David Sampson

David Sampson, senior director of media relations at UCLA Health, traces his love of medical communications to Saturday mornings spent browsing the medical library while his dad did rounds as a practicing oncologist in Northern California. He started his career as a freelance TV news writer at KGO-TV and KTVU-TV before becoming senior producer for Dr. Dean Edell at KGO-TV. He moved to Los Angeles in 1995, working at KCAL-TV before going to Dateline NBC, where he worked as a medical producer in the Burbank bureau.  He then spent 18 years as director of scientific communications at the American Cancer Society National Home Office, where he led medical and scientific communications for the organization. He started at UCLA Health in 2020. David holds a Bachelor’s in Broadcast Communications from San Francisco State University.