Back row (L-R): Tina Luther, Will Sansom, Natalie Gutierrez, Jennifer Bittle Front row (L-R): Jacquelyn Spruce, Kris Doyle
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The office of external affairs has added another award to its trophy case! At a recent University of Texas System seminar, U.T. System Chair of the Board of Regents, James Huffines, presented the “2005 Award for Outstanding Internal Communications” to the Health Science Center for its weekly newsletter, HSC News.

The award-winning newsletter was recognized for its strong capabilities to reach a wide audience. Technological innovations, including a recent transition from a print to electronic newsletter, and informative and interesting articles are what make the HSC News esteemed.

“I am so proud of our talented team,” said Judy Wolf, senior vice president for external affairs. “I have been told that they’ve won more awards than any university communications team in the nation.”

Meet the HSC News team

Jacquelyn Spruce, HSC News editor, is responsible for writing, editing and publishing the articles that appear in each week’s HSC News. She also writes articles for the award-winning Mission Magazine and contributes to writing press releases that are distributed to external media.

Will Sansom, director of news and information, was editor of the HSC News from 1992 to 1998 (then called The News). Today, Will primarily focuses on writing and distributing news releases to the external media. He writes articles for the Mission Magazine and often contributes articles to the HSC News.

Natalie Gutierrez, Mission Magazine editor, was also the editor of the HSC News when she arrived at the Health Science Center in 2000. Natalie was the driving force behind the transition to the electronic newsletter from a printed newsletter. Her efforts helped save thousands of dollars by introducing the modern publication. Since then, the HSC News has received local, regional, state, national and international recognition.

Jennifer Bittle, art director, was instrumental in developing the look of the digital HSC News. As a graphics designer and layout artist, Jennifer’s creativity allowed her and Natalie to produce the appearance of today’s HSC News. Jennifer serves as the art director for the Mission Magazine.

Kris Doyle, director of strategic communications, joined the office of external affairs in 2002 after 25 years in the educational media resources department. Kris is a professional graphics designer who creates a one-page edition of the HSC News each week. Thanks to Kris, employees who don’t have easy access to a computer can still read the newsletter via the printed editions that she creates.

Tina Luther, communications specialist, joined the Health Science Center in August as the presidential speechwriter. Since her arrival, she has written dozens of speeches and press releases, and contributed articles to the HSC News and the Mission Magazine.

Send your story ideas to the HSC News

HSC News team wants to include a variety of articles in each week’s newsletter. E-mail your story ideas to: HSCNews@uthscsa.edu or to Jacquelyn Spruce: sprucej@uthscsa.edu. Story submissions about unique hobbies or backgrounds, special personal stories, births and weddings are encouraged, as well.

Please e-mail story ideas 10 days before publication date.

Note: Although we can’t use every story submitted, we will try to feature as broad a representation as possible.