PulsePoint's Trader Hall of Fame recognizes individuals advancing programmatic healthcare advertising. Our inductees are skilled and dedicated traders who demonstrate their expertise using PulsePoint's Life platform, ensuring lifesaving treatments reach healthcare professionals and patients at high-intent moments to drive meaningful results.
This month, PulsePoint is so excited to welcome Grace Coulthurst, Associate Director of Programmatic at PHM, to the Trader Hall of Fame. In this article, you'll get to know a bit more about Grace's path to programmatic, her favorite parts of the job, and life outside of work.
Grace's path to programmatic healthcare marketing
Like many programmatic marketers, Grace didn’t initially set her sights on the field during her collegiate studies.
While in college, Grace, a PR and advertising dual major, assumed her career would start in healthcare public relations, especially after loving a summer internship where she did organic social and PR for a hospital system. However, another path emerged during her senior year, when a professor invited a PHM employee to speak to her healthcare communications class.
This employee mentioned that the company was hiring, so Grace sent over her resume expecting to interview for a media planning role. However, the recruiter had other plans. "She told me, we think you'd be really great on the programmatic team," Grace said.
Grace interviewed, pushed through an Excel test and was hired shortly after. That’s when Grace joined PHM's programmatic team.
"I learned programmatic from the ground up and didn't really know what I was getting myself into," Grace said. "But now I really can't imagine doing anything else."
Grace's favorite parts of the job
When asked what she loves most about programmatic, Grace mentioned that it comes down to the mission and the people.
"I love being able to reach patients and physicians with messages to help educate them about treatment options and resources that are available for them," she said.
The other big component is her team. Grace works alongside nearly 20 colleagues to support their clients. "I love going into the office every day to see them," she said. "It's really rewarding being able to work with people who are smart and are good people."
She's quick to point out that this holds true across the industry, not just at PHM.
"Wherever you are, you experience a lot of the same things, and it really is the people that make the biggest difference,” she explained.
Grace's advice for newcomers to programmatic
Grace's advice for anyone new to programmatic is simply to ask everything and anything.
"As somebody who knew absolutely nothing about programmatic before going into it, I think the best thing is just to ask all the questions. There is no such thing as a dumb question," she said.
This is advice she repeats to every associate who joins her team. "My first meeting with them, I tell them: ask every single question you've ever had," Grace said, noting how nuanced the healthcare and pharma space can be for newcomers.
The best piece of advice Grace ever received
Beyond onboarding tips, Grace carries a piece of advice from an internship supervisor that's stuck with her since college, which was to “never be afraid to speak your dreams out loud.” The idea behind the advice is that you never know who is out there and willing to help you achieve your dreams.
"Just ask for what you want. The worst somebody is going to say is no, but they could say yes and you never know what kind of door that's going to open up for you," Grace said.
Grace's experience working with PulsePoint
For Grace, what stands out about PulsePoint is the people and their long tenure with the organization. She's worked with many of the same team members, like Malcolm Halle, Zach Rice, Casey Carden and Nick Lucero, since her very first DSP overview five and a half years ago,
"When you have people like them who have worked there for so long, they are just wealths of knowledge,” she said.
Grace added that the PulsePoint team really goes above and beyond to help her team, especially as new team members are added.
On the platform side, Grace pointed to a few tools she relies on daily. Debugger tops the list for managing large, complex campaigns:
"I love being able to troubleshoot any issues in real time, such as why a tactic is not spending." Grace said.
Grace is also a fan of Smart Lists for sharpening audience targeting and leans on the Knowledge Base for everything from creative specs to platform features.
Grace's life outside of programmatic
Outside of her work life, Grace has picked up pottery as a new hobby. After a five-week intro to wheel throwing class, she joined a local studio and has kept at it for the last eight or nine months.
"I'm not very good at it, but it's a lot of fun," she said with a laugh. "It teaches a lot of patience because wheel throwing is very hard… you have to really figure it out and hone in on your craft."
Grace is also a self-described foodie who loves cooking, reading and spending time with friends. Her proudest recent kitchen win was cooking up a spatchcocked roast chicken she made for her mom.
"It's not as hard as you think," she said. "If you just have a good pair of kitchen shears, you can do it pretty easily, and it takes so much less time to cook."
It may take me a while to believe that a spatchcocked chicken is as easy as Grace makes it out to be!
Please join me in congratulating Grace, PulsePoint’s October 2026 inductee into the Trader Hall of Fame.
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