UAB Office of Media Relations Named Best in Competition

The UAB Office of Media Relations has been named the Gold Medal winner as best Overall Media Relations Program in the international Circle of Excellence competition held by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Posted on May 29, 2002 at 2:54 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL —The UAB Office of Media Relations has been named the Gold Medal winner as best Overall Media Relations Program in the international Circle of Excellence competition held by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

CASE is the international association of college and university public relations, advancement and alumni affairs professionals. Its membership includes more than 3,000 colleges, universities and independent elementary and secondary schools in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and 42 other countries. Earlier this year, the UAB Office of Media Relations won the CASE Grand Award for District III as best overall media relations program in the Southeast.

The Office of Media Relations is the official liaison between all aspects of the university and the media. It is part of the Office of Public Relations and Marketing led by Associate Vice President Dale Turnbough, who reports to Vice President for Development, Alumni and External Relations Shirley Salloway Kahn, Ph.D.

The award recognizes the office’s comprehensive public relations approach for 2001, which included a complete redesign of the Media Relations Web site, the Tommy Test Tubes science series for children published in The Birmingham News, the WOW Web site that features UAB research in the field, the 15 Video News Releases (VNRs) produced by the office and broadcast 200 times in markets nationwide, and the Genetics 101 conference for media, which won an individual award in the CASE regional competition.

In 2001, the office scored more than 5,000 media placements in print and broadcast outlets locally and across the United States and in several foreign countries, including The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, The Scientist magazine, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Christian Science Monitor, Cooking Light magazine, Ladies Home Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, Prevention, CNN and CNN International, CBS 60 Minutes, several National Public Radio programs, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) and the History Channel of New Zealand.

The office is led by Gary Mans, director of public relations, who oversees media relations and public relations efforts for the entire university, health services, OADI and Southern Research Institute, as well as publications and periodicals and the UAB Reporter.

“This award is a wonderful recognition of the hard and creative work put forth by our media relations staff,” Mans said. “It also is a wonderful testament to the accomplishments of our faculty, physicians and staff, because without their achievements and their willingness to work with us we would have nothing to publicize.

“Our office is run on a beat system similar to the way a newspaper is organized. Each member of the staff has a designated area of responsibility within the university and reports to a manager who helps coordinate efforts and keeps the overall institutional agenda in mind. This allows each staff member to know their areas intimately, from the dean’s goals for the school to each faculty member’s research and area of expertise. There are only 50 universities in the nation that use this extremely productive organization. They include Harvard and Yale.”

Reporting to Mans are Deborah Lucas, assistant director of the University Group, who is responsible for academic affairs and the six academic schools, and Laura Mansfield, manager of the Health System Media Relations Group, who is responsible for The UAB Health System and its six professional schools. All broadcast activities are coordinated with these groups by Andrea Reiber, broadcast news producer.

Members of the University Group and their areas of responsibility are:

  • Gail Short, School of Education and all humanities
  • Shannon Thomason, performing and visual arts and the Alys Stephens Center
  • Jennifer Park, schools of Business, Engineering and Natural Sciences & Mathematics and Office for the Advancement of Developing Industries (OADI).

Members of the Health System University Group and their areas of responsibility are:

  • Hank Black, UAB Hospital
  • Joy Carter, the schools of Nursing and Public Health
  • Bob Shepard, the schools of Medicine and Health Related Professions
  • Tracy Bischoff, the schools of Optometry and Dentistry, as well as the divisions of cardiology, OB/GYN and women’s services.

Dan Willson is Web coordinator for the office. The staff also includes administrative assistants Rebecca Zagrodzky, Rosalind Taylor and Bonnie Lykens.