Northwestern Makes a Splash at CASE Conference

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - The Natural News Service, Northwestern Health Sciences University’s award winning public information program, was featured at the CASE V Regional Conference in Chicago, Ill., in mid-December.

CASE is a national organization of higher education professionals who work in communications, alumni, relations and development.

John Healy, BS, director of communications at Northwestern, was joined by Jaime Hunt, BA, former public relations coordinator at Northwestern, in a 75-minute presentation titled "The Natural News Service: Faculty Expert Sources." Hunt recently moved to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she is the associate director of news and public information.

"Our presentation focused on how we grew the Natural News Service into a national award-winning publication," explained Healy, who developed the idea of the Natural News Service in 2001. Hunt, who became Northwestern's public relations coordinator in 2004, built the Natural News Service into an information program that delivers four press releases each month about natural approaches to health and wellness to 1,000 daily and weekly newspapers. Included are newspapers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Colorado and Nebraska.

“Last year we had 10,000 column inches of placements, which is about a $400,000 value,” Healy said, adding that the program itself costs less than $10,000.

Healy said he and Hunt were also selected to present at last year’s CASE V conference about Northwestern’s alumni magazine, “Northwestern Naturally,” which won a gold medal from CASE, one of only two gold medals awarded in the “most improved” alumni magazine category.

About 2,000 people attended the 2007 conference.

Northwestern Health Sciences University offers a wide array of choices in natural health care education including chiropractic, Oriental medicine, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, human biology, and integrative health and wellness. The University has more than 900 full-time students on a 25-acre campus in Bloomington, Minn.