The UAB Office of Public Relations and Marketing has won a Gold Medal Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for issues and crisis management in the wake of the tornadoes that struck Alabama April 27, 2011.
The office, including staff from Media Relations, Internal Communications and Relations and Marketing Communications, communicated the efforts of the UAB Hospital personnel who cared for an influx of more than 130 patients the first night and the recovery efforts that followed.
Communication initiatives began with emergency messaging to the UAB community and extended to include national news coverage of physicians treating patients in the aftermath and one-year anniversary stories of survivors.
“While always proud of the dedication of our staff, I was doubly so during the events of, and following, the April 2011 tornadoes,” said Dale Turnbough, associate vice president for Public Relations and Marketing. “They provided a huge public service to the UAB and greater communities, and nationally, during a very chaotic situation and an era of 24/7 news coverage. I am so glad that they have received national recognition for their work.”
A special website was created to chronicle the student- and faculty-led volunteer relief efforts, clinical and humanitarian, and share the stories of survivors, broken but not lost. See the collection of work about Alabama tornadoes.
