Public Relations Specialist (Publicist) — Media Relations Pacific Mind Health Los Angeles, CA Job Details Part-time | Contract $55 - $75 an hour 1 day ago Qualifications Public Relations Press releases Journalist relationship development Public relations Media relations Full Job Description $55-$75/hour

• about 10-15 hours a week to start
• remote (U.S.), Pacific-time hours
• part-time contract You own earned media for a Southern California psychiatric practice.

Our clinicians are experienced, media-comfortable, and have genuine expertise in TMS therapy, SPRAVATO®, psychiatry, and psychotherapy. There is real material to pitch. You work directly with them to source commentary on the mental-health stories in the news, then you pitch and place it. About the Role Pacific Mind Health is hiring a Publicist and Media Relations Specialist to own our earned media function. You will be the direct liaison between our clinicians and the journalists, editors, and producers who cover mental health. You will pitch, place, and track coverage, and build the reporter relationships that make the next pitch land faster. This is a media-relations role first. Writing is part of the job (pitches, press releases, clinician bios, contributed articles), but your primary output is earned coverage. Your primary point of contact is our Marketing Manager, who defines campaign goals and clinician access, with wire-service distribution in place for press releases. Earned coverage may also improve how we show up in AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews); we are standing up citation tracking and you will help define the query set. We are an AI-first marketing team, and we welcome candidates who use AI tools to research, personalize, monitor, and report; that is a plus, not a requirement, and human judgment stays on every clinical word that goes out. What You'll Do Media Relations (core) Build and maintain an organized media list of journalists, editors, and producers covering health, mental health, wellness, and California news Pitch proactively; after an initial ramp to build your list and first placements, the steady-state target is 2-3 earned placements per month (quotes, features, bylines, podcast or broadcast segments) in regional dailies, trade press, national consumer health, or broadcast Monitor journalist-query platforms (Qwoted or similar) and coordinate timely, clinician-approved responses; if approval is not available by the deadline, flag the opportunity to the Marketing Manager and hold the response Monitor mentions, competitor coverage, and emerging story angles, and surface the ones worth a same-day pitch Build ongoing relationships with specific reporters and editors who come back to us for future stories Run inbound media requests end to end: match the journalist to the right clinician, prep the clinician, confirm logistics, follow up after publication Track the news cycle for mental health trends, policy developments, and awareness moments where a Pacific Mind Health clinician can add credible expert perspective Clinician Coordination Work with our clinicians to identify their areas of expertise and turn them into media-ready angles and spokesperson positioning Prepare clinicians and leadership for interviews (talking points, likely questions, disclosure reminders) and debrief afterward Keep media-ready bios, headshots, and one-pagers current for key clinicians Coordinate our review workflow: every clinician quote and clinical claim is approved before it goes to media; you own the coordination, not the clinical judgment Writing and Materials Write pitches tailored to each journalist: concise, newsworthy, specific to their beat Draft and distribute press releases for practice announcements, new services, and awareness campaigns on a regular cadence (we distribute through a wire service) Support op-eds and contributed articles authored by Pacific Mind Health clinicians, and keep the media kit, press page, and newsroom assets current Tracking and Reporting Weekly outreach tracker, a monthly coverage report to our Marketing Manager (outlet, reach, link, tone, and whether it shows up in AI answers), and PR-attributed referral traffic reviewed with the marketing team Working with AI Output (optional) Use AI for journalist and beat research, media-list building, pitch personalization, monitoring, and transcription if you like; automate your own research, tracking, and reporting however you prefer. Full guardrails are in the contract Review and Information Handling (applies to all work) No clinical claim skips clinician approval, no AI-generated quote is ever attributed to a person, and clinician bylines are reviewed and approved by the named clinician before submission Quotes are verified against the recording and approved by the clinician before release; recordings are screened for patient information before any transcription, and any tool used on Pacific Mind Health material is agreed with us first No patient information is ever part of this work; outreach and releases go out only within the scope our Marketing Manager has approved Required Qualifications 3+ years of professional PR or media relations experience, agency or in-house A verifiable track record of earned placements you personally secured; we will ask how specific placements happened, and wire distribution alone does not count An existing network of health, wellness, or lifestyle media contacts you can pitch in your first weeks Strong written communication: pitches that get opened, releases that get used, bios that get read Comfort working directly with clinicians and executives to draw out their story and position them for media; you can interview a psychiatrist and turn the answer into a usable quote Media deadlines and clinician interviews run on Pacific time; you must be able to accommodate them within your schedule Preferred Qualifications Healthcare, mental health, or wellness PR experience, including clinical sensitivity, person-first language, and HIPAA awareness in public communications Existing relationships with health reporters or editors at national or regional outlets Experience pitching podcast guest appearances and broadcast segments, and familiarity with Cision, PR Newswire, Muck Rack, or comparable tools Practical use of AI tools in PR work, and familiarity with how earned media influences AI search visibility About Pacific Mind Health Pacific Mind Health is one of Southern California's leading psychiatric practices, offering advanced treatments including TMS therapy, SPRAVATO®, psychiatry, and psychotherapy across Long Beach, West Los Angeles, and Irvine, with virtual appointments available throughout California. Our mission is to deliver exceptional, patient-centered mental health care through innovation, compassion, and evidence-based treatment. Work with us to help people Feel Better. Live Better.

Pay:

$55.00 - $75.00 per hour Expected hours: 10.0 - 15.0 per week Application Question(s): Name one outlet and one placement you personally secured. Media deadlines and clinician interviews run on Pacific time. Can you cover weekday business hours in PST?

Work Location:

Remote