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

Brand & Marketing – December 2025

UT San Antonio is actively progressing toward a unified brand identity, aligning both academic and health campuses under the newly launched parent brand. This migration is a foundational step in our journey to become one nationally preeminent university, strengthening our reputation and fostering a sense of unity.

We are hosting listening sessions with schools, colleges, centers, and institutes through December 2025 to understand unique needs and gather input. The Brand & Marketing Task Force will provide a comprehensive logo suite and brand guidelines to those entities to help transition smoothly beginning in early 2026.

Research, Discovery, and Innovation – September 2025

  • Launched early integration priorities, including a shared researcher database, topical interest groups, joint research centers, cluster hiring and the “Day 1” Research Integration Campaign.
  • Established new working group (Research Analytics) and advanced existing ones in finance, operations, commercialization and faculty experience—laying the foundation for a more collaborative research enterprise.
  • Task force members operationalized working groups, provided input to cluster-hiring opportunities, evaluated operational input of early win opportunities and challenges and developed a Day 1 Research Integration Communication Campaign Plan.

Health Education – September 2025

  • Secured key accreditation approvals: LCME (MD program merger), CODA (dental sponsorship transfer), and required nursing notifications (CCNE, TBON, COA).
  • Notified all other accrediting agencies and updated external admissions platforms with new institutional name and integration history to ensure compliance and continuity.
  • Members completed a successful submission of pre-notification documents to Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for Doctor of Medicine Degree Program and Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) for Dental Degree Programs.
  • Members continued data gathering to achieve what is needed by accreditation bodies and mapping out program-specific needs for spring and summer 2025 deadlines.
  • Members reviewed and began coordinating UT Health San Antonio’s multiple program-level accreditation requirements to ensure compliance through the merger.

Communications – September 2025

  • Provided resources to internal employee audiences, including Messaging Framework and Short Descriptions, Quick-Start Editorial Style Guidelines, Social Media Guidelines.
  • Launched a new Integration Management Office communications structure.
  • Showcased key leadership voices and news stories in a variety of distribution channels to support the Sept. 1 brand launch and merger announcement.

Brand & Marketing – September 2025

  • Executed an extensive brand rollout that included brand socialization sessions, brand campaign media placements and events that engaged faculty, staff, students and external audiences.
  • Redesigned and launched new websites to support launch of the brand, notably new UT San Antonio homepage (utsa.edu) and the Our Story page (our.utsa.edu).
  • Provided resources for internal employee audiences, including a Brand Toolkit, Web and Swag Guidelines, Quick-Start Guide for Web Managers.
  • Co-leads hosted an Integrated University Brand Campaign Planning Summit in May 2025, bringing together marketing and communications professionals from both institutions for the first time.
  • The task force secured approval for the new university logo and is continuing to develop brand socialization, campaign and working group initiatives.

Academic, Student, and Faculty Affairs – September 2025

  • Identified Academic Year 25–26 priorities, informing the next set of working groups to be launched.
  • Presented key findings at the June 2025 ASFA Task Force meeting.
  • Ten working groups produced 44 final products, including recommendations, inventories, communication plans and roadmaps.

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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