UPMC’s Brandon Szuminsky Named Latest Recipient of the Poppulo Impact Award

Poppulo is proud to announce that Brandon Szuminsky, UPMC’s Senior Manager for Internal Communications, has been selected as the latest recipient of the Poppulo Impact Award. This is a recognition that honors individuals and teams driving extraordinary impact through internal communications.

The award reflects not just Brandon’s leadership, but the collective achievement of UPMC’s 34-member Internal Communications department. It has built one of the most advanced, effective, and human-centered internal comms ecosystems in healthcare, reaching nearly 100,000 employees across 42 hospitals and 800 outpatient sites in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and international locations, with highly targeted, high-impact messaging.

Together, the internal comms team has reimagined what’s possible at scale. With more than 350 articles created monthly and 75% of content personalized by business unit, location, job role, tenure, and more, UPMC has transformed system-wide communication into a deeply local, deeply relevant experience, powered by Poppulo’s targeting, analytics, and collaborative workflows.

Thanks to this approach, UPMC has achieved:

• A 20% increase in employee engagement with all-staff newsletter content in the last two years
• An 84% open rate for the all-manager newsletter—up 12.4% since the 2023 relaunch
• Dramatic time savings by consolidating content production into a single, organization-wide communication that still delivers local relevance
• Actionable insights via job family metrics that guide outreach to deskless workers and highlight areas for targeted engagement

Using Poppulo, Brandon and his colleagues have been able to combine system-wide communication with highly tailored, localized content, essentially achieving what 35 individual hospital newsletters would require, but with far fewer resources.

As a result, employees receive content specifically relevant to their role, location, or business unit, reducing information overload while increasing clarity and connection. It’s a win-win—a model that delivers both efficiency and impact.

“This award reflects the incredible work of our entire internal comms department,” said Brandon. “From the scale of our personalization strategy to the sheer output of content per month, it’s a testament to the way my colleagues and department leadership serve such a large and varied workforce. It’s not easy executing that vision, so I’m honored to receive this recognition, but it truly belongs to the whole team.

“Our all-staff newsletter is kind of an oxymoron, since the majority of the content in each edition isn’t for everyone. We would never be able to keep our employees informed and engaged at that granular level if not for the way Poppulo lets us tap into our employee data to get the right content to the right people,” Brandon said.

“It’s made our team more efficient and ensures that—even in a large, multifaceted organization where there’s distinct and important local identities from hospital to hospital or location to location—all-staff messages can still feel tailor-made, relevant, and genuinely useful

— Brandon Szuminsky, UPMC

Poppulo's CEO, Ruth Fornell, added:

“Brandon and the UPMC team have built something remarkable: an internal communications system that’s sophisticated in scale yet personal and deeply human in tone, which is essential in any organization but especially in healthcare.

“Their approach is data-driven and strategic, yet always rooted in empathy and a nuanced understanding of their people. They’ve shown what it looks like when internal comms becomes a true engine for connection, clarity, and care. We’re honored to be their partner in that work,” she said.

“From personalized targeting to collaborative production workflows, Brandon and his colleagues have redefined how communication can support culture, wellbeing, and organizational alignment at scale. This award celebrates that vision, and the hands-on, day-to-day work it takes to bring it to life

— Ruth Fornell, Poppulo CEO

About the Impact Awards:

The Poppulo Impact Awards showcase and celebrate organizations, individuals, and teams that demonstrate excellence in enhancing employee engagement, fostering a positive organizational culture, and driving business success. This ongoing recognition program honors communicators who are utilizing Poppulo's employee communications solutions to achieve significant results. For more information visit: https://www.poppulo.com/impact-awards