Sarah Willey, media relations director, and Hayley Mignacca, media relations specialist
The UMass Chan Medical School Office of Communications was recognized this spring by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the New England Society for Healthcare Communications (NESHCo), the PR Club of New England and PRovoke Media for outstanding work promoting the institution.
Jennifer Berryman, executive vice chancellor for communications
The AAMC Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) named UMass Chan’s media fellowship a Gold Award recipient and a Best in Show finalist at the 2024 GIA Awards for Excellence dinner in Boston in April. UMass Chan’s media fellowship brings national and local reporters to the Worcester campus each spring for a three-day immersive experience in UMass Chan research and educational programs. The AAMC award, in the special events, projects, program or campaigns category, recognized the work of Jennifer Berryman, executive vice chancellor for communications, Sarah Willey, media relations director, and Hayley Mignacca, media relations specialist.
The AAMC GIA Awards for Excellence Competition is an annual, peer-reviewed competition that honors the most creative and effective approaches used to promote academic medicine. AAMC judges said the UMass Chan media fellowship was an “exceptionally creative approach to accomplishing a very specific objective,” and “an impressive initiative that has developed into a tradition.”
Additionally, the New England Society for Healthcare Communications recognized the Office of Communications with nine awards at its annual Lamplighter Awards dinner in May in Newport, Rhode Island. The Lamplighters showcase and honor excellence in health care communications.
Susan Spencer, senior writer and editor
Susan E. W. Spencer, senior writer and editor, and Ellie Castano, senior director of editorial, won the 2024 Owen J. McNamara Award for Excellence in Writing and a Gold Award for the winter 2023 edition of the @umasschan magazine cover story, “They are the heroes,” which reported on how families of children with genetic disorders inspire gene therapy research. The story was also part of the UMass Chan brand campaign, “Advancing Together,” spotlighting the collaboration across the institution for which UMass Chan is known. The Advancing Together brand campaign was recognized repeatedly by NESHCo judges.
“We take pride in the awards for the launch of our Advancing Together campaign, which was a historic milestone for the Medical School and a total team effort,” said Berryman.
NESHCo recognized the Advancing Together campaign with the following honors: Gold awards for nonservice line, image/branding and content marketing (Rhonda Mann, independent marketing consultant, Brodeur Partners and Berryman); and Silver awards for creative visual design/photography (Faith Ninivaggi, independent photographer); and for websites/microsite (Joanna Alizio, web communications content manager; Dan Lambert, brand director; Lisa Larson, associate vice chancellor for communications; Castano; Mann; and Berryman). Rounding out the team that worked on the Advancing Together campaign was Bryan Goodchild, video and digital media director; Colleen Locke, digital marketing director; Hallie Leo, marketing content coordinator; Pat Sargent, communications writer; Jim Fessenden, senior science writer; Janjay Innis, communications specialist; Samuella Akaab, junior graphic designer; and Kaylee Pugliese, former video production specialist.
Colleen Locke, director of digital marketing
Additionally, UMass Chan won a Gold award for its 2023 media fellowship (Willey, Mignacca and Berryman) and an Excellence Award for its 2023 Top Stories social media campaign (Locke, Goodchild, Akaab, Lambert, Castano and Berryman.) ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan was recognized at the Lamplighters event with a Bronze award for image/branding marketing for its rebrand campaign in 2023.
The Office of Communications and Brodeur Partners were also recognized at the PR Club of New England Bell Ringers awards event in Boston in June, capturing a Gold Bell award in integrated marketing communications and Silver Bell awards in branding and nonprofit/education, all for the Advancing Together campaign.
The Advancing Together campaign was also named a finalist in the institutional image category by PRovoke Media’s North American SABRE Awards in May.
