Her Story
About Sarah
Sarah Stockton serves as Director of Employee Communications at Health Edge Software in Dallas, TX, a role she has held for nearly four years. In this position, she manages all internal communications for the organization, including the creation and adoption of its global intranet, executive town halls, benefits and payroll updates, technology and marketing information, and social media efforts aimed at showcasing company culture. With about 25 years of experience in the communications field, she began her career after earning a bachelor's in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's in broadcast journalism from Emerson, initially pursuing on-air reporting before transitioning to PR roles at two local Dallas colleges and then focusing exclusively on internal communications at ResearchNow, later Dynata, for 11 and a half years. She has built intranets from scratch multiple times across different companies and platforms, led a team that grew following a merger, and finds particular satisfaction in mentoring others, having participated in formal mentor-mentee programs and receiving positive feedback from direct reports. Outside of work, she has spearheaded volunteer initiatives such as Research Now Gives Back, participated in Habitat for Humanity builds, and volunteered with Girls Inc. to support young women pursuing careers in fields like medicine and law. Her advice to young women entering communications emphasizes that progress does not mean perfection and that receiving some negative feedback is a sign of making an impact.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sarah
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I consider myself to be a people pleaser and a perfectionist, and always have been, and I think learning that there's no perfect communication, there's always going to be someone that comes back to you and says, it should have been like this, or I wish you would have said this, or and having to learn that Progress does not mean perfection. So, as long as you are learning and growing, you're not never going to please everyone, and I think it took me a while to learn that, because I was like, I just want everyone to think it was great, and then realizing, okay, you know, if I heard from 10 people out of 5,000, like, that's a pretty good ratio, I'll take that. So, just having to kind of understand that there you are going to hear the negative, but keep looking, that that means you're actually making progress, and the overall outcome is positive.
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