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
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.
Enterprise Risk Management – March 2026
- HSCAlert/Omnilert Systems & Processes Working Group – Work completed in March to automate process for integrating employee and student data into Omnilert and transition from a manual “opt-in” model to an automated “opt-out” for text alerts. Additional discovery work may be activated for the possibility of one platform for both campuses.
- Cross Campus Incident Escalation Working Group – Debriefing for lessons learned and future action conducted after inclement weather communications sent in January. Logistics Subgroup is planning March Exercise and finalizing Timely Warning processes. Communications Subgroups is finalizing emergency contact list to ensure confidentiality and updating alert system scenarios based on executive feedback.
- Compliance Working Group – Developing institution-wide communication plan for interim policy review process & procedures. Researching archives of policies and uploading to online policy repository. Meeting to discuss Compliance Accessibility standards.
Workforce Strategies – March 2026
- Benefits Working Group – Finalizing inventory to develop a comparative analysis of different benefits between the academic and health campuses. Summary of recommendations and identified gaps and bottlenecks based on the comparative analysis will be presented to task force leads.
- Leave Plans Working Group – Finalizing inventory to develop a comparative analysis of leave plans between the academic and health campuses. Meeting with Finance team about financial implications of the comprehensive leave plan and evaluating data to inform next steps.
- Wellness Working Group – Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and Wellness Quick Wins sub-committees are identifying strengths, gaps, and developing recommendations to present to the working group.
Enterprise Risk Management – January 2026
- Launched HSCAlert Working Group with subgroups focused on communication, program processes and workstream. Subgroups met with the vendor for the Omnilert system used on the health campus about proposed technical modifications to maximize use of the system and explore an automated opt-in process for adding mobile numbers for employees to receive texts.
- Successfully executed Inclement Weather Business Continuity Exercise (Police Dept./Business Continuity Emergency Management (BCEM) Subgroup).
- Compliance Working Group is implementing approved recommendations and developing roadmap for next phase of work.
- Mandatory Reporting Working Group distributed survey to mandatory report owners across both organizations to assess current status and plans for combined reporting and will coordinate with report owners across both campuses.
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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