Thomas, Patricia Archives

Grady College salutes three professors as they retire

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Don McClain

As the halls empty for the summer, Grady College is also wishing three long-term professors best wishes as they retire. Lee Becker, director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research; Lynne Sallot, professor of public relations; and Patricia Thomas, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism are retiring effective at the end of the school year.

Lee Becker

Becker joined the University of Georgia in 1997 and has served as director of the Cox Center his entire tenure at Grady College.

Through the nearly 20 years that Becker has been at Grady College, he has traveled to numerous countries to conduct media training, hosted hundreds of international visitors including the notable Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists for the past eight years and directed the Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates, a report that tracked employment and salaries of industry professionals. The survey, which lasted nearly 25 years, concluded in 2014.

Becker also taught many journalism courses.

“I have always appreciated the fact that Lee is willing to teach basic reporting and also he has taught so many of our graduate students research methods,” said Janice Hume, head of the Department of Journalism.

Hume also noted that Becker is a “publishing machine” including seven books, three monographs, 38 book chapters, 65 journal articles, more than 160 presentations and more than 40 grants.

In 2013, Becker won the Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research, one of several accolades over the years from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Grady College Dean Charles Davis noted at the time that Becker was, “one of the winners of the most prestigious awards a journalism educator can earn. UGA’s glory is reflected in Lee’s achievements, and we all are so proud of this signal achievement.”

In addition to all of his accomplishments at Grady College, Becker is a working journalist, authoring a digital newsletter called “Oconee Observations,” a go-to resource for citizens of Oconee County, Georgia.

“Lee has done it all,” Hume concluded, turning her thoughts to him. “We will miss you, and we appreciate so much everything that you have brought to our department.”

Lynne Sallot, APR

Lynne Sallot (second from right) is joined by Bryan Reber left), Juan Meng and Neil Hirsch after accepting the Milestones in Mentoring Educator Award presented by the Plank Center for Leadership in 2014.

Sallot has had a positive impact on countless professionals throughout the public relations industry. While some were former students, others were impacted by Sallot through her tireless work with the Public Relations Society of America.

She joined the Grady College faculty in 1993 and has taught nearly every course in the PR curriculum.

“She hits it out of the park in teaching, in mentorship, in connections to the profession and scholarship,” Tom Reichert, head of the department of Advertising and Public Relations, said about Sallot. “There are not many people who do such a great job on all levels.”

Through the years, Sallot has been lauded with some of the biggest awards in education and the industry including the University of Georgia’s Meigs Award in 2008, the Outstanding Educator Award presented by PRSA in 2007 and the Milestones in Mentoring Educator Award presented by the Plank Center for Leadership in 2014.

One of Sallot’s former students, Neil Hirsch (ABJ ’00), said of Sallot in 2014: “She was probably the toughest teacher I ever had at UGA. Her expectations of her students were incredibly high — but those were exceeded by her commitment to us.”

Prior to becoming an inducted member of the Georgia PRSA Chapter’s Order of the Phoenix, Sallot received several PRSA honors and awards including induction into the chapter’s Hall of Fame, Outstanding Educator Award and Outstanding Faculty Advisor for the UGA PRSSA chapter.

Patricia Thomas

Pat Thomas served on the steering committee for the McGill Symposium for several years, including in 2014 when she led a conversation with Washington Post reporter Todd Frankel.

Thomas joined Grady College in 2005 as its first Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, a graduate program that she has developed from the start.

“She has really built that program from scratch and it is an excellent, excellent program,” Janice Hume, head of the Department of Journalism, recently said of Thomas.

As a testament to her teaching, the students Thomas has taught have gone on to do some amazing things, Hume continued. “Pat has done a great job training her HMJ masters students. Pat is just awesome in that she beats the bushes and finds assistantships for her graduate students. She goes the extra mile to recruit.”

During her tenure at Grady College, Thomas has dedicated her time to ensuring her students have the skills to translate science into stories people can relate to. She is also focused on illustrating the importance of telling stories of people in poor and rural communities.

In 2007, for example, HMJ students traveled to New Orleans to report on the slow rebuilding of healthcare two years after Katrina. More recently, she led reporting trips to both the Southwest and Northwest corners of Georgia, where students generated multimedia stories about poverty and health for Georgia Health News.

She has also put UGA on the map as a host for national journalism conferences including the Association of Health Care Journalists in 2012 and the 2009 National Ethnic Media EXPO and Awards.

Thomas and Dan Colley, the recently retired director of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, teamed up to run the “Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard” series for the past 12 years bringing almost four dozen internationally known speakers to UGA, mostly boots-on-the-ground researchers, but also journalists, authors, filmmakers and communication directors from WHO and CDC.

Thomas summarized her goal of the Voices series in a recent interview: “I hope we have communicated that you don’t have to be a scientist or a doctor to help. You can help if you are a journalist or communicator,” Thomas said.

Health and Medical Journalism students shine light on Mountain Medicine

Posted on May 17, 2017June 1, 2017 by admin

While today’s technology has improved the ability for journalists to conduct interviews by phone or email, there are many stories that cannot be told without a one-on-one interview.

For this reason, Pat Thomas, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, assigned her eight students to participate in the second annual rural health reporting project, venturing to northwest Georgia near Rome and Dalton, Georgia. The goal of the five-day trip was to tell stories that wouldn’t ordinarily be written because there are not enough reporters in rural Georgia areas to cover them.

“The reason experience is so important,” said Thomas, “is in real life, journalists have to go places that they don’t know much about. You can do some research in advance, but part of it you have to learn on the ground. Often you have a topic when you go, but you don’t really know what your story is…you don’t know your narrative or the characters. That you have to discover in the field.”

The series of features written by the HMJ graduate students, can be read through Georgia Health News.

Flexibility is key and a valuable lesson for the students.

Student Saleen Martin kept reminding herself of the question she set out to answer: “What happens when a state hospital closes?” Mental illness is a subject she has always been passionate about, and writing about what happened to the patients once the Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital closed became a personal mission. It took her in several different directions, however.

“The biggest lesson I learned is that sometimes things won’t work out the way you expected them to,” Martin said. “Part of being a journalist is adapting…looking at the information you’ve gathered and figuring out what you can and can’t use.”

Martin also said that having the opportunity to talk one-on-one with her subjects made all the difference in the world, especially for one of her subjects, Delores Nowell.

“I am so appreciative for her willingness to speak to me, especially about such a sensitive topic,” Martin said. “Those things are hard enough to do, and it’s just not the same over the phone or via email.”

Establishing the confidence and trust in a building relationship between a journalist and her subject is vital.

“If I hadn’t been sitting directly across from her, I wouldn’t have been able to see or capture her eye movements as she peers at the floor, reliving her experiences as she roamed the streets of Atlanta, or when she was first taken to Northwest (General Regional Hospital.) I wouldn’t have been able to shake her hand or smile, letting her know that it’s safe to talk to us.”

For the second year in a row, the features the students wrote will be published in Georgia Health News. This year’s series, “Mountain Medicine 2017: Health in Northwest Georgia,” includes the following features written by the graduate students:

A little-known star of hospital safety in Georgia, by Andy Miller (Georgia Health News editor)

A place that pulls addicts back from the brink, by Kristina Griffith

For immigrant workers, corporate health plans can be an awkward fit, by Jim Lichtenwalter

High school students learn to eat better — and feed others better, by Melissa Campbell

Meals on Wheels: Volunteers deliver food as they fret about funding, by Elspeth Male

Not just a school clinic, but a clinic that’s at a school, by Abraham Park

Old attitudes still cast shadow over fight against HIV, by Victoria Knight

Re-entry program brings former nurses back into the profession, by Naomi Thomas

Years after hospital closed, some former patients struggle for safe housing, by Saleen Martin

Other features will be posted in upcoming weeks.

Georgia Health News editor and CEO Andy Miller, who traveled with the group and Thomas, said the program is invaluable to his publication.

“What Georiga Health News gets is original, well-reported, interesting stories on topics we wouldn’t cover otherwise,” Miller said. “I’ve been constantly impressed by the UGA students’ work.”

The experiential learning trip was funded by a grant from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation and the Institute of International Education, with travel support made possible by the Ford Foundation.

Grady professor teaches students to communicate science effectively

Posted on May 17, 2017May 17, 2017 by admin

The following was originally a Faculty Profile in the May 15, 2017, UGA Columns newspaper.

Pat Thomas advises Hyacinth Empinado (MA ’14) on a project. (Photo/Dorothy Kozlowski)

Biographical Box:
Patricia Thomas
Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Department of Journalism
Years at the University of Georgia: 12
Degrees: Stanford University, Masters in Communication, 1970
University of California at Berkeley, Bachelor of Arts in English, 1969

When Pat Thomas read the online posting for the newly-created Knight Chair at the University of Georgia, she felt that all her life experiences had prepared her for this job.

“From the minute I saw this job description I thought, ‘wow, I have what they are looking for,’” Thomas said.

UGA wanted an experienced journalist tuned in to health disparities in the South, who could help graduate students, researchers and public health professionals communicate more effectively.

Over the past 12 years, creating Grady’s graduate program in health and medical journalism has been her focus. Thomas came up with a curriculum that emphasizes evidence-based reporting and empathic storytelling.

“I think of it as scientifically-based coverage of subjects that are intensely personal,” Thomas said. “We all have illnesses and loved ones with illnesses we wish they didn’t have. We need to empower the public with good information about these things. That’s the kind of reporters that I am trying to train.”

For example, Thomas makes sure students come face-to-face with health disparities in the region. In 2007, HMJ students traveled to New Orleans to report on the rebuilding of healthcare two years after Katrina. More recently, she led reporting trips to rural areas of Georgia, where students generated multimedia stories about poverty and health for Georgia Health News.

Thomas is also passionate about diseases of neglected people around the world. She spent four years researching “Big Shot: Passion, Politics, and the Struggle for an AIDS Vaccine,” which was included on the Washington Post’s list of notable books in 2001.

Thomas and Dan Colley, the recently retired director of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, teamed up to direct the “Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard” series for the past 12 years. They have brought 46 internationally-known speakers to UGA including researchers, journalists, authors, filmmakers and communication directors from WHO and CDC.

“I hope we have communicated that you don’t have to be a scientist or a doctor to help. You can help if you are a journalist or communicator,” Thomas said.

Thomas has been part of a UGA Graduate School initiative that help faculty researchers and graduate students discover new ways to communicate their research stories.

This training is an area she knows well from her career before UGA. Thomas was the first woman editor of the Harvard Health Letter and a contributor to a host of magazines and newsletters. She had also been a Knight Science Journalism fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a visiting scholar at the Knight Center for Science and Medical Journalism at Boston University.

Despite her history with private institutions, The University of Georgia’s land-grant mission holds a special appeal for Thomas.

“I have met so many wonderful researchers in the sciences at UGA who do important work here,” Thomas continued. “It’s a land-grant institution and it is an obligation to try to make life better for the citizens of your state.”

Thomas lives by this mission of helping others in her personal life, as well. In addition to serving on the editorial board of the UGA Press for several years, Thomas was active in the original Partnership in a Prosperous Athens, and its offspring, Athens Health Network.

“In a town with a 30% poverty rate, we need to think about our neighbors a little more,” Thomas said. “We are all on the same ship.”

Earlier this year, Thomas announced her retirement. While she plans to continue writing, she looks forward to “reading that 3-foot-wide shelf of books that I have purchased, but not read.”

In the meantime, Thomas has a legacy of graduates who will continue the vital work of shedding light on untold health issues.

“I have seen graduates in my program do wonderful things,” Thomas concluded, “and, I expect them to continue to do wonderful things by turning science into stories that people can relate to.”

Lifelong advocates to speak about U.S. global efforts to combat HIV/AIDS

Posted on March 10, 2017March 31, 2017 by admin

Two top deputies working alongside Deborah L. Birx, M.D., Ambassador-at-Large and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State, will chart the scientific progress against AIDS and enduring barriers to stopping its spread at 5:30 p.m. on March 21, 2017, at the University of Georgia Chapel.

Birx, the program’s original speaker, is unable to attend due to a family health emergency. Sandra L. Thurman, chief strategy officer, and Cornelius Baker, chief policy advisor, both from the United States Department of State’s Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy, will present “The War Against AIDS, 35 Years and Counting: Are We There Yet?”

The lecture is part of the Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard series. It is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception at Demosthenian Hall, next door to the Chapel. The program is co-sponsored by the UGA Grady College Health and Medical Journalism graduate program and the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases.

“When Sandra Thurman and Cornelius Baker got involved with AIDS advocacy during the early years of the epidemic, most patients died within two years of being diagnosed,” said Patricia Thomas, Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism at Grady College. “Many of them were gay men who were shunned by their families and stigmatized even by some health providers. Thurman and Baker and other passionate advocates helped make their lives better and helped mobilize resources domestically and internationally. Today, they continue to have a global impact due to their roles with PEPFAR.”

Thurman is a graduate of Mercer University who later earned an M.A. in Community Pastoral Care and HIV/AIDS from St. Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya.

For the past 30 years, she has been a leader in improving HIV/AIDS programs and policies at the local, national, and global levels.

She is the chief strategy officer in the United States Department of State’s Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy. She also serves on the faculty at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory.

Thurman launched her advocacy career with AID Atlanta, the oldest and largest AIDS service organization in the South. She was President Bill Clinton’s White House AIDS czar during the late 1990s. She has also held leadership positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and for the Task Force for Child Survival and Development at the Carter Center. In addition to her AIDS work, Thurman has made important contributions to polio eradication, women’s health, children’s health, and cancer prevention and treatment.

Baker, chief policy advisor in the United States Department of State’s Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy, will join Thurman for the question and answer session and reception following the lecture. He has worked at every level of the AIDS response during the past three decades, advising elected officials and leading national nonprofit organizations.

The 2017 Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard series will close on April 11 with Richard W. Steketee MD, MPH, director, Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa Program, PATH, who will speak about moving to malaria elimination in parts of Africa.

The annual lecture series is co-organized by Thomas and Daniel G. Colley, professor of microbiology and director of UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases.

NPR science journalist tells about covering everything from AIDS to Zika

Posted on January 5, 2017January 20, 2017 by admin

NPR health correspondent and senior editor Rob Stein has covered global infectious diseases since the early days of the AIDS pandemic, also reporting on emerging pathogens such as SARS and perennial threats such as influenza. On Tuesday, Jan. 24, Stein will visit the University of Georgia to talk about his journey as he opens the 2017 Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard lecture series.

Stein’s talk, “From AIDS to Zika: The view from the NPR Science Desk,” takes place at 5:30 p.m. in the UGA Chapel and is free and open to the public. It is the first of three events sponsored by the UGA Grady College Health and Medical Journalism graduate program and the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases.

“There are a lot of parallels between the early days of the AIDS epidemic and what’s been going on this past year with Zika,” Stein said. “They’re very different in a lot of ways, but similar in that so much was not known and there was so much fear and concern about [AIDS] in the early days.”

During his talk, Stein will explain why specialized journalism matters and how he moved from general assignment reporting to the health and science beat.

“I started off in journalism as a general news reporter and fell into science journalism by accident in a lot of ways,” Stein said. “I kind of fell in love with it and stuck with it, and it’s led me to all these different stories over the years.”

Stein is drawn to stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. At NPR, he tracks genetics, stem cells, cancer research, women’s health issues and other science, medical, and health policy news.

Whether the topic is a new set of dietary guidelines or laboratory research, Stein says he takes the same approach: storytelling.

“I try to give readers and listeners insights by telling human stories about how a disease or biomedical research affects people on a personal level,” he explained. “Even though a lot of times I am covering very basic research, I always try to bring it down to the human scale if I can.”

Before NPR, Stein worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper’s science editor and then as a national health reporter. Earlier in his career, Stein spent about four years as an editor at NPR’s science desk. Before that, he was a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor for the international wire service in Washington.

Stein is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed a journalism fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, a program in science and religion at the University of Cambridge, and a summer science writer’s workshop at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

Stein’s work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association of Health Care Journalists.

The 2017 Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard series continues with two additional speakers:

March 21— Deborah L. Birx, M.D., International AIDS researcher and former Ambassador-at-Large, U.S. Department of State, who will talk about global efforts to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.

April 11— Richard W. Steketee MD, MPH, Director, Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) Program, PATH, who will speak about moving to malaria elimination in parts of Africa.

All lectures begin at 5:30 p.m. in the UGA Chapel and each is followed by a free public reception at Demosthenian Hall, next door to the Chapel.

The annual lecture series is co-organized by Patricia Thomas, Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism at Grady College, and Daniel G. Colley, professor of microbiology and director of UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases.

Election Day coverage from Grady College

Posted on October 24, 2016December 7, 2016 by admin

Reporting on elections is a cornerstone in journalism education, and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication has several special projects scheduled to cover the local and presidential elections Nov. 8, 2016.

A preview of the expected print and video coverage is below:

Electionland

Electionland is a nationwide effort to identify voting problems such as long lines at the polls, voting machine problems and voter fraud. Professor Barry Hollander’s special topics class “Public Opinion and the 2016 Election,” is one of 13 journalism schools across the county that was selected and trained to identify and verify these issues using a variety of social media search engines and to report them for the entire state of Georgia. Once reported, the issues will be filtered to local journalists for follow-up. This program is sponsored by ProPublica and the Coalition of News Organizations. Visit the Electionland website for more details.

Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County TV coverage

Grady Newsource, the only television broadcast provider in the Athens-Clarke and County County area, will provide extended political coverage to its viewers on-air and online with “You Decide Northeast Georgia,” an election special on November 8 from 8 to 10 p.m. After the regular 5 to 6 p.m. Newsource broadcast that day, the students will provide three cut-ins at 6:30 p.m., 7 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. leading up to the special. If local races are not called by 10 p.m., Newsource will program additional cut-ins after the special. The digital team will update the website throughout the day, so that coverage is continuous even when the show is not on air.

“You Decide Northeast Georgia” will broadcast from multiple locations. Students will provide coverage featuring interviews with political experts, as well as updates from the digital team. There will be a team of reporters at each county elections office in the coverage area. Clarke County and Oconee County reporters will be live during the show. Newsource will air live shots from the University Union Watch Party, as well.

In addition to live coverage, reporters are already working on content that digs deeper into the local races and provides context for the vote. The show will feature profiles of candidates, analysis of voting trends and interviews with some of Georgia’s leading political experts.

Similar election coverage was done by Grady Newsource in Fall 2015.

Graduate Newsroom team

Grady’s Graduate Newsroom team includes 11 graduate students who will provide written and video coverage of the local Athens-Clarke County elections under the direction of Professor Pat Thomas. Students will provide coverage of democracy in action from local precincts before, during and after Election Day. A panel discussion has already taken place featuring State Rep. Regina Quick, Athens Banner-Herald Editor Ed Morales, Professor Charles Bullock (UGA SPIA) and Ms. Cora Wright, supervisor of for elections in ACC. Writing from the vantage point of Athens, they will report about candidates, campaign volunteers and events, donors and finance issues, voter engagement, referendum issues, poll workers and voters.

Students will report on one print and one video story in the run-up to the election. On Election Day, each student reporter will stake out his/her polling place and conduct interviews with people involved with the voting process. They will also report on a feature after the election, looking back at candidates and issues.

The professional partner of the Graduate Newsroom team is the Athens Banner-Herald/OnlineAthens.