I do a lot of project management in order to make sure that things get done. I attend a lot of meetings and do a lot of writing communications plans. I love what I do because I love what we as a company do.
What is your favorite and least favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of my job is definitely working with my team. I get to work with many amazing people and this makes the job fun. I also love working in healthcare. Healthcare offers me a strong purpose and is something that I can really get behind. My least favorite thing about my job, because it is healthcare, it can get crazy sometimes. The work life balance can be difficult because we really aren’t given the luxury of just being able to clock out.
You worked in healthcare communications during the Covid 19 pandemic, tell me a little bit about that experience and what it was like working in communications during that time.
Obviously it was really crazy! It felt very long hours and very high stress. We had to quickly figure out what we knew and what we were able to share. We were also working very hard to figure out how to package it to present information to the public in order to get the highest impact possible, whether this was trying to help people understand how to not get Covid or what was going on in the hospitals. It was very intense. The biggest lesson I took away from this experience was having a great team for crisis communication. Having the right people and the right relationships to tackle a problem head on is so important.
You have volunteered as a judge for speech and debate, why is this a way you decided to volunteer and what is your favorite thing about volunteering this way?
When I was in high school, I loved being on the speech and debate team. What a lot of people get out of sports I got out of speech and debate. I got to experience competition, working with a team, accomplishing something, trying to better yourself and hopefully getting a trophy at the end of it all. This really helped me figure out that I wanted to do communications. Whenever I am asked to come back to judge meets I always will. I couldn’t have participated in it without the help of others and I want to give back to make sure other kids get to experience this. I was really impacted by these opportunities in high school and without them I don’t know what I would have done!
Sarah Lucas is a senior at Anderson University, majoring in public relations and political science. Lucas is an associate with Fifth Street Communications®, a student-run public relations agency at Anderson University.
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