From the Nominator

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, a gunman stormed a campus building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), killing three faculty members, seriously injuring another, and leaving extensive damage to the campus. Hours after the threat was cleared, the Rebel Recovery effort began with the following goals: 1) Honor the victims; 2) Support efforts to restore campus operations; 3) Foster a sense of safety and belonging; and 4) Protect the UNLV brand by building trust in leadership's response. These were frightening and stressful circumstances, but the communications team brought clarity, transparency, empathy, and direction to students, faculty and staff, parents, media, and the community. During the recovery year, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Vince Alberta and the crisis team led efforts to resume "normal" operations, by doing the following: 1) Producing dozens of messages and talking points that leadership could use for interviews and events; 2) Creating a UNLV Strong microsite; 3) Reinforcing messaging and elevating storytelling across owned channels, including News Center, newsletters, publications, and social media; 4) Responding to dozens of media inquiries and public-records requests for 911 calls, police video, emails, etc.; 5) Organizing events, including town halls, a healing ceremony, and a one-year remembrance ceremony; 6) Producing UNLV Strong bracelets, banners, gratitude coins, and billboard imagery; and 7) Providing guidance at the unit-level, including fundraising, HR, student affairs, and colleges.  Anecdotal and survey feedback on efforts has been largely positive. Employees and students took advantage of the resources offered, memorial funds were endowed, and, most importantly, the campus resumed its mission to serve our students and community.

From the Judges

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, planned its Rebel Recovery crisis communications efforts in the hope they would never be needed. Hours after a fatal shooting in December 2023, the plan was put into action. Based on lessons learned from peer institutions and observing the response to the Route 66 mass shooting, UNLV’s team developed clear, comprehensive, and long-term guiding principles for actions, creating materials that would be valuable to any organization going through this type of crisis. "May none of our institutions need this toolkit," said one judge. "And may all of us be comforted to have it as a template to hone our own disaster-response planning."