Matt Schwabel is Executive Director of Marketing at UNC Health, where he leads service line marketing, growth marketing, and marketing technology. In this conversation from HCIC 2025, he talks through something that doesn’t get enough airtime at tech conferences: how to actually lead people through change.

His core lesson from years of structural and technological shifts is about communication. When leaders leave gaps, people fill them with worst-case scenarios. Schwabel’s approach is to share as much as possible, as early as possible, and to be direct about what he can’t yet say rather than going quiet.

He also makes the point that change is hard even when it’s good. The pandemic is the clearest example. Virtual care went from a multi-year roadmap item to the only way patients could be seen, in a matter of weeks. That forced speed created a lasting shift — and it changed how the organization viewed marketing. Teams that had been seen as the group that runs campaigns were suddenly essential to communicating critical information to entire communities.

UNC Health has since reorganized its marketing department to align more closely with where the system is heading, including bringing School of Medicine communicators into the broader team. Schwabel is candid that the process is disruptive. His reminder to himself: as a leader, you move through change faster than your team does. The people behind you still need the map.