Ryan Poe, APR
Director of Executive Communications - St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
As director of executive communications at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Ryan Poe coordinates the internal and external communications of its president and CEO.
Since joining the CEO’s Office at St. Jude in 2024, Poe has co-led the award-winning Living Our Values employee recognition program to its most successful years ever in 2024 and 2025, earning a Bronze Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and a VOX Award from PRSA Memphis. He also co-manages an internal executive leadership speaker series and leads the CEO’s employee gratitude program. In 2025, his office won another VOX award for executive communications related to the launch of the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines, a transformative program of St. Jude and the World Health Organization to deliver free cancer medicines to more than 120,000 children in low- and middle-income countries. In addition to these projects, Poe is helping direct a planned CEO transition in 2026.
Prior to St. Jude, Poe served from 2021-2024 as director of communications for the Greater Memphis Chamber, a nonprofit that leads economic development, workforce development and business advocacy for the Memphis, Tennessee, region. He oversaw the Chamber’s internal and external communications, including executive communications, media relations, and social media, and was part of the team that planned the Chamber’s CEO transition in 2022. His leadership helped grow the Chamber’s media mentions by 244% in his first year and won a 2023 Silver Award for Best Annual Report from the International Economic Development Council.
Before moving into strategic communications, Poe was a journalist whose career included stints as a reporter at the Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Mississippi (2010-2011); a reporter at the Birmingham Business Journal and then the Memphis Business Journal (2011-2015); and as a government and politics reporter and then as a columnist at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee (2015-2021). His coverage has resulted in numerous awards, including the top prize for First Amendment reporting and for in-depth reporting from the Alabama Press Association in 2012.
He currently serves as president of the University of Memphis Journalism and Strategic Media Alumni Chapter Board and is an active member and a past communications committee co-chair of PRSA Memphis (2022-2023).
A native Memphian, Poe graduated from the University of Memphis in 2010 with a B.A. in Journalism and a B.A. in Philosophy, with a minor in Political Science.
Most importantly of all, Poe is a devoted husband and a dedicated father of three.
