Einstein's Communications Team Earns Honors for Their Work
The exemplary work of Einstein’s Rita and Philip Rosen Department of Communications and Public Affairs has recently been recognized with two sets of awards.
Einstein magazine's publications and design team (from left): Larry Katzenstein, Lorene Tapellini, Jeneffer Gonçalves Lee and Joan Lippert
In late October, staff of Einstein magazine learned they had taken a top “Ozzie” prize in the digital magazine category of the 2016 Folio Awards for the Winter/Spring issue they adapted for the Internet. At the Folio Awards luncheon, Einstein also received an honorable mention “Eddie” for an article on Einstein and Montefiore’s wound-care program and research, “Healing All Wounds,” by Gary Goldenberg, and an honorable mention “Ozzie” for its feature article design in the print edition.
And this month, the department learned that three of its entries in the Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) Awards for Excellence competition received honorable mentions as well. The magazine team was again recognized for its work on the digital edition, and was joined by the multimedia team for its video “HIV Cure Research: Radioimmunotherapy Explained by Whiteboard Animation,” and by internal communications/interactive media in the “shoestring award” category for “Effective Communications During a Transition in Lean Times.”
Fine FOLIO Finish
Gordon Earle, Associate Dean of Communications and Public AffairsFor more than 20 years, Folio has recognized magazines at its annual Eddie and Ozzie Awards. This was Einstein’s first “Ozzie,” which is how Folio refers to its design awards, while “Eddie” awards recognize editorial content.
In winning top honors for the digital magazine, the competition was stiff; more than 300 judges reviewed 2,800 entries from around the nation to determine winners in magazine editorial content and design. “We were happy to be nominated at all,” said Lorene Tapellini, senior art director of the graphic arts center.
Then the presenter announced the winner. It was Einstein!
“Other winners had been pretty quiet, but we let out a loud cheer when we won. We’re from the Bronx,” Ms. Tapellini joked.
The team’s top prize for the digital magazine is perhaps most impressive because it’s a relatively new part of Einstein’s longstanding magazine. The Winter/Spring 2016 issue of the twice-yearly publication — where alumni, faculty, students and friends can read about goings on at Einstein — is just the third issue that the magazine staff converted to the web.
Hard Work Pays Off
Einstein has always posted a PDF version of the magazine online. The digital version started as an experiment two years ago, explained Jeneffer Gonçalves Lee, art director, as an attempt to reach younger readers who are more likely to read a magazine on the web than to flip through pages.
They are not alone: Editors and designers all over the country are working to convert print magazines into digital to reach a larger audience.
Ms. Gonçalves Lee, who spearheaded the digital version, said it was challenging. “We had to build a website from the ground up. And we wanted the digital version to feel like a magazine, with elements from the print version, but with a new life online.”
They succeeded. The design is simple and clean, with interesting graphics interspersed throughout the text to demonstrate how Einstein labs use zebrafish to understand human diseases. It’s eye-catching, but also easy to read and comprehend like an actual magazine.
Sunita ReedLarry Katzenstein, director of science and research content for Einstein publications, said, “I try to present the content in a way that’s easy to understand as well.”
He explained, “A lot of science writing is filled with jargon and assumes the reader knows as much as the writer. I try to simplify things as much as possible.”
Smiling, he added: “I try to write everything so that my mother can understand it.”
Ms. Gonçalves Lee, who colleagues said deserved most of the credit for the “Ozzie,” was humble about the recognition. She started working in Einstein’s creative services department as an intern 16 years ago and credited the entire office with nurturing her growth as a designer.
Illustrating Science
The competition for the AAMC GIA Awards for Excellence involves peers of the communications and public affairs team at medical school from across the nation. For the video, Sunita Reed, director of multimedia communications, collaborated with graduate students Dina Tsukrov and Michael Beckert to create an animated explanation of Dina’s HIV Cure research.
“When we discussed doing the video, I had planned on using whiteboard animation to explain the research concepts,” said Ms. Reed. “I asked Dina if she could draw and she, in turn, asked Mike to pitch in since he had already provided illustrations for her dissertation.”
Mr. Beckert created the illustrations using markers on a white board, which were then animated by freelance editor Charles Young. The finished product brings the process of radioimmunotherapy to life through animated drawings of smiling healthy cells, frowning infected cells and antibodies wearing sunglasses.
“Our aim was to take complex scientific concepts that could be difficult to grasp and translate them to a format that is accessible to everyone—but we didn’t want to oversimplify either,” added Ms. Reed.
Interactive media team, (from left) Felipe Monegro, Najam Hayat, Arooj Khan and Adam HochmanThe AAMC judges agree, noting, “Brilliant approach and excellent use of the metaphor and of the scientist as narrator.”
Communicating the Einstein Transition
The last of the honors recognized the team effort by Karen Gardner, director of internal and web communications; Najam Hayat, director of interactive media; and his team of developers and designers, including Adam Hochman, Linus Surgeon, Arooj Khan and Felipe Monegro, to create effective vehicles for communicating about Einstein’s transition to Montefiore.
“There was a lot to convey, from messages about the transition from leadership, onboarding requirements and other human resources information, to instructions concerning computer network migration, new purchasing practices and the critical transfer of research funding to the new entity known as Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Inc.,” said Ms. Gardner.
Mr. Hayat’s team created a transition mini-site where all communiques were archived and that provided links to key information and resources relevant to the transition. They also developed a special e-newsletter that allowed Suzanne Locke, director of research finance, to update administrators and principal investigators on the key steps they needed to take in each phase of the grant transfer process.
Karen GardnerMs. Gardner coordinated with various departments, including human resources, procurement, research finance and Montefiore information technology, to post updates and to reinforce new information with an e-blast to the Einstein community. This included adding questions to the transition site’s FAQs that had been posed at several town halls held by human resources to address the concerns of the Einstein community.
“One of the biggest challenges was being timely, since the information often came together slowly or incompletely and everyone was anxious to know what was going on,” she said. “Change is never easy, and we wanted to reduce guessing and increase awareness.”
“We created the site to make it easy for members of the Einstein community to find the information or resources they might need,” said Mr. Hayat. “And we included the archive because it’s easy to miss an e-mail or delete it thinking you won’t need to refer to it again. We felt it would be helpful to have a place where all such information was pooled and could be found easily.”
The AAMC judges concluded that team had done a “nice job on examining the multiple ways in which to communicate with employees and finding the right channels for information.”
Reflecting on the accolades received by the department, Gordon Earle, associate dean for communications and public affairs, said, “I’m thrilled that the judges of these two professional organizations have recognized the talents and hard work of our team. The honors are hard-won and well-deserved.”
Posted on: Tuesday, February 28, 2017