PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTOR'S 40-YEAR JOURNEY AT UMC COMES TO A CLOSE

If anyone has been keeping track for the last 40 years, they might have an inkling of the contributions Barbara Austin has made to this institution.

Or they might not. 

The director of the Division of Public Affairs since 1978 (and a staff member since 1967) rarely stands in the spotlight and regularly shuns recognition. But her bosses, past and present, assure us that much of what we see in today’s Medical Center can be traced to Austin – the way we look on the outside, the publications and printed materials that define us, the special events that make visitors take notice, the positive light in which most Mississippians see the Medical Center.

Rarely do personal and institutional goals mesh so completely as they do in Austin and her chosen employer.

She has a passion for her home state, and she says she realized soon after coming to the Medical Center that it was the one institution in Mississippi that could have the most impact on the people who live here. 

“It’s been a wonderful journey,” she said. That journey comes to an end on June 30, her last official day as a Medical Center employee. 

Austin has always been a leader. From her days in Terry High School when she was valedictorian and Miss Terry High School, to her beloved “W,” where she was president of the student body association and magna cum laude graduate. She gives Mississippi State College for Women, now Mississippi University for Women – the W – credit for her career preparation.

“The W gave students a lot of responsibility and a lot of freedom in exercising that responsibility.”

She came from a family of strong, independent women, and the W “had an atmosphere that encouraged students to reach their full potential. We had an exceptional faculty who challenged us at every turn. It really was an Ivy League education at a fraction of the cost.”

In 1985, she received the school’s Alumnae Achievement Award, the youngest person ever to have received it.

After graduation, she was an exchange student in Ireland and Northern Ireland  for six months – one of 12 students in the United States selected by the International 4-H Youth Exchange.

“As part of the agreement with 4-H, I was obligated to spend six months in the state speaking about my exchange experience. As soon as that was done, I planned to go to graduate school.”

Instead, she took a job as assistant director of public relations at Belhaven College, then was recruited to the Medical Center by the first public relations director, Maurine Twiss.

“Even then, I thought I’d work a few years, then go to graduate school."

Finally, after she was named public relations director at the Medical Center, and the office had a staff to help her take call, she earned the master’s degree in English and mass communications at Jackson State University, taking advantage of its night curriculum.

Along the way, she has found the time to serve as chair of the Southern Region of the Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) of the Association of American Medical Colleges and editor of the GIA national newsletter, as well as chair of the Section on Communication, Development and Public Affairs of the American Association of Dental Schools.

She has served with five Medical Center CEOs and worked closely with three – Dr. Norman Nelson, Dr. Wallace Conerly and Dr. Dan Jones.

According to Conerly, “I learned from Norman Nelson to put complete faith in her, and she never disappointed me. I learned very quickly that she was the person who always knew the right thing to do, legally, socially, everything. She knows the Medical Center backward and forward.

“Whatever she did, it was done with class, and no detail was left to chance. If Norman Nelson could speak, he would say the same things about her, because I learned it from him.” Nelson had a stroke in 2000 that severely affected his speech. 

Conerly credits her with the positive perception the public has of the Medical Center.

“She knows so many people in Mississippi, people who respect and love her, that if I asked her to call any one of them for the Medical Center, they always paid attention to her.”

She’s certainly well known in the Jackson community. For more than 40 years, she has “paid her civic rent” as she calls it, by volunteering her time and energy to nearly every nonprofit in Jackson – New Stage Theatre, the Red Cross, the Junior League of Jackson, the Mississippi Opera, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Goodwill Auxiliary, the United Way of the Capital Area, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

She has received the J. Tate Thigpen Award for Exceptional Volunteer Leadership for the Central Mississippi Chapter of the American Red Cross and received a “Goodwill Salute” as one of Jackson’s outstanding community volunteers in 1989.

When Conerly succeeded Nelson in 1994, he told Austin he wanted the Medical Center to have a larger presence in the community. She suggested that Conerly and she host a monthly community luncheon that gave leaders an insight into life at the Medical Center.

A different group of community and civic leaders met with them once a month to hear about the Medical Center – its progress, the issues it faces and how it solves problems. The practice has been carried over into Jones’ tenure.

“I can’t tell you how many people over the years have told me how much they learned from those sessions and how important they were to their understanding of the Medical Center’s mission.” 

Budget director Marjorie Solomon calls Austin a “friend and colleague.” She says, “I can’t recall a time when we couldn’t get together to work out a problem. She’s wonderful to work with because you always know that her first priority is the institution. She has never, not once, put herself or her department ahead of what was right for the Medical Center.” 

Solomon says Austin has a “global view” of the Medical Center that brings planning meetings into focus rather quickly.

“She’s not one of those people who is always saying, ‘we’ve already tried that and it didn’t work.’ She is more apt to say, we tried that once so if we do it again, let’s avoid the pitfalls of our first try.”

Ivory Bogan, physical facilities director who has worked with Austin for many decades, compares her to “an exquisite timepiece” with characteristics of “precision and dependability.” She’s a friend, too, he said.

“I’m going to miss her teasing me about Debra having to dress me.” 

Jones says her strength as an administrator is her ability to say “no” and stick to it.

 “She tells me ‘no’ regularly, and she also tells the faculty ‘no’ when I don’t want to.”

 Jones says that when he succeeded Conerly in 2003, he wanted to make sure Austin would stick around for a while.

“I have come to depend on her as much as my predecessors did.”

Dr. Ruth Black, director of pastoral services, says Austin has the ability to make quick, sound decisions.

“Many people who make quick decisions make bad decisions, but because she always has the good of the institution in mind, she makes excellent decisions quickly.”

Celeste Eason, executive assistant in clinical affairs, says, “I will always appreciate all that she has taught me about protocol, manners and her quiet faithful love for an institution she has devoted her life to.” 

Up until 2003, Austin, like Maurine Twiss before her, was responsible for the Medical Center’s accreditation reports for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and for arranging the site visits. She also edited most of the reports for the other schools on campus.

“There were many times the report was better than the institution,” Conerly said. “It’s fair to say that most of our highly positive accreditation report cards were due to the perfection of the printed report and the seamless nature of the site visits.” 

After such a busy career, retirement will be a radical change. But Austin says she’s ready for it.

“I won’t set the alarm for a year.”

2007-06-22 00:00:00 17058