Meet Cullen Murray-Kemp, Publisher
Cullen Murray-Kemp has a vision to help educate communities on local, pertinent healthcare topics and feels his job is to influence folks to think proactively rather than reactively about their health because in Cullen’s words, “when patients take their health into their hands this allows for healthier, happier, and more productive lives.”
Cullen started HealthLinks in hopes of simply providing a medium where local healthcare providers could speak directly to community members who need health and medical resources local to them.
Before starting HealthLinks, Cullen had a successful college basketball career and focused on journalism while in school. After college, Cullen moved from Maryland to Charleston to write about lifestyle and athletic happenings in the area. Cullen’s articles have been featured in both The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
More recently, Cullen and the HealthLinks team have launched into the digital world to “meet people where they are with local health information,” by launching HealthLinks Podcast, HealthLinks Newsletter and a new website in 2023.
As Cullen puts it, “our health is the most valuable thing that we have and having simple access to quality, unbiased health information is vital to being productive and positive people!”
Cullen’s Recent Publisher’s Notes
Cullen’s Pub Note January/February 2025
A Grateful Girl Dad
I’ve always wanted to be a father. Growing up, I was fortunate to have two loving, present parents, each with their own unique style of parenting. My mother was, and still is, my best friend and most fierce protector. My father was critical, but his love and commitment to his son were unquestionable. As a child, I found myself in regular reflection of how I would parent differently – even better. Fuming with teen angst, I’d fight and rebel against their parenting like bait fish trapped in a cast net. Confident that I had already figured the world out, I was often blind to the lessons my parents laid in front of me. Yet, as I matured and developed self and situational awareness, I began to understand why my parents were tough on me. More than anything, they wanted me to be happy and successful.
This fall, Marissa and I learned that we would be having a baby girl in May. On the edge of our seats, we watched as the ultrasound revealed hands, feet and a heartbeat! Our eyes glistened with happy tears when we found out our little girl was free of any early onset health concerns. As I’m writing this note, we are beginning to put professional and personal pieces in place to welcome her into as stable and secure of a Kemp family world as possible.
For a period of time, I struggled with identity issues around being a girl dad. I realized that I had always looked at parenting as being the father of a son. As such, all of my planning and analysis of best parenting practices were now obsolete. I even questioned whether I’d be able to see myself in a daughter rather than in a son.
My girl-dad insecurities quickly dissolved, and excitement began to bloom. I started to understand that for me, being a parent was never about having a boy or a girl but more about the opportunity to shepherd a child into this world. The sex of our child didn’t matter – all that counts is that our baby is healthy, safe and happy.
Before long, something strange happened. I felt myself actually becoming partial to the girl-dad idea. I could now approach being a father without any preconceived parenting notions. I became more aware of the inspirational women in my life, looking at my wife and mother in wonderment and awe. My ears perked up when people described the unique daughter/ dad love. The phrase “My father can never do anything wrong” engenders some pretty awesome peace of mind for a knowingly naive dad-to-be.
This issue of HealthLinks helps shine a light on women in South Carolina who’ve had a positive impact in shaping health care in our state. As I spoke to a roomful of our 2025 HealthLinks Women in Health nominees this fall, I was overcome with hope for our daughter to be. I am grateful for the roads paved by these women and how they’ve illuminated pathways for future generations of women to find success and overcome obstacles.
Cullen’s Pub Note November/December 2024
My late father was a world-renowned coastal ecologist whose work will undoubtedly have a great effect on the work of generations of future scientists. As such, my father received numerous awards for his work and impact in his field. However, his perspective was always that, collectively, scientists are greater than the sum of their parts. He would harp tirelessly to me about the value of collaborative, collective thinking. The career accomplishment he was most proud of was the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation Scientific Lifetime Achievement Award, which, for the first time in history, was given as a dual award to my father and his closest friend and fellow scientist, Walter Boynton. “My mind and Walter’s work in two distinctly different, incredibly incoherent ways, but together we often make some sense in science,” my dad would joke.
find my father’s value of collaborative work prevalent as HealthLinks continues to grow and embark on exciting new partnerships with cornerstone physician groups like the South Carolina Medical Association, the Charleston County Medical Society and others who work to bring physicians together for advocacy, education and collaboration. In the spirit of communication and collaboration, 2025 will offer South Carolina physicians new opportunities to come together, connect with their peers and discuss changes that affect the care they provide to our community.
As 2024 comes to a close, HealthLinks is also set to merge with a preeminent health care marketing agency in South Carolina to form HealthLinks Marketing, a full-service, health care-exclusive marketing agency. Capitalizing on collectivity, this partnership will give our teams and partners access to additional resources and set the table for significant, strategic improvements for patients and providers alike moving into the new year.
In the end, my father understood that, without collaboration with other scientists, the potential to further coastal ecology would be limited. He valued colleagues who disagreed with him as much or more than those who agreed because solutions to science’s problems often are nuanced and rarely linear. In order to further understanding and research in his field, his theories needed to be challenged; he understood that scientists should never work in a vacuum. Medicine needs the same collaborative approach.
My hope is that the current health care system does not preclude providers from spending time together, despite demands such as increased charting requirements and complicated reimbursement procedures mounting for our medical providers. Somehow, they should find time to continue communicating and collaborating with their colleagues – regardless of affiliation. In the spirit of providing the best possible care for South Carolinians, perhaps increased collaboration in medicine should be a priority.
If you’re a physician looking to become more involved with your colleagues or peers, please email me directly at Cullen@HealthLinksSC.com, and we will point you in the right direction.
Cullen’s Pub Note May/June 2024
How Appreciation Can Ground Us
As an only child of two well-educated marine biologists, I have been given a lot in my first 34 years on this earth. My only wish is that I could have understood the value of gratitude and appreciation then, the way I do now.
Throughout my childhood and high school years, I would frequently push the envelope and act out. I made mistakes and got into all sorts of trouble but was always gifted the guidance and direction toward becoming a productive person. I know now that not everyone is afforded second, third and fourth chances; back then it didn’t cross my mind.
In college, I neglected to acknowledge everything my late father did for me to help me win an athletic scholarship, and assumed I was the best basketball player in the country and that no matter what, I’d play professionally. Taking this opportunity for granted opened a gateway to mistakes that ultimately caused me to lose the opportunity to play basketball at the highest level. Again, my parents were there to help redirect my energy toward education, an education that without an athletic scholarship, they were now going to have to finance.
Over time, I began to find my way with less and less hand holding. The collective effort of my parents, teachers, coaches and mentors had finally gotten through to me, but it wasn’t until nearly a decade later that I started understanding the value of practicing appreciation in the moment. I often wonder what a grateful 18-year-old Cullen could have accomplished. Of all the lessons I learned through my journey, being mindfully appreciative is one I wish I had retained a long time ago.
Writing this note fresh off my second 21-day gratitude practice, appreciation is admittedly atop my mind. Here’s what I have found:
- None of what my life has become would have been possible without outside influence.
- Anxiety and stress – which have compounded with maturity and self-awareness – can’t exist simultaneously with appreciation.
- Be grateful for resistance and co-exist with stress, for it is trying to tell you something.
- Appreciate yourself – your mind, body and surroundings.
- Even learn to appreciate the people who make your life more difficult. They are teaching you.
I’ve discovered that the practice of appreciation often shifts my perspective; my problems become opportunities and difficult people and situations teach me about myself.
As always, I hope the July/August edition of HealthLinks Magazine finds all our readers well and enjoying the summer season. If you’re sipping an iced tea in a front porch rocking chair, take a moment to notice your life and appreciate the moment.
Cullen’s Pub Note March/April 2024
It’s not often that we have the opportunity to give back to the people and places who lift us up during trying times. But I’m thrilled to share an invitation to join the HealthLinks family on the greens as we host a series of golf tournaments to do just that — support local charities that have supported us and the community. This invitation springs from my own personal gratitude.
Of the many memorable moments that my dad and I shared on the golf course during the final years of his life, one in particular sticks out. I had just shot my low round (at the time) of 74 on a fairly forgiving Oak Point Golf Course on Johns Island. My father and I sat on the clubhouse’s back porch sharing lagers, laughs, and a pristine view of the Kiawah River. For a moment, we forgot about the tremors, the mental and physical setbacks, and through a crooked smile my dad told me how proud of me he was. It was a moment of realization for my father that maybe he hadn’t done too terrible of a job with his life’s biggest project, raising his son.
Michael Kemp, world-renowned marine biologist/father/husband, passed away in the fall of 2020 from complications of Parkinson’s disease and dementia. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2017, he and my mother moved to Charleston from their home in Maryland where they spent their lives studying the Chesapeake Bay. During the last three years of my father’s life, the one activity we kept coming back to was golf. While he did not play much, he spent countless hours in the cart analyzing and relearning his son. I was also able to discover so much about my father during those times. What I learned from him has shaped my life ever since. In addition to really discovering each other, I believe that my father found peace on the golf course. It was a place where the horrors of his medical reality somehow dissolved and the biggest problem at hand was watching his son curse the heavens as he sliced another tee ball into the water.
Throughout my father’s journey with these diseases, there were a couple of local medical charities and nonprofits that we leaned on for guidance during dark times. Parkinson’s Support Foundation and Respite Care of Charleston to name two, helped give my mother and me peace of mind when we were directionless. Having the opportunity to give back to these and other Charleston-based medical charities by way of the HealthLinks Charity Golf series is a full circle moment for me and would have be a point of pride for my father.
I also recognize that my family’s story is not unique and that there are thousands of other people who are struggling with similar situations in our community.
My hope is that you will consider sponsoring or playing in one, or all three, of our Charity golf tournaments this spring. Help us raise money to help these great organizations help our fellow community members in need.
As the first tee shots are hit at Stono Ferry on March 14, I know my father will be smiling down on us all, and undoubtedly laughing as so many of us slice, hook and shank our way to a great time for a great cause.
Cullen’s Pub Note January/February 2024
Each time I sit down to my computer to write this publisher’s note, I strive to say something meaningful or inspiring. I try to deliver a message that draws from my life’s experiences and that will resonate in a positive manner with those who read this column. This note had all the makings of a New Year’s resolution message like “The new year offers us a blank canvas where we can repaint our self-portrait with brushstrokes of better diet, more exercise and a renewed focus on mental health.”
While there’s certainly inspiration in the notion of new year, new you, I’m almost certain our readers have heard this message before and will inevitably see it this January on millions of Instagram feeds and health blogs. I believe we should always strive to be the best version of ourselves, but, for me, this year, that doesn’t mean five weeks of crash dieting and rigorous exercise. I will not be eating 18-wheelers of kale and pine nuts, nor will I break any records on my Peloton bike. Heck, it may take me until summer 2024 before I find the time to see my therapist again. And frankly, I’m OK with all of that.
Rather than committing to a new, better me, I will be working on reframing my perspective of myself. For my entire adult life, I’ve struggled with self-criticism and self-doubt. My shortcomings and failures appear crystal clear, while my accomplishments exist as afterthoughts at best. My frail ego exists almost exclusively on external affirmations from colleagues, friends and family. “True confidence” was a concept my late father worked diligently to instill in me as he saw through my boisterous facade growing up.
The self-deprecation came to a point this fall when we made the decision to, after five years, discontinue printing our sister magazine, HealthLinks Upstate. I pressed myself to think of this not as a failure but as an opportunity to refocus our efforts and keep up with a changing media and health care landscape. The internal dialogue didn’t cooperate. As a leader, I did my best to internalize my emotions and not let my team or family see the hollowness that was forming inside.
I told myself to stay the course, but the problems seemed to mount faster than the solutions. Eventually, I realized that I could no longer neglect my history of personal and professional success. I had to rewire my brain and my thought processes to see that I had brought good not only to my life but to the lives of those around me.
This year, let’s make a commitment to self-appreciation and trusting our intuitions. While we always strive to be the best version of ourselves, it’s about time to recognize that we are more than good enough just as we are.
It’s a new year and the same old us. And that’s a great thing.
Cullen’s Pub Note November/December 2023
2023 Packed A Punch, But I’m Fighting Back – And So Should You
If there’s one thing I learned to do in 2023, it’s how to roll with the punches. From my best friend/big “sister”/HealthLinks sales manager facing serious health obstacles to unanticipated, monumental changes at our company, I’ve been challenged at every turn, both personally and professionally. There have been times where I’ve yelled at the top of my lungs to an unresponsive Wadmalaw wooded area. There have been tears of frustration and anxiety pains that stuck with me for weeks on end. I’ve lashed out at loved ones and undoubtedly could have been kinder and more understanding to team members. I sought out solace in unhealthy habits and trudged through trying times, leaving grace behind.
But a point of clarity came during my daily morning conversation with my mom on my ride to work. I was hammering on: “I can’t do this. It’s too hard. Woe is me!”
She wouldn’t admit it, but I was wearing on her. My negative attitude and dreadful disposition were now her reason for fear and anxiety. While I was awake at night worried about me, so was she. I was so wrapped up with my own problems that I was blind to the impact I was having on her. That wasn’t fair, and it certainly never was my intention to burden someone I love.
I’d like to think that moment of lucidity changed me and made me refocus on how grateful I am to just be on this Earth with my health and the people I love. We all have problems that at one time or another seem insurmountable, but to constantly bestow them on our loved ones isn’t helping us move forward. Instead, it is hurting them.
Choose to be grateful and stay the course because the only thing we can control is our attitude. Look at those closest to you, and make sure you are having a positive impact on them. If you are causing them anxiety and worries, it may be time to adjust the prism through which you see your world – if not for yourself, then for the ones you love.
So bring it on 2024. I’m almost certain you will host more challenges, but if there’s one thing that 2023 has taught me, it’s that the solution has probably been inside of me all along. I just have to refocus my lens to see it.
Thanks to all our readers for making it another great year at HealthLinks. Our mission will continue to be improving access to health information for the Palmetto State. Don’t forget to check out our new website for easy access to hundreds of great doctors and thousands of local, fact-based health articles.