Brand, Marketing & Communications Joint Task Force
This group brings together marketing and communications leaders from across UT San Antonio’s academic and health enterprises to align strategy, coordinate institutional messaging, and advance the development of a unified university brand.
As UT San Antonio continues its integration, the task force serves as a coordinating body to ensure that brand, marketing and communications efforts across the institution are aligned with leadership priorities and positioned to strengthen the university’s national reputation.
Through this collaboration, central and distributed communications teams work together to:
- Align communications efforts with institutional strategy
- Coordinate major campaigns and high-visibility initiatives
- Support the implementation of the new UT San Antonio brand across schools, colleges and units
- Share tools, guidance and best practices for communicators across the enterprise
The task force also supports brand migration efforts, campus communications alignment and professional development opportunities for communicators as UT San Antonio continues building a cohesive and recognizable institutional identity.
Task Force Updates
Update
Date
Research, Discovery & Innovation – April 2026
- Research Analytics Working Group – Advanced cross-entity alignment by enabling shared access to research administrative data across academic units. Building on this foundation, the team will develop and implement a unified dashboard to support consistent reporting and data-informed decision-making.
Academic, Student, and Faculty Affairs – April 2026
- Curriculum Development and Delivery Working Group: The group is holding final meetings and developing artifacts as it prepares to wrap its work.
- Faculty Development and Cross Appointments Working Group: The group will participate in an in-person workshop in May.
- Experiential Learning Working Group: The group is continuing its work on the inventory of experiential learning opportunities that exist at the health and academic campuses.
- Phase II Libraries & Collections Working Group: The group submitted a shared resources report to the ASFA co-chairs, and campus communications were developed to highlight expanded library access and impact.
- Career Education Working Group: The group is on track to deliver a shared framework outline.
- Student Government Discovery Group: Subgroups have reviewed findings, with repository development nearing completion, related to the mission, structure, membership, operations, programs and initiatives of the student government at academic and health campuses.
- Academic and Program Advising/Student Support Working Group: Draft recommendations, a roadmap and communications plan are in development.
- Admissions/Recruitment Decision Working Group: Priority recommendations for streamlined admissions and recruitment processes have been finalized, with development of an implementation roadmap in progress.
- Phase II Financial Aid Working Group: A unified Program Participation Agreement (PPA) has been submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, formalizing the transition to a single institutional OPEID structure, with coordination among financial aid and finance teams across campuses to support implementation and review ongoing.
Research, Discovery & Innovation – March 2026
- Working Group Transition – The Research Operations, Research Finance, Commercialization & Innovation, and Faculty Experience working groups successfully transitioned from initial discovery efforts to the next phase of functional integration.
- Faculty Experience Working Group – Completed review of Health Research Challenge faculty submissions and finalized award selections.
- Research Analytics Working Group – Conducted a comprehensive inventory and gap assessment of existing research data sources, services, and infrastructure, and is expanding the unified KPI dashboard with four additional metrics.
Communications – March 2026
- The planning and strategy for FY26 content has been established with ongoing alignment across editorial teams.
- As part of the content strategy, the planning for sponsored content for FY26 has been completed.
- An audit of internal communications has been completed, resulting in plans for alignment across academic and health campuses.
- Interim processes for executive communications and social media are developed.
Branding & Marketing – March 2026
- The brand migration process for schools and colleges is completed, including listening sessions, logo development, a logo transition toolkit, and website alignment.
- The MarCom Studio website with branded assets is updated.
- The UT San Antonio Together website has been redesigned as a site focused on the university integration for internal faculty and staff audiences.
- The Marketing and Communications team continues to keep communicators across campuses informed of the communications process, most recently hosting an “all hands” meeting in January 2026.
- A UT San Antonio Year in Review video was completed, emphasizing the UT San Antonio merger.
- A new support structure for integration is activated, with the completion of consultant support from Huron.
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Unified Web Working Group: The UT San Antonio Together redesign and relaunch is completed, and the MarComm Studio web pages were updated. The brand migration toolkits were created and digitized for access by users, and the logo transition guidelines for web were completed as part of the brand migration.
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Brand Guidelines Working Group: To support listening sessions, logo previews were created. 25-30 new logo options have been completed and will be available to schools, colleges, institutes and centers.
Academic, Student, and Faculty Affairs – March 2026
- Curriculum Development & Delivery Working Group: Subgroups are advancing prioritized programs and optimizing delivery, with pilot test cases planned to identify and resolve issues before scaling.
- Faculty Development & Cross Appointments Working Group: Subgroups are exploring a more aligned new faculty orientation and building a shared vocabulary to streamline cross-appointment processes.
- Experiential Learning Working Group (New): Co-leads have been appointed, membership is set, and the group held its kickoff meeting in March.
- Libraries & Collections Working Group: Phase 2 has launched, with ongoing integration of collections and exploration of shared services across campuses.
- Career Education Working Group (New): Co-leads have been appointed, membership is set, and the group held its kickoff meeting in March.
- Academic & Program Advising / Student Support Working Group: The group completed an inventory of existing student support resources and is developing recommendations for alignment and enhancement.
- Faculty Advisory Bodies Working Group: A draft of bylaws and recommendations for a new integrated Faculty Advisory Body has been completed, with finalization underway.
- Admissions & Recruitment Decision Working Group: Internal benchmarking for admissions and recruitment processes is complete, and external scanning and analysis of pipeline and pathway models are underway to inform more aligned, scalable processes.
Task Force Team
Co-Chairs
Heather Adkins
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
Health Campus
Members
Susan Anasagasti
Director, Health Care Communications
Jennifer Bittle
Senior Director, Brand and Creative Services
Brett Calvert
Senior Executive Director, Marketing and Special Projects
Sean Cartell
Senior Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications
Debra Del Toro
Senior Director, Strategic Messaging and Academic Support
CeCe Frost Griffin
Associate Vice President, Donor Engagement
Tina Garza
Associate Vice Provost ,Enrollment Marketing, Communications and Systems
Jennilee Garza
Senior Director, Strategic Communications for Donor Engagement
Jennifer Horton
Assistant Vice President, Marketing Communications and Media
Joe Izbrand
Associate Vice President, University Strategic Communications and External Affairs
Le'Keisha Johnson
Director, Student Life
Margaret Lamar
Managing Editor, University Strategic Communications
Lety Laurel
Senior Director, Communications
Rebecca Luther
Senior Director, Academic Strategic Communications and Marketing
Kimberly Maldonado
Senior Associate Vice President for Presidential Initiatives and Executive Communication
Jan McKinney, PhD
Associate Dean of Students – Operations
Anne Peters
Associate Vice President for Marketing and Special Projects
Liz Rockstroh, EdD
Associate Vice President for Administrative Services
Eric Rodriguez
Senior Manager, Web and Digital Services
Brad Smith, EdD
Deputy Athletics Director, External Affairs
Eddie Tamez
Manager, Brand and Creative Design
Monica Taylor
Senior Director, Public Relations
Eve White
Assistant Vice President, Institutional Advancement
Lizette Yanes, PhD
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
Kristen Zapata
Communications Specialist-Senior
Working Groups
Brand Guidelines Working Group
The Brand Guidelines Working Group will develop a comprehensive visual identity system and brand style guide for the integrated institution. This guide will inform how the merging institutions consistently communicate and implement the brand strategy and brand expression across all platforms, materials, and audiences.
Leads
Jennifer Bittle
Senior Director, Brand and Creative Services
Health Campus
Brett Calvert
Senior Executive Director, Marketing and Special Projects
Academic Campus
Members
Catherine Adams
Senior Designer, Creative and Brand
Sue Bolden
Lead Designer, Creative and Brand
Gris Campos
Multimedia Designer III, University Marketing & Special Projects
Priscilla Dominguez
Senior Designer, Creative and Brand
Rene Echávarri
Manager, Web Initiatives
Jackson Floyd
Manager, Digital Experience
Jenny Gonzalez
Web Developer, University Marketing & Special Projects
Kristin Law
Digital Asset Manager, University Marketing & Special Projects
Katie Myers
Assistant Athletics Director for Creative Services
Emanuel Rodriguez
Senior Designer, University Marketing & Special Projects
Mitzi Shipley
Director of Creative Services, University Marketing & Special Projects
Lauren Smith
Director, Marketing and Communications, Mays Cancer Center
Eddie Tamez
Manager, Brand and Creative Design
Christina White
Senior Designer, Academic Affairs
Completed Working Groups
These working groups have successfully completed their initial scope of work. Expected deliverables have been presented to the Communications Task Force to inform future integration efforts.
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