Special to the Citizen 

At their annual international conference in Traverse City, Mich., the Association for Communication Excellence awarded J. Faith Peppers with the group’s silver awards for media campaigns and diversity and the bronze award for magazine writing.

A native Madisonian, Peppers is the team leader for public affairs for the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
   

The awards were given for a year-long series of newspaper and magazine stories Peppers wrote.
   

The articles helped create public awareness for research being conducted at the university by Steve Stice, an animal science professor, Georgia Research Alliance eminent scholar and director of the UGA Regenerative Bioscience Center.
   

“Dr. Stice’s ground-breaking research to find treatments and, hopefully, cures for regenerative diseases and debilitating injuries is a story just begging to be told,” Peppers said.         “His devotion to helping lawmakers, policy setters and the public understand the enormity of this issue and to finding relief for families suffering every day is what made this series of stories so compelling.”
   

Stice is one of the world’s foremost experts in animal cloning and stem cell research.  “The potential impact of his work is beyond measure,” Peppers said.
   

“If we can give people a glimpse of the promise his work holds and help garner public and political support for it, the possibilities seem endless for what can come of it.”
   

Peppers is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Artis Peppers of Madison, and a graduate of Morgan County High School.
   

She earned a bachelor and masters degree in journalism from Georgia State University and worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before joining the college faculty in 1993.