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The COTY award is given each year at the Finest Awards event. |
Communicator of the Year Award
The Communicator of the Year award is the highest honor given each year in recognition of outstanding and successful health care professionals. Eligible nominees are individuals who consistently demonstrate excellence in health care communications through service to their organization and/or the health care industry as a whole. The COTY award is open to all professionals at any level, working in a marketing/communication capacity in health care or other health-related field in southern California. This includes professionals from public relations, marketing, advertising, health care or media professions.
2018 COTY Award Recipient
Jacqueline Carr, Assistant Executive Director of Communications and Media Relations
UC San Diego Health
Jackie is a highly successful media relations leader of internal and external communications for a local health system and school of medicine. On a typical day, she might oversee projects including:
• Development of a news release describing novel basic research
• A last minute news conference about a dramatic life-saving operation or public health crisis
• An interview with a physician or scientist for a video or podcast
• Coordination of a new instructional program to improve how employees learn about new safety protocols
Her leadership raises the bar and colleagues jump to reach it! Innovation is woven through her work. With no additional budget, her team, with assistance from other members of the Marketing and Communications department reinvented the School of Medicine’s web site and within it a subsite with special 50th anniversary features.
Those who work for and with her simply do not want to stop working for and with her. Her involvement and influence touch almost every aspect of UC San Diego Health- and she can claim (as if she ever would) considerable credit for its communications success.
Past COTY Award Recipients
2018 - Jacqueline Carr, UC San Diego
2017 - Aaron Byzak, Galvanized Strategies
2016 - Dawn Anderson, AMN Healthcare
2014/15 - Mary Ball, Alzheimer's Association of San Diego & Imperial Counties
2013 - Mike Godfrey, Scripps Health
2012 - Jennifer Decker Arevalo, UC San Diego Health System
2011 - Kim Kennedy, UC San Diego Health System
2010 - Todd Miller, Sharp Healthcare
2009 - Carol Burke, AMN Healthcare
2008 - Jean Hitchcock, Scripps Health
2007 - Cheryl Moder, San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative
2006 - Don Stanziano, Scripps Health
2005 - Carol LeBeau, KGTV News Anchor and Health Care Reporter
2004 - Debra Kelley, American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties
2003 - Gustavo Friederichsen, Palomar Pomerado Health
2002 - Judith Yates, Health Care Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties
2001 - Michael Bardin, Scripps Health
2000 - David Owens, Palomar Pomerado Health
1999 - CeCe Wilkens, Wilkens Communications
1998 - Maureen Wisener, Paradise Valley Hospital
1997 - Mark Morelli, Children’s Hospital
1996 - Jim McBride, Kaiser Permanente
1995 - Sharon Ross, Palomar Pomerado Health
1994 - Diane Gage, Sharp HealthCare
1993 - Micki Stockalper, Stock/Alper & Associates