UND Today

University of North Dakota’s Official News Source

Marketing teams win Gold Award for Indigenous Health Ph.D. campaign

School of Medicine & Health Sciences, UND Marketing & Communications teams honored with national award

A successful marketing campaign often leads to stories such as the above in Indian Country Today, a news service that serves Indigenous communities with news, opinion and entertainment. The photo shows Melanie Nadeau (center), assistant director of and assistant professor in UND’s Public Health program, talking with students. Web screenshot.

The UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) and UND Marketing & Communications teams have been given a Gold “Award of Excellence” from the Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) for the public relations and media campaign they launched in January 2020 for the School’s first-in-the-world Indigenous Health doctorate.

“The GIA established the Awards for Excellence program to honor the exemplary work and contributions made by our colleagues in advancing medicine, research, and education in academic medical centers,” wrote Allison Otu, chair of the GIA Awards for Excellence Competition, and Madalyn Sistak, constituent engagement specialist for the AAMC, in their email to UND. “The judges felt your entry was exceptional and warranted national recognition. Congratulations!”

The campaign to promote the first-ever doctoral program included print and digital advertisements, magazine articles, news releases, web pages, mailers, and videos, all produced in-house by UND writers, photographers, graphic designers, videographers and marketing specialists.

The new program was covered in the local and national news — from local newspapers and radio to national outlets such as Mother Jones, Health Affairs, and PBS — becoming the School’s top non-COVID-19 news story of 2020.

The award carries with it a $1,000 award to be given to a scholarship of the School’s choice. The SMHS will give its award to the newly established Dr. David Gipp Indians Into Medicine (INMED) Scholarship, housed within the UND Alumni Association & Foundation.

The School also was told in a later message from the AAMC that the submission was nominated as one of seven “finalist” submissions from medical school around the nation for the honor of “Best in Show” for the 2021 Awards for Excellence Competition. The Best in Show winner will be announced in April.