Magi Curtis ‘01 stands out with a degree in political science and a CV with over a decade of experience campaigning, lobbying and advocating on Capitol Hill.
Although politics is where Curtis started, she is now a powerhouse in healthcare communications, with a successful career in planning communication strategies. Her work, coupled with her passion for giving back to her alma mater, brought her to the School of Communication where she joined the advancement board.
In 2019, after nine years of success at Girard Inc. and leading the healthcare consultancy company’s largest practice, Curtis was looking for change.
That October, Curtis started independently consulting for health startups, helping them grow and scale. But she was also looking for more.
“Like most Ohio State alumni, I bleed scarlet and gray and feel very passionate about continuing to support and be engaged in the Ohio State community,” Curtis said. “[Ohio State] helped me with the beginning of my career and would ultimately go on to impact the trajectory of my career.”
So, in January 2020, Curtis joined the School of Communication’s advancement board where she applies her knowledge and skills enabling students to get even more than she did from an Ohio State education.
A passionate advocate for women and minorities, as a board member Curtis wants to lift up those too often forgotten.
“There was a survey done of students in 2023 and we are now at a point where we are thinking about how to take the information learned from that survey and advance initiatives that are going to make the School of Communication even stronger,” Curtis said.
Not just all talk, Curtis contributes annually to the Black Advertising and Strategic Communications Association (BASCA) to fuel their internship fund which enables students to afford taking on unpaid internships.
“I [looked] for funds that would help minority students maximize their experiences within the university,” Curtis said. “BASCA helps minority students… Those unpaid internships are going to help them get the jobs they want.
At Ohio State, Curtis was an involved political science student.
During her freshman year, Curtis joined the Undergraduate Student Government and the following year she was elected its vice president. She also co-chaired Community Commitment, a service learning project.
Afterward, Curtis went on to be the Government Relations intern at Nationwide’s Children's Hospital. That is until one day the head of the department called her about an offer she could not ignore: a full-time position on then-Senator Mike DeWine’s re-election campaign.
“So, I ended up quitting school and taking that job. I was the assistant political director for DeWine’s 2000 re-election campaign,” Curtis said. “I came back to school in January of 2001, and I shoved a whole year into two quarters.”
Post-graduation, Curtis went to Washington, D.C., first working for DeWine’s legislative office, then with Navigant Consultants as a healthcare lobbyist and finally for the Children’s Hospital Association as a children’s healthcare advocate.
After a decade spent working at the Capitol, Curtis was married and had her first child. In 2010, the family moved to Nashville to start a new chapter.
In Music City, Curtis worked at Girard Inc., overseeing mergers and acquisitions, change management, issue navigation and strategic positioning, all requiring oversight on large projects and coordination between many stakeholders, unions and firms at once.
“I was there for a decade, and I built and ran what ended up as the firm’s largest practice,” Curtis said. “The practice served all of the firm’s national and academic health systems all across the country.”
Curtis has also independently consulted with startups and now, since 2022, is the executive vice president at J.S. Held LLC, a global consulting firm offering technical, scientific, financial and strategic expertise.
Looking to the future, Curtis wants more alumni, regardless of their major or where their career took them, to get involved in any way they can. She knows many others, like herself, owe Ohio State many thanks for springboarding their careers.
“When something [has] been so significant in your life, taking the time to figure out how to give back so that [students] can have as rewarding an experience, it’s really worthwhile.”
Article by student Christian Harsa
