Greenbook Future List Spotlight: Catrina Salama

Editor’s Note: The following interview features a 2024 Greenbook Future List honoree, Catrina Salama. The Greenbook Future List recognizes leadership, professional growth, personal integrity, passion, and excellence in the next generation of consumer insights and marketing professionals within the first 10 years of their careers.

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Introducing Catrina Salama, Director, Behavioral Insights & Strategy at
BioVid

Catrina Salama, the Director of Behavioral Insights & Strategy at BioVid, plays a crucial role in shaping her colleagues' daily work. Leading the internal social science consultancy team, she works closely with project teams to create deep insights, impactful stories, and strategic advice for clients. Her passion for her team's success drives her to foster a strong team environment, encouraging growth and consistently delivering high-quality insights.

Salama's clinical psychology background fuels her success in market research at BioVid. She applies emotion science to message testing studies, uncovering key emotional triggers for effective communication strategies. Her scientific approach has boosted the 'eMotivate' line, reshaping healthcare messaging. Integrating AI has enhanced qualitative analysis by identifying subtle emotional nuances, accelerating work, and deepening research insights for more actionable outcomes.

Salama, with a background in clinical psychology, shifted to market research in the life sciences sector. Her deep understanding of human behavior enables her to collect and analyze data effectively, translating findings into client solutions promoting empathy and understanding. She bridges the gap between patient insights and healthcare stakeholders, assisting in the development of impactful treatments and services globally.

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Outside of insights, what are your passions and interests?

My background is in clinical psychology, and I spent time in my career as a mental health counselor working on a college campus. I really enjoyed working with athletes and have wanted to keep that passion alive. I’ve always been an athlete and learned firsthand that despite your skill at the competitive level, if you don’t have healthy mental habits, you only get in the way of your full potential. I currently do performance coaching with competitive athletes who want to develop mental strength on and off the field. It’s really great to see young athletes develop healthier habits and apply them in other areas of their lives as well.

I also have a 7-year-old, and he pushed me to be adventurous. We travel, we explore, and we attend every kid-friendly event we can find; most recently, we went to see the Harlem Globe Trotters. 

In general, my interests stem from healthy living. I like to stay active, I like to be on the move and if I’m not working or hanging out with my son, I’m probably either watching the Premiere League or at the gym hitting a lift while listening to Drake. 😊

When did you know you wanted to enter a career in insights, and what inspired you?

To be honest, I never knew I wanted a career in insights. I would say I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I came from a world of mental health and academic research. At the time, I didn’t feel like I was utilizing the creative and innovative side of myself, and I needed that. Although I am incredibly grateful for each career step and role, something felt missing for me. I knew my skill set, and I knew how I wanted to be able to challenge myself on a daily basis; insights seemed like a good fit. I took a leap of faith and was pleasantly surprised to learn that while executing research, applying counseling skills, and diving into human behaviors, I also get to apply science and innovative thinking to product offerings and larger company initiatives. 

How do you advocate for others on your team or your customers?

I struggled to write up this answer because it’s not advocating if the people you are advocating for don’t feel it. I decided to reach out to my team for their perspective: 

“You create space for everyone to share ideas in meetings, you’re not coming into meetings and stomping on other people. and you share appreciation and respect for others' ideas.” 

“I feel like you have my back and you want me to grow. You give me really great advice/wisdom on how to best present myself / my ideas / my concerns so that my voice can be heard.” 

“You are constantly looking for ways to elevate insights, bring value and add depth to all projects you touch.  You do this without bringing attention to your contributions. This makes BioVid and your colleagues shine.” 

“You listen and help rather than working from your own agenda on projects.  You stand up for the work of others and honor their insights while adding your expertise to make it better.”

*Happy tears* Sounds like the most valuable and meaningful way for me to advocate for others is by giving them space, respecting their ideas and helping them grow in whatever way is important to them. 

What challenges do you see facing newer MRX professionals as technology advances?

One of the challenges I think we all face with these technology advances is distraction. I had a psychology professor once start a research class by pointing out that crime rates increased when ice cream sales went up. Why? His point was, just because you collect certain pieces of data, does not mean they are important in telling the story of why. Ice cream had nothing to do with crime. It was more related to the time of year, summer. It's easy to get lost in data. With more data, comes more distraction and a potential for missing the truth behind the why.  

For me, rooting data and insight elevation in social science principles and frameworks helps to eliminate distraction and identify the themes in behavior that really help to understand the why and what motivates.