» By David Harris
Staff Writer

Last month, the Office of Public Relations and Marketing was recognized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education – Southeast District III.

“CASE is a professional organization that provides support through education and collaboration to help universities advance in alumni relations, philanthropy, communication and marketing by offering conferences, professional collaboration, publication and related services,” according to Executive Director for Public Relations and Marketing Bill Persinger.

APSU received an Award of Excellence in the category of print and digital publications. The piece honored was the brochure “Scoring New Beginning.” The brochure is a philanthropy piece that provides information about construction of the new stadium and the progress of APSU’s football program.

The piece was written by Melony Shemberger, designed by Kim Balevre, and produced by Michelle Tyndall.

Persinger said he is incredibly proud to work with such talented people. APSU competes against all Southeast universities in the competition.

“The ‘Scoring New Beginnings’ brochure was one of my favorite projects before I left APSU in 2013,” Shemberger said. “I was thrilled to learn the piece garnered such a prominent distinction from CASE III … I am a huge sports fan, so helping to concept and write this piece was more like fun than work. “

APSU also received two special merit awards. One award was in the graphic design specialty category. The honored piece was the acceptance package “Congrats! APSU Acceptance Package.” It involved many people in the department, and several from admissions and aimed to “increase yield by matriculating applicants into enrollees.”

The second award was for “Best Photographer of the Year,” recognizing University Photographer Beth Liggett. Ligget was one of three photographers in the Southeast to be recognized. Liggett said the recognition “is both humbling and motivating,” in light of other schools considered against APSU, such as North Carolina State and the University of Georgia.

“Beth is incredibly talented and has truly brought our department to the next level in photography, not only through her ability to capture incredible images, but in way to share them through things like Instagram, Facebook, etc,” Persinger said.

Persinger said any CASE award is a compliment to his “incredibly talented team,” and he hopes they can continue to excel. TAS