Coffee Talk with Barbara Austin

Good morning!

Today, I’ll again share a VC Notes video Coffee Talk. I like these opportunities to chat with people that I think are worthwhile for you to know more about. Today’s guest certainly meets that bar.

I know many of you have been with the Medical Center for most or at least a large portion of your career. That tends to happen around here. Once you become a member of the UMMC family, you grow roots and stick around for a while.

Today’s guest, Barbara Austin, stuck around a while until she hung up her pen and notepad and retired from UMMC in 2007, ending a 40-year career here. She served as director of the Office of Public Affairs, which you now know as the Office of Communications and Marketing, for nearly that entire time. Barbara is a UMMC legend, and those of you who have been here as long as I have or longer know what I’m talking about. While she was in her role, she played an active part in several UMMC initiatives and really had a leading role in shaping the “brand” of the Medical Center, internally and externally.

I was excited to sit down and talk with her, and I think you’ll enjoy hearing from her. We have a fascinating and storied history at UMMC, and Barbara is a part of it. She - along many others in our past, present and future - is a historical link in the chain that brings us closer to A Healthier Mississippi.