Presenting
2023 HCC Finest Awards
May 12, 2023 | The Carlsbad Windmill 11:30 am - 2:30 pm |
Afternoon Agenda
11:30am | Networking & Registration
12:00pm | Luncheon & Awards Presentation
Letter from Our Co-Presidents
A Letter from Our Co-Presidents: James Chisum and Jody Schneider
Stepping in to fill the shoes and unparalleled achievements of our past president Christina Campo was a daunting endeavor. However, we recognized that the strength of the individuals who comprise our incredible Board of Directors would help position us for success moving forward and we all jumped right in! We’d like to thank Christina for her years of service and commitment to the Health Care Communicators of Southern California (HCCSC).
Our Board is fully committed to nurturing and growing HCCSC. We are all passionate about our mission of helping communicators and marketers fine-tune their professional skills and stay current with the ever-changing challenges of working in health care, health IT, life sciences, and other related fields.
The Finest Awards presents the perfect opportunity for us to advance communications in health care by convening representatives from health care organizations throughout Southern California to show off their talents and unique approaches to successful campaigns. Ranging from public relations and advertising, to community relations and marketing analytics, the Finest Awards showcases and recognizes the best of the best in health care communications, and we are proud to be a part of this.
We’d like to heartily congratulate today’s winners, and importantly, thank this year’s sponsors for their support of our organization, without whom we would not be where we are today.
If you are not yet a member, we strongly encourage you to consider joining. Our membership team has already scheduled a series of interesting and informative events designed to promote networking, education, and fun for everyone involved.
Thank you so much for your support and we hope you enjoy this year’s Finest Awards!
Co-Presidents - James Chisum & Jody Schneider Vice President, Communications Liaison - Susan Malecha Treasurer - Arika Daniels Secretary - Sandra De La Torre Website Director - Callie Huza Finest Award Chair - Kirk McDonald Nonprofit Incorporation & SHSMD Affil. Director - Andrew Werts Membership Co-Chairs - Tara Kyman & Cassie Saunders Scholarship Chair - Poolak Forutanpour Past President & Advisor - Christina Campo |
2022 Scholarship Winners
Nneoma Meremikwu
Nneoma Meremikwu, 2022 AMN Healthcare/HCC Scholarship winner is currently a freshman at the University of California, San Diego where she majors in Human Biology. She plans to complete medical school and pursue a career as a physician after receiving her bachelor's degree. However, her career goal is to contribute to closing the racial gap the medical field has been facing, notably among black physicians. She also has aspirations to provide affordable healthcare to marginalized communities and form a nonprofit STEM organization that black and brown students have access to.
Matthew Campos
Matthew Campos, 2022 AMN Healthcare/HCC Scholarship winner is a current senior at Azusa Pacific University studying Psychology with minors in Sociology and Spanish. In high school, Matthew began volunteering at Noah Homes, a residential community for adults with developmental disabilities and became passionate about sitting with the stories of those living with any form of disability or chronic condition. As he transitioned into college, he sought ways to meet the social and emotional needs of families navigating chronic disease in his local community. This led him to intern with Alzheimer’s San Diego throughout the pandemic, serving as a virtual companion to families navigating Alzheimer’s disease. Through Zoom, traveling abroad to participate in a medical service trip in Guatemala, or conducting public health research at Brown University, Matthew’s pursuit of healthcare never loses sight of the individual and their story. As he embarks on a career in public health, he is motivated by the fact that behind every statistic is a story, a family member, and a fighter. After graduating in the spring, Matthew plans to matriculate into a Master’s of Public Health (MPH) program. He's committed to ensuring access to healthy aging is equitable across diverse communities and desires to serve families living with chronic conditions through research and practice.
Harshil Shah
Harshil Shah, 2022 AMN Healthcare/HCC Scholarship winner is a recent graduate of Valencia High School and is now studying Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Florida. He is deeply passionate about serving the community and in the future aims to aid communities that are medically underserved. During high school, he served as a volunteer at a local hospital and medical nonprofit organizations like Operation Smile. He also helped serve his community by volunteering as a basketball coach and Science Olympiad mentor at his local middle school. Harshil hopes to continue his efforts of serving others by becoming a physician so that he can positively impact and inspire people to live healthier and happier lives.
Master of Ceremony
Susan Taylor
Susan is a member of the board of directors of Access Youth Academy and a former 6-year board member of LEAD San Diego.
She is currently a marketing/communications executive at Scripps Health, a $3.8 billion not-for-profit health care system in San Diego, CA. She is an expert at internal and external branding and crisis communications aligning the company’s mission with stakeholders, investors, customers and employees.
Susan speaks truth to power. She takes complex issues and makes them understandable and marketable to a mass audience, helping companies broaden their customer base.
Susan spent more than 30 years as a TV news anchor/reporter/producer in Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles and San Diego. In Miami and San Diego where she spent the last 16 years of her TV career, Susan helped propel the news team, within 3 months of her arrival, to the #1 ranked position in the market, greatly enhancing the TV station’s bottom line. After leaving TV in 2012, Susan joined Scripps Health as a marketing executive. She produces fundraising and YouTube videos featuring doctors, patients and the latest technology that is transforming the way healthcare is delivered.
Today's Awards
This year we received 90 entries from 20 different organizations. These entries are more creative, imaginative, resourceful, and successful every year. From ad campaigns, websites, videos, events, analytics, and public relations, everyone is a winner and should be honored and proud of their work this year.
Communicator of the Year, known as the COTY award, is an esteemed recognition granted to an individual or individuals who made a lasting impact by advancing the profession of health care communications not only within their organization, but to the health care community.CategoryAdvertising Ad Campaign Direct Mail Multicultural ad campaign Online/Web Outdoor Radio Television Analytics Marketing Automation Digital Marketing Email Campaign Mobile Marketing Search Engine Marketing Social Media Website (Intranet or Internet) Muti-Media Interactive Media Internal/External Video Programs Public Relations Campaigns Community Relations Health & Wellness Advocacy Internal Communications Media Relations Multicultural Relations Overall Campaign Publications, Collateral & Design Giveaway Items Internal/External Magazines Internal/External Newsletters Invitation Logo Creation/Brand Identity Posters Special Publications Special Events Multi-day Event or Observance Single-day Event or Observance Virtual Events Writing Feature Article News Release/Pitch Letter Op-Ed Editorial Off the Wall | Entries Judged6 1 1 2 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 4 2 11 1 4 1 2 5 2 4 2 1 4 2 2 3 3 1 2 3 2 6 1 |
Best in Show
One special awardee will take home the coveted “Best in Show”award, the entry with the single highest score.
Past Best in Show Winners
2021 Tri-City Medical Center, Heroes Live Here Poster
2020 Tri-City Medical Center, Tri-City Medical Center Brand Refresh-Branding Guide
2019 Scripps Marketing Scripps Whittier Diabetes Yellow Line Digital, Scripps Diabetes Outreach
2018 Studio K Communications, “For the Boys” written for Cedars-Sinai
2016/17 UC San Diego Marketing and Communications, Cancer Immunotherapy media relations campaign
2015/16 AMN Healthcare, 2015 Survey of Registered Nurses Multi-Channel Digital Campaign
2014 UC San Diego Health Sciences, Discoveries Magazine, Volume 5/2014
2013 Porter Novelli, The Bill Holmes Tower Opens at CHOC Children’s, Public Relations Campaign
2012 Palomar Health, Opening of the New Palomar Medical Center, Public Relations Campaign
2011 Scripps Health, Update Magazine
2010 San Diego Hospice and the Institute for Palliative Medicine, “Pawsitive Pals” Video
Once again, this year’s entries were judged by our colleagues at The New England Society of Healthcare Communications, NESHCo. We are grateful for their partnership and hard work to judge your entries this year. NESHCo is a premier membership organization for healthcare communication, marketing and public relations professionals in New England. To learn more, visit www.neshco.org.
Health Care Communicators of Southern California
5694 Mission Center Road, Ste 602-310, San Diego, CA 92108-4312