From Rowan Regional Medical Center

Michael C. Burton, a public relations professional with more than 20 years of experience in communications, is the new corporate communications director at Rowan Regional Medical Center.

He replaces Phil Whitesell, who left the medical center in July.

“I am looking forward to working with the outstanding professionals at Rowan Regional Medical Center to convey and enhance the public relations and marketing services at the hospital,” Burton said.

He most recently served as public relations director at Schneider Regional Medical Center in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Burton is also author of a book about a Texas storyteller titled “John Henry Faulk: A Biography (Eakin Press, 1993).”

Pulitzer Prize-winning authors James Michener and Studs Terkel, as well as former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, praised Burton’s book. Cronkite described the story of John Henry Faulk as “one for the books, and this one is highly recommended.”

While at Schneider Regional Medical Center, Burton was responsible for a new branding campaign for the regional medical center that included the 200-bed Roy L. Schneider Hospital in St. Thomas, the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute in St. Thomas and the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center in St. John.

As part of that campaign, he won a national Bronze Aster Award for TV/video advertising in March 2006. In addition to advertising, he was also responsible for community affairs, public relations and marketing at the medical center.

A former journalist, Burton worked as a television reporter and editor at TV 2 in St. Thomas and as a Texas Capitol Press Corps reporter for Morris News Service in Austin, Texas. He has also written for the Austin American-Statesman, the Paris (Texas) News and the Huntsville (Alabama) Times.

He has a bachelor’s degree in communications and sociology from the University of Alabama and is a member of the Society of Healthcare Strategy and Market Development.

In Austin, Burton worked for two state agencies as a public information professional. While in Austin, he was a volunteer director of the Council for Public Media, an organization established to encourage the news media to be more responsive to public concerns.

In 1995, Burton helped develop the second annual First Amendment Conference at the University of Texas at Austin, presented by the UT Center for American History.

He and his wife have a 4-year-old child and are looking forward to being part of the Salisbury and Rowan County community.

Rowan Regional Medical Center is a private, not-for-profit acute care hospital. It offers maternity services, cardiology, oncology, inpatient rehabilitation services, extensive outpatient services, a 24-hour Emergency Department, hospice and home health services as well as psychiatric services.