The GIA Awards for Excellence Competition is an annual, peer-reviewed competition that recognizes outstanding work by members of the Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) and their staff. The awards honor the most creative and effective approaches used to promote academic medicine through alumni relations, communications, development, marketing, and public affairs/community relations programs and projects.
Interested in Submitting Your Work?
We want to recognize the outstanding work you’ve produced to help advance your institution to greatness. You’ve been responding to the pandemic and, at the same time, creating innovative campaigns, writing articles, organizing alumni and community events, revamping your digital presence, and, most important, demonstrating the value of your institution to your community. Now is the time to show off your work and be recognized!
The 2021 AAMC GIA Awards for Excellence competition is closed.
Please note that there are some category and submission format changes in this year’s program.
- Categories
- Entry Fee and Eligibility
- Components of an Entry
- Guidelines and Instructions (PDF)
- Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
2021 Award Winners
Best in Show and Pandemic Pivot to be announced on April 28, 3:30-4:00 pm ET at the Awards for Excellence Virtual Celebration.
Print and Digital Publishing
Single or Special Issue
- Silver: Service in Action: Penn Medicine’s Reimagined Digital Community Benefit Report; Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
- Bronze: Ethos 2020; Albert Einstein College of Medicine
External Audience
- Silver: University of Miami Medicine Magazine; University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
- Silver: Medicine@Brown; The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Internal Audience
- Silver: Department of Medicine COVID-19 Daily Update; Albert Einstein College of Medicine Montefiore Health System
- Silver: UCSD Physician Update; UC San Diego Health
Electronic Communications
Audio and Video
- Gold: One in a Million; University of Utah Health
- Gold: When Tragedy Strikes: UF Health’s transplant team risks their lives for Moe Ricks; University of Florida Health
Websites
- Gold: Johns Hopkins Medicine Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information and Updates; Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Silver: UC San Diego Health's Coronavirus Microsite; UC San Diego Health
Social Media
- Gold: FWMD Live Social Media Campaign; TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine
- Gold: Dana-Farber Audits Blog Content to Improve Search Traffic and Quality; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
The Robert G. Fenley Writing Awards
Basic Science Staff Writing
- Silver: “UF Health Patient First to Receive New Gene Therapy for Neuromuscular Disease since FDA Approval” by Doug Bennett and Bill Levesque; University of Florida Health
- Bronze: “State of Stasis” by Kevin Jiang; Harvard Medical School
General Staff Writing
- Gold: “Pritzker School of Medicine Alumni Confront the Epidemic of Gun Violence in America” by Jamie Bartosch; University of Chicago Medical Center
- Gold: “The Unfair Sex” by Cassie Tomlin and Nicole Levine, Discoveries Winter 2020; Cedars-Sinai
- Silver: “Penn State Health COVID Units: Two-part feature” by Bill Landauer; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
- Silver: “Moving Mountains - All Andy needed was a chance, and a miracle” by Bill Levesque; University of Florida Health
- Silver: “Taking on Gender Inequity - Women in Medicine” by Nancy Averett; University of Chicago Medical Center
- Silver: “They Emerge Transformed” by Stephen Dark; University of Utah Health
- Bronze: “Bodies of Knowledge” by Jacqueline Carr; University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
- Bronze: “The LMSA Effect” by Elaine Guregian; Northeast Ohio Medical University
Solicited Articles
- Gold: “The Search for Autism Therapies” by Gary Goldenberg; Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Bronze: “Hanging Tough” by Jim Duffy; Johns Hopkins Medicine Marketing and Communications
News Releases
- Silver: “The Cutting Edge: Scientists on cusp of genetic diseases by snipping defective DNA” by James Beltran; UT Southwestern Medical Center
- Bronze: “Joe, Helen and an Angel Named Amy – A COVID-19 Survival Story” by Michelle Brubaker; University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
Special Events, Projects, Programs, or Campaigns
- Gold: UF Health Screen, Test & Protect; University of Florida Health
- Silver: The Great Brigham Playdate; Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Silver: Medical College of Wisconsin “Daily Briefing MKE Health and the Economy"; Medical College of Wisconsin
- Bronze: Gossip Folks: The Rumors Are True; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Bronze: Virtual Graduation Celebration for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine's Class of 2020; Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
The “Shoestring” Award
- Gold: STEM Education Goes Virtual; University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
- Silver: Johns Hopkins Medicine Mobilizes Digital Patient Communications During the COVID-19 Crisis; Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Bronze: Medical Philanthropy Academy, 2020 Cohort; Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives
- Gold: World's First Indigenous Health Ph.D. Program; University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
- Silver: Bundle of Hers; University of Utah Health
Crisis Management
- Gold: Thanking and Elevating Caregivers Amid a Pandemic; Cedars-Sinai
- Gold: COVID-19 Crisis Communications — Johns Hopkins Medicine's Comprehensive Response; Johns Hopkins Medicine Marketing and Communications
- Silver: RWJBarnabas Health Crisis Management; RWJBarnabas Health
- Silver: UCSD Physician Update; UC San Diego Health
2021 Honorable Mention Award Winners
2020 Awards for Excellence Winners