Alumni Spotlight: Laurel Coyle ’11

Laurel Coyle '11 has become one of the leading figures in corporate American communications within a decade of receiving her bachelor’s degree in public relations from The University of Scranton. Today, she is the Head of Internal Communications for Chase Consumer Banking, a division of JPMorgan Chase, which has 47,000 employees and 4,800 branches across the country in 48 states.

“You can be the smartest person in the room, but if you can’t communicate properly or you can’t relate to other people, then you are not going to be successful in the real world,” said Coyle. “In today’s world, if you can’t be empathetic and understanding, if you can’t put yourself in someone else’s shoes, especially as a communicator, you’re not going to succeed.”

The summer before her senior year at the University Coyle first began working for J.P. Morgan as an intern on the investment bank division’s event marketing team. There, she and her teammates serviced their client base and supported elite events for the top 100 clients in the investment bank. Coyle interned again during the intersession of her senior year at the University and was promptly offered a job before she graduated in 2011, and she steadily worked her way up from that initial position to her current role.

“My team is responsible for communicating to those 47,000 employees and ensuring they know what our priorities are, why we do what we do,” Coyle said. “When we plant the Chase flag in communities, we show up and provide financial health and wellness to all Americans.”

In her current role, Coyle is responsible for business communication plans, employee enegagements and everything in between. Her work at the Fortune 500 company provides every echelon of J.P. Morgan with the necessary information to carry out the workday.

“As a communicator, people need you, leaders can’t communicate without you, investors don’t know what they are going to do without the words that you are telling them, clients don’t know what to do without the words that you are telling them,” she said. “You sit in a very unique seat.”

Coyle attributes her success to the University and its dedicated professors, especially Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Kimberly Pavlick, Ph. D. G’96.

“I felt that when I was in class, she was talking directly to me. She understood how hard it was to go into school as a freshman and have new responsibilities,” Coyle said. “She was not only a professor, but she was like a friend, someone you could lean on.”

The University is unique in this regard; one of the chief characteristics of a Jesuit education is cura personalis, defined as individual attention to students and respect for the uniqueness of each member of the University community.

“Dr. Pavlick is just one example of the professors at Scranton that just truly care about you,” Coyle said. “They care about your physical and mental wellbeing. They are behind you 100 percent of the way, even when you fall.”

How did a liberal arts and Jesuit education Equip LaureL Coyle '11 with The communication skills critical to her role at a Fortune 500 company?

One of the most critical skills to have as a communicator is the ability to be well-versed in a variety of different subjects and converse about these topics with others. Coyle says the liberal arts and Jesuit education provided her with the opportunity to develop this skill.

“When you go (to the University), they educate the whole person,” she said. “You’re not just learning what your major is, or your minor. You are learning all different things – theology, philosophy, health – things that make you a more well-rounded person.”

This unique type of education that the University provides not only stresses balance in regard to academia, but also socialization. Coyle said that this balance is crucial for the education of the “whole person.”

“The Jesuits in general know how to balance work and fun,” she said. “You’re not just there to lock yourself up in your dorm. They want you to be healthy in that way in which students can let their stress go by hanging out with friends or playing in intramural volleyball.”

The balance between working hard and socializing creates alumni like Coyle who are determined to excel and dedicated to leading empathetically. Coyle has directly applied these skills to her position as Head of Internal Communications, where her work is used to communicate with all employees in the multi-trillion-dollar company.

“I love that the words that I either write down on paper and send out or put in a script for a CEO to read get shared to and by thousands of people,” Coyle said. “It is a privilege and a really huge responsibility.”

Coyle’s responsibilities at J.P. Morgan became essential to the organization in March 2020 when quick and correct communication meant the difference between a successful workday and mass confusion in regard to COVID-19 guidelines, and she says that the pandemic has been the most challenging period of her career thus far.

“I don’t think I slept for an entire year,” Coyle said. “I remember in April 2020, it was Easter Sunday, and my boss said, ‘Put down the phone and go join your family.’ That was the first time I had a break, and the next time I had a break was the 4th of July.”

At the time, Coyle’s role focused solely on branch banking communications.

“That meant that every day there was something new,” she said. “It meant keeping open 4,800 branches and ensuring that 47,000 people were safe and not sick.”

Correct information, sufficient communication, and reliable sources are just a few of the basic necessities required to fulfill Coyle’s responsibilities; the overabundance of information during the pandemic, however, made these necessities impossible to accomplish or receive.

“No one knew what was going on,” Coyle said. “Everyone hung on the words that we said and sometimes those words were wrong because the information from the CDC changed on a dime.”

Despite the confusion, Coyle remained dedicated to the wellbeing of her employees. One of the biggest factors that kept her motivated was the fact that her job was essential.

“I think it was the knowledge that I was making a difference and people needed me,” Coyle said. “We were an essential business because people had to get their money. If I could be home and work while others had to go into one of the branches, the least I could do was get out of bed.”

Coyle says that the lessons she learned while at Scranton helped her persevere through the pandemic.

“I was taught to care about people and communicate in an effective way that showed that I cared about them,” Coyle said. “At Scranton, we say that we are men and women for others, and that’s what was needed during the pandemic: the need to help people, the need to be there for others, the need to wake up and do the thing that was really hard.”

The lessons instilled at The University of Scranton, be they academic or extracurricular, are vital in establishing its students’ future success; Coyle demonstrates that caring for the whole person is instrumental to establishing success, a quality she defines as building relationships and having meaningful connections with people.

“Life is the thing that happens outside your job,” Coyle said. “Success is my two very best friends in the world that I met at Scranton. Some people lose sight of that, but we are lucky enough to have that ingrained in us at the (University).”