Colorado State’s Department of University Communicatons and Marketing Receives International Silver Medal

Helping the public deal with drought and fire issues recently garnered Colorado State University’s communications and marketing department a Silver medal from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. CASE is an international association of education advancement officers.

The university’s Silver medal – part of CASE’s Circle of Excellence Awards and advancement’s most prestigious awards program – was in the Specific Media Relations Programs category for the team’s drought and fire entry. CASE yearly recognizes winners in the profession for projects that encourage sound strategies, concrete planning and innovative ideas and that serve as models of excellence and motivation to inspire others.

"Serving society with the latest information to explore and help resolve the tremendous impacts of drought and wildfire is what this university is all about," said Tom Milligan, director of communications and marketing. "This award recognizes a strong public relations team that daily shows the motivation and desire to get the word out about the crucial programs and research at Colorado State that ultimately benefit the public."

In its drought and fire program, the public relations team focused the wide-ranging expertise of Colorado State’s research leaders on increasing the drought and fire knowledge base to provide critical information to government leaders, businesses and individuals as they plan for and manage drought and related events. Responding to state and national needs, the university has more than 100 researchers from 25 university departments who currently participate in research that analyzes the dynamics of and develops new methods and procedures for characterizing drought, fire and related issues.

Members of the communications and technology staff who were instrumental in working on the special program include June Greist, media relations manager; Brad Bohlander, Jennifer Dimas and Dell Rae Moellenberg, media relations staff members; and Leslie Hilbert, Joe Rymski and Chris Weller, Web technology staff members.