SMU Wins 2012 CASE Circle of Excellence Awards

DALLAS (SMU) – SMU’s official university photographer and the Office of Public Affairs received international awards for accomplishments in image photography and media relations during the 2012 Circle of Excellence Awards competition of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

SMU University Photographer Hillsman S. Jackson won the international Gold Award in the Photographer of the Year category for images featured in the SMU centennial coffee-table book, SMU: Unbridled Vision. He tied for silver in the same category in 1999. A 1988 graduate of East Texas State University, Jackson was president of  of the Dallas chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) from 2009-2011.

SMU’s News and Communications team won an international CASE Silver award for “Planning Meets Opportunity: How Preparing a Dean to Blog Led to Major Media Exposure.” For the project, the team promoted Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dean William Tsutsui, an economic historian of Japan, as a media resource who could provide firsthand experience of the 2011 Japanese earthquake. Tsutsui was in Japan attending a conference and blogging about his experiences on the SMU Adventures blog when the earthquake occurred. International and local media carried the story across multiple mediums. The team who worked on the media relations project included Kent Best, Cherri Gann, Kim Cobb, Joan Jackson, Christina Voss, Nancy George, Eva Parks, Margaret Allen, Sarah Hanan, Kathleen Tibbetts, Gary Shultz and Denise Gee.

The Circle of Excellence Awards is the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s premier international awards program recognizing the work of CASE members. The awards acknowledge superior accomplishments that have lasting impact, demonstrate the highest level of professionalism and deliver exceptional results.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is a professional association serving educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. CASE helps its members build stronger relationships with their alumni and donors, raise funds for campus projects, produce recruitment materials, market their institutions to prospective students, diversify the profession and foster public support of education.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

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