Steven Mackay, College Communications Coordinator for the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has received the 2009 University Relations’ Communicator of the Year Award.
“I believe Steven was an excellent choice for the Communicator of the Year Award because his year-long body of work has been outstanding. I do not believe any other single communicator at Virginia Tech can say that during his (or her) first year that he was able to score media hits numerous times in national magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Mechanics, as well as front-page coverage by the Washington Post,” said Lynn Nystrom, director of news and external relations for the college and who nominated Mackay for the award.
In addition, Mackay’s work on College of Engineering events and contests such as the Blind Driver Challenge, the moon brick award, the various robotic competitions, as well as the more mundane projects, have yielded excellent publicity for Virginia Tech in varied media from USA Today, the Discovery Channel, CBS Morning News, MSNBC throughout 2009. He also provided excellent advice to the students in how to handle themselves with the media.
Nystrom described Mackay as “a Bloomberg news-type public relations person” who has the ability to write articles, take pictures, shoot video and write for the web.
Mackay joined the University Relations team as the Communications Coordinator for the College of Engineering in October 2008.
He is a1996 graduate of Appalachian State University. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, he was a managing editor with Randall-Reilly Publishing’s Overdrive magazine. From 2003 until 2005 he was the sections editor of the Birmingham (Ala.) Business Journal. In 2002 he served as its web editor.