Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Wins AAMC Communications Award

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Wins a 2026 AAMC Group on Institutional Advancement Award for Excellence

On Monday, January 12, 2026, the AAMC Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) announced the recipients of the 2026 GIA Awards for Excellence competition. Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) Development staff members received national recognition for their work on the film, “The Vagelos Effect,” which won a Silver Award for Excellence in the Electronic Communications – Audio and Video category.

The film celebrates the scientific and humanitarian accomplishments of Roy Vagelos ’54 and the decades of support that he and his wife Diana have committed to VP&S. The film premiered in October 2024 at the United Palace, a historic landmark theater in Washington Heights, during a special event honoring Dr. and Mrs. Vagelos for their vision for biomedical science and education. More than 2,600 members of the VP&S community attended, including benefactors, faculty leaders, staff, neighborhood partners, family, and friends.

The GIA Awards for Excellence is an annual, peer-reviewed competition that recognizes outstanding work by members of the GIA and their colleagues. The awards honor the most creative and effective approaches used to promote academic medicine through alumni relations, communications, community relations, development, and marketing programs and projects. Additional details about the 2026 GIA Awards for Excellence recipients can be found here.

This year, volunteer judges from AAMC member institutions selected 38 exemplary entries for honorable mention, bronze, silver, and gold recognition. Winners are chosen for overall quality, innovation, comprehensive strategy, goal achievement, use of resources, and the impact on the institution and/or its communities.

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The AAMC is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, clinical care, biomedical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 162 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 Canadian medical schools accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools; nearly 500 academic health systems and teaching hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools, academic health systems and teaching hospitals, and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 210,000 full-time faculty members, 99,000 medical students, 162,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Through the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International, AAMC membership reaches more than 60 international academic health centers throughout five regional offices across the globe. Learn more at aamc.org.