The Communications team leads strategic communications efforts for the school, particularly those relating to the Dean’s Office, Admissions, Medical Education, and more. We also work closely with the UAB Office of Marketing and Communications and the Health System Marketing Team to generate coordinated, unified messaging across our academic medical center. Our team maintains the Heersink School of Medicine website, produces the weekly newsletter, and manages the school's social media presence on Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We also create a variety of publications such as UAB Medicine Magazine and the school’s Annual Report. You can learn more about our individual services below, and we look forward to assisting you with your needs.

Communications Requests

Heersink Publicity Request

The Heersink communications team promotes news from across the school. The team will help guide which channel your news and announcement is most appropriately suited, including the weekly Heersink School of Medicine newsletter and social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Story: fully developed stories or ideas for potential stories about individuals, teams, or units. These may include stories about awards, honors, service, teaching, research, diversity and inclusion, community work, volunteerism, discoveries, and patient care.

Announcements: key messages that pertain to at least one core group within the school: faculty, trainees, students, and/or staff. These may include grant and funding opportunities, call for award nominations, compliance news, facilities updates, and more.

Events: relevant events that pertain to at least one core group within the school. These may include one-time seminars, symposia, employee events, and more.

Submit request

Web Requests

Our team works closely with UAB Web Operations and Web Communications. We set the look and feel across all sites, provide technical support, and provide recommendations and best practices for your site projects and updates.

Submit support request


Web Edits:
 we only make content edits to the select sites. If you have an edit request for a site not supported by our team, email us and we'll connect you with their site manager.

Submit edit request

Branding Requests

With the introduction of our new school name, all department's marketing and promotional efforts (internal or external) using the name or logo of the Heersink School of Medicine are now required to be submitted for approval before submitting to the UAB marketing approval process.

 Marketing and promotional efforts include but are not limited to:

  • Apparel, merchandise and promotional items
  • Ads (print, TV, radio, billboard, and social)
  • Large-format printing (posters, banners, elevator wraps, graphic displays)
  • Brochures, booklets, pamphlets
  • Publications (magazine, annual report)
  • Promotional videos
  • Sponsorships
  • Signage

Submit branding approval request


Branding support: if you have questions about branding or have a special branding scenario that you need help with and isn't covered in the Heersink brand resources toolkit or on the UAB toolkit, submit a request and we'll be happy to assist you.

Submit branding support request

Need help with something else?

If you need help with something not listed here, email somcomm@uab.edu, and we'll be in touch.

Our Team

Reporters and journalists should contact Media Relations at 205-934-3884 or after hours at 205-934-3411.

Paige Dorman
Executive Director, Communications 
paiged@uab.edu
Cell: 205-209-1985

Amber Atkins-Maddox
Graphic Designer
aatkinsmaddox@uab.edu

Tanner Burckhard
Communications Coordinator
Family and Community Medicine
jtburckhard@uabmc.edu 

Mary Ashley Canevaro
Communications Manager 
mcanevaro@uab.edu

Jay Dial
Web Content Coordinator
jgdial@uab.edu

Tyler Furgerson
Assistant Director of Creative Services
tylerf@uab.edu
Cell: 205-407-0983

Katherine Gaither
Communications Manager
khg2@uab.edu 

Emily Harley
Communications Director
Family and Community Medicine
eharley@uabmc.edu 

Rachel Hendrix
Graphic Designer 
hrenfro@uab.edu

Teresa Hicks
Communications Coordinator
hicks00@uab.edu 

Emily Johns
Communications Coordinator
erliming@uab.edu

Kelsi Lindemann
Communications Manager 
krlindem@uab.edu

Jane Longshore
Managing Editor
jlongshore@uab.edu

Joy Marsch
Communications Coordinator
jmarsch@uab.edu

Jessica Martindale
Communications Director
jmartindale@uab.edu
Cell: 205-746-4926

Shawna Masters
Communications Manager 
shawnam@uab.edu

Ryan McCain
Communications Specialist
Genetics and Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
ryanrmccain@uabmc.edu

Katherine Mozzone
Communications Specialist
Family and Community Medicine
kmozzone@uabmc.edu 

Sarah Oetken
Administrative Associate
sarahoak@uab.edu 

Phillip Pinyan
Communications Manager
pmpinyan@uab.edu

For any unit-specific communications needs, please contact the appropriate unit communicator.