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Ross To Lead UMC As Garraux Joins UPMC Health Plan
After 14 years at Pitt, Assistant Vice Chancellor for University Marketing Communications (UMC) Michelle Garraux will be leaving the University to become UPMC Health Plan’s director of social marketing and strategic planning, health promotions. Madelyn A. “Maddy” Ross, associate vice chancellor for national media relations since August 2005, will add leadership of UMC to her portfolio of responsibilities, announced Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Robert Hill. The largest department in Public Affairs, UMC produces more than 5,000 print, advertising, video, and Web projects annually. More
Associate Vice Chancellor Honored By Press Club
In accepting the President’s Award during The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania’s annual Golden Quill Awards, Associate Vice Chancellor Madelyn “Maddy” Ross recalled joining The Pittsburgh Press as a 22-year-old reporter and encountering an “extremely talented, underutilized, and profoundly miserable senior staff.” Ross, who became the Press’ managing editor, and her colleagues changed the climate and received national recognition, including two Pulitzer Prizes. More
Pitt Vice Chancellor Robert Hill Named 2006 Business Communicator of the Year by IABC’s Pittsburgh Chapter
Robert Hill, Pitt vice chancellor for public affairs, has received the 2006 Business Communicator of the Year Award from the Pittsburgh chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
“With so many outstanding communicators in Pittsburgh, I feel truly honored to be named IABC/Pittsburgh’s Business Communicator of the Year,” Hill said. “This selection is ironic in that my superb staff, whom I drive to near-collapse on every project, would reinforce that maniacal behavior by nominating me for this award.”
IABC/Pittsburgh created its Business Communicator of the Year Award in 2004 to recognize individuals for outstanding contributions in practicing, promoting, and enhancing professional business communications in Western Pennsylvania.
“In this age of information overload, strategic communication leadership is more important than ever,” said Tina Jerzyk, copresident of IABC/Pittsburgh. “The Business Communicator of the Year award celebrates one individual’s ability to create and implement strategies that shape actions, opinions, and attitudes.”
Hill was presented with the third-annual Business Communicator of the Year Award Oct. 26 during IABC/Pittsburgh’s 27th annual Golden Triangle Awards program at the Twentieth Century Club in Oakland. Also during the program, members of Hill’s Office of Public Affairs staff received 27 awards for writing, publications and Web design, media relations, and other communications work.
A spokesperson for the independent panel of senior IABC/Pittsburgh communicators who reviewed 2006 Business Communicator of the Year Award nominees stated, “Throughout Robert’s communications career, he has consistently been driven to excellence. This drive has been accompanied by a strong desire to mentor young professionals. In fact, several previous students were among the many who nominated him for this year’s honor.
“As vice chancellor and the University’s chief spokesperson, Robert has fostered greater understanding of Pitt’s ever broadening range of accomplishments and its growing reputation,” the selection panel’s spokesperson continued. “Robert has done this by building a multitalented staff whose expertise is evidenced by the more than 450 awards and recognitions garnered for publications and other initiatives. One contribution of particular note is the multiinstitutional taskforce that Robert assembled [in 2001] to provide and promote measles vaccinations for young children. Few communications professionals have been able to realize the success that Robert has enjoyed. Robert’s dedication to his community, his university, and his profession make him a most deserving recipient of this honor from IABC.”
Polio Publication Earns CASE Grand Gold Award
The 2005 Pitt publication Defeat of an Enemy: Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg Reports on the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Triumph of the Pitt Polio Vaccine—produced by the University’s Office of Public Affairs—received a Grand Gold Medal in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) international Circle of Excellence Awards Program during the council’s annual conference in New York City, July 9-11; it was awarded in the category of Individual Institutional Relations Publications.
The Grand Gold Medal is the highest honor that CASE awards in its international competition. CASE awarded only 13 of the medals in 2006. The medal for Defeat of an Enemy (PDF) was the third CASE Grand Gold awarded to Pitt since the late 1980s. Defeat of an Enemy also received a Bronze Award in the category of Visual Design in Print: Multi-Page Publications.
Bronze Awards also were presented to the Pitt medical school’s Pitt Med magazine, produced in the Office of Public Affairs, in the categories of Special Constituency Magazines: Special Interest and Periodical Staff Writing for External Audiences. Another Pitt publication, Blue and Golden Opportunity, won a Bronze Award in the Individual Fundraising Publications category.
In this year’s competition, CASE’s Circle of Excellence Awards Program received more than 3,100 entries, judged in 40 categories, from 682 institutions.
Exhibition, Book Trace Group’s
Legacy of Service to Region’s Black Youth
One of the city’s oldest social service agencies celebrated its 125th anniversary with help from the Office of Public Affairs. Three Rivers Youth is the second-oldest agency in the nation founded to help Black children and young adults. A special exhibition at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, produced by Public Affairs staff, traced the evolution of Three Rivers Youth through two world wars, the Great Depression, and the civil rights movement to the present day. More
PRSA Honors Hill as Pittsburgh’s
‘Communicator of the Year ’
Robert Hill, Pitt vice chancellor for public affairs, has been named the 2006 Renaissance Communicator of the Year by the Pittsburgh chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The award, which honors a practitioner for excellence in communications, was presented at the Renaissance Awards Dinner Jan. 26 at the Renaissance Hotel, downtown. More