Patricia San Pedro — four-time Emmy award winner, veteran music promoter, TV producer, author and media executive — has joined the University of Miami as director of Marketing and Communications for the Frost School of Music.
With a broad and varied multimedia background, San Pedro brings three decades of local, national and international communications experience to the position, along with extensive personal, professional, and cultural connections in the music community.
“Patricia San Pedro is a proven, visionary, and energetic communications leader,” said Shelly Berg, dean of the Frost School of Music. “She will employ decades of executive experience to elevate the Frost School brand and profile.”
San Pedro will lead the marketing and communications efforts for the Frost School of Music, providing strategy, branding and oversight of all aspects of the school’s outreach and global communications efforts. In addition, she will manage marketing and communications for Festival Miami, the School’s month-long series of concerts, lectures and master classes, as well as for the Winter Wonderful annual scholarship fundraiser.
“Coming back to the ‘U’ is full circle for me…I’m back home,” San Pedro said. “Working with world-class faculty, staff and students at the Frost School of Music, is a dream come true, since music has always been such an integral part of my life. Letting the world know how unique and innovative the school is, is something that I will do with passion and conviction.”
A UM graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications with a minor in Marketing, San Pedro’s connection with the music and entertainment industry dates back to her days at the U. She started at Capital Records while she was still a student, promoting Paul McCartney and Wings, among others, and helped introduce Julio Iglesias to the North American market.
She expanded on those skills as special projects producer/PR manager at WTVJ-NBC6, producing concerts and events, documentaries, news series, and promotional campaigns. Her efforts won her three Emmy awards, including two for the campaign she developed, “A
Matter of Pride,” one of the nation’s first media environmental awareness programs.
San Pedro went on to become corporate communications manager and key spokesperson for American Airlines, creating communications strategies in 75 cities throughout Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. She was the force behind the airline’s “Heart to Heart” volunteer program, involving its 10,000 Miami workers, which sprang into action after Hurricane Andrew devastated much of South Florida. She was instrumental in bringing the musical performers and comedians for the “We Will Rebuild” relief concert following the storm.
Her dedication to the community and to helping others continued as ice president of Event Marketing and Community Relations at The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. She created multiple social responsibility projects, including Operation Helping Hands/Dando Una Mano, which activates in times of need throughout the hemisphere.
San Pedro also is an entrepreneur and two-time author. For the past 15 years, she has headed San Pedro Productions, the communications company she launched, with corporate clients such as Blackberry and NRDC, as well as musical clients including the Latin GRAMMY awards and a variety of concert venues such as Broward Center for the Performing Arts and Gulfstream Park.
Her personal experience as a breast cancer survivor led to her fourth Emmy and most recent book. Diagnosed in 2008, San Pedro immediately began documenting her journey in order to help others along the same path. A year’s worth of recording, from the time she heard the words “You have cancer” until she was declared cancer-free, led to the Discovery documentary The Cancer Dancer.
She followed up with a similarly titled book aimed at helping newly diagnosed patients. As part of her breast cancer awareness and support efforts, she runs an online health and wellness community, <www.PositivelyPat.com>, offering help to women around the world.
