Her Story
About Jelia
Jelia Hepner is a communications specialist at Cape Fear Valley Healthcare Hospital in North Carolina. She has served in this full-time role for two years, where her responsibilities include managing all media information and outreach, setting up interviews between doctors and the media, writing press releases, handling internal and external communications across the main hospital and six affiliated facilities throughout the county, ghostwriting for the CEO, coordinating interviews, and developing communication strategies for various service lines and campaigns. Hepner also works part-time as a radio personality for a local radio station, a position she has held for over ten years. Prior to her healthcare role, she worked as a journalist for a news station, an experience she found particularly rewarding. She earned a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in journalism. Hepner is a member and volunteer with the Red Cross. Among her honors, she received the Achie Magazine Award for Best Journalist of 2018 from a Black-owned organization recognizing women in journalism, and she was recently nominated for the 40 under 40 class of 2026 in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jelia
01What do you attribute your success to?
Honestly, my kids just keep you going. I mean keep you motivated, and my daughter's always saying, hey, you're doing a good job!
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Follow your heart. Don't listen to what anybody says, because at the end of the day, whatever choice you make, you have to deal with it, and whatever choice you don't make, you have to deal with it. So, never always listen to what people say, just follow your heart and your gut.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Ground yourself in faith, and just never give up. That's the advice I honestly would give anybody coming to this industry, because it has this up and down, and coldness, and, you know, communication is not what it used to be. It's kind of downsizing now with, like, new AI tools, and so people can get discouraged or get scared, but I would just say grind yourself in faith and keep going.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges in the field is just overall it's such a huge organization. The challenges of people who might have had a negative experience, or not have the greatest experience at a hospital, or have their notions, or you know, grew up in the area, and they always think something bad about a hospital, but they just don't know about the people inside and the services. So I would think, like, just reputation sometimes is an obstacle for the field I'm in.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I'll say family. And my work life? I would just say purpose. Like, I feel like everybody, whatever job you have, you should serve some type of purpose, and that benefits you in life. Like, if you love to give, have a job that, you know, you're given in. If you love to write, have a job that so I'll say purpose and family, are the two things. My home life and work life.
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