Phillips-Han appointed chief communications officer for the UF Health Science Center
Arline Phillips-Han, a member of the news and public relations management team at the UF Health Science Center for 23 years, has accepted appointment as chief communications officer and director of the HSC Office of Public Information.
Kenneth Berns, M.D., Ph.D., UF vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, announced the appointment following the recent departure of Rhona Williams, who has accepted administrative positions in public relations, marketing and development at Meharry Medical College in Nashville.
Phillips-Han, an accredited public relations professional and certified PR consultant, will serve as the primary spokeswoman and community liaison for the Health Science Center. She will establish strategic direction for the communications and public relations services to promote faculty, staff and student achievements in research, education, patient care and community service.
Phillips-Han will continue to serve as senior director of the Office of Public Information, which expands public awareness of advances in health science research through the national and international distribution of news, responses to media requests and consumer inquiries, and through a biweekly newsletter (The POST), which reaches Health Science Center faculty and staff in Gainesville and Jacksonville.
The public information office also keeps HSC alumni, supporters and friends informed about institutional growth and development, research and educational advances in the six Health Science Center colleges, and in four campuswide enterprises: the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida, the UF Genetics Institute, the UF Institute on Aging and the UF Shands Cancer Center.
Phillips-Han served as a news and feature writer, and as an editor of special sections for four Florida newspapers before joining the UF Health Science Center’s public relations team in 1970. During her career at UF, she has won state and national awards in medical news writing and in public relations programming. She is a longtime member of the Florida Public Relations Association.