Department Spotlight: Sam Pender

As we continue to shine the spotlight on the administrative team of Medical Imaging, this month we meet Sam Pender, who started in the department in June 2023 as Communications & Outreach Officer, bringing with her over six years of experience in communications and four in healthcare.

With a passion for writing, Sam received her education in public relations before starting her career as a copywriter in an agency, writing for big car brands, before moving around and eventually finding her way into healthcare.

“I kind of fell into healthcare by accident when I was hired at a west-end hospital on a small PR team,” she says. “It ended up being a really interesting career pivot – getting to tell the stories of our patients and staff – before the pandemic hit. After that, it was a valuable crash course in internal and external crisis communications and community outreach within a small team.”

After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, she moved to the communications department at Women’s College Hospital, which is part of the Joint Medical Imaging Department (JDMI), where she specialized in internal communications and event planning, before finding her way to the Department of Medical Imaging at U of T.

“Doing communications for Medical Imaging seemed like a really interesting opportunity for me, because I actually have an interventional radiologist for a chronic condition,” Sam says of her decision to come to Medical Imaging. “I had prior knowledge that there are not a lot of interventional radiologists in the country, and so I thought it would be exciting to not only learn about other aspects of radiology, but to also help support the department in training more much-needed radiologists.”

Since starting her role in June, Sam has expanded the department’s social media presence by creating LinkedIn and Instagram accounts and maintaining a consistent and robust social content calendar. She’s also revamped department communications through the creation of the MI Weekly webpage, restarting the MI Monthly newsletter, and sharing faculty and learners’ achievements, awards, and studies through social media and newsletters.  

Looking forward, Sam is excited to support the department in developing a new strategic plan and fundraising strategy.

“I’m excited to showcase the incredible work and research that Medical Imaging’s faculty and learners are doing on a daily basis,” she says. “I think by pulling back the curtain on what our radiologists do, not only will those in the industry take notice, but I’m hoping the community and public will also develop an awareness of how integral radiologists are to the healthcare industry.”