May 29, 2025 - Rob Edwards (Advancing Kentucky Together Network)
Release Date: 05/29/2025
September 18, 2025 - Jill Smith & Tom Mathews (Alumni Association & 2025 Homecoming)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (September 18, 2025) – For more than a century, beginning in 1915, the University of Kentucky has marked Homecoming Week as a celebration of tradition, spirit and community. The week brings together students, alumni, families and friends to honor what it means to be a Wildcat. , once again features the collaboration of the UK Alumni Association, Student Organizations and Activities, Black Student Union, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Student Activities Board, the Office for Student Success and other campus partners. This year, the Alumni Association will also welcome...
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September 11, 2025 - Savannah Robin, Seth DeBolt, Aslihan Spaulding (Kentucky Signature Industries Career Fair)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (September 11, 2025) – What began as a happy accident between two separate career fairs has grown into one of the most impactful workforce development events at the University of Kentucky. Now in its fourth year, the Kentucky Signature Industries Career Fair is welcoming a new major player — agribusiness — to its collaborative showcase of opportunity. Hosted by the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the career fair was originally born from a coincidental overlap in scheduling between the college’s Ag Equine Programs and the James B....
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September 5, 2025 - Dr. Lindsey Jasinski and Dr. Marc Woods (EmPATH - World Suicide Prevention Day)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (September 5, 2025) – September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and September 10th marks World Suicide Prevention Day — a moment to highlight the importance of open, honest conversations about mental health and the resources available to help those in crisis. On this episode of “Behind the Blue”, Dr. Lindsey Jasinski and Dr. Marc Woods, two of the key leaders behind the EmPATH program at Eastern State Hospital, discuss their decades of experience in behavioral health and suicide prevention, and share how their team is helping Kentuckians find hope during some...
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August 28, 2025 - Douglas Klein (2025 Great Teacher)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 28, 2025) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students. To receive the award, a candidate must: Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK. Have superior knowledge of the subject matter. Have original and innovative classroom presentations. Demonstrate concern for students,...
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August 21, 2025 - UK President Eli Capilouto (2025 Fall Semester)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 21, 2025) – Now in his 15th academic year leading the University of Kentucky, President Eli Capilouto prepares for the start of the fall 2025 semester — a moment he often describes as among his favorite of the year. On this episode of Behind the Blue, Capilouto reflects on the renewed energy and momentum across campus as students, faculty, and staff begin a new year. He shares how UK continues to fulfill its mission of advancing Kentucky through education, research, service, and care; discusses key challenges and opportunities on the horizon for 2025–26; and...
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August 14, 2025 - Dr. Larry Goldstein (60 Years of Neurology at UK)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 14, 2025) – The University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Department of Neurology is marking its 60th anniversary, celebrating a legacy that began in 1965 with a single faculty member and has grown into a nationally respected center for neurological care, research, and education. The department, led by chair Larry Goldstein, M.D., has expanded to more than 70 faculty and built a reputation for advancing clinical care across numerous subspecialties — from general neurology, stroke, epilepsy, and movement disorders to neuromuscular diseases, multiple...
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August 7, 2025 - Hannah Pittard ('If You Love It, Let It Kill You')
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 7, 2025) – Fiction has long offered writers a veil—an opportunity to tell deeply personal stories while maintaining a layer of narrative distance. But what happens when that veil is intentionally thin? When the boundaries between memory and imagination, fact and fiction, are not just blurred but teased and twisted? That’s the space explored in If You Love It, Let It Kill You, the latest novel from Hannah Pittard, acclaimed author and professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of English. Drawing from autobiographical threads, Pittard uses fiction to...
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July 31, 2025 - Sahar Alameh (2025 Great Teacher)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 31, 2025) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students. To receive the award, a candidate must: Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK. Have superior knowledge of the subject matter. Have original and innovative classroom presentations. Demonstrate concern for students,...
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July 17, 2025 - Dr. Shaun Mohan (Project ADAM & AEDs)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 18, 2025) – Each year in the U.S., more than 350,000 people experience sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital. Survival in these moments depends on two critical factors: immediate bystander response and access to life-saving technology. Yet in many communities—especially in rural or under-resourced areas—those tools remain out of reach. At the heart of the solution is the automated external defibrillator, or AED. Small, portable, and easy to use, AEDs can drastically increase the odds of surviving cardiac arrest when paired with prompt CPR. But despite their...
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July 1, 2025 - Matthew Kim (2025 Great Teacher)
Behind the Blue
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 1, 2025) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students. To receive the award, a candidate must: Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK. Have superior knowledge of the subject matter. Have original and innovative classroom presentations. Demonstrate concern for...
info_outlineLEXINGTON, Ky. (May 29, 2025) – Health isn’t just about treating illness – it’s about access. It’s about education. It’s about the quality of life in every community across Kentucky.
In October 2024, the University of Kentucky’s Board of Trustees made a bold statement: that UK should become the university that does more than any other in the country to improve the health of the state it serves.
The creation of a new initiative, the Advancing Kentucky Together Network, is the next step in UK’s long-standing work to tackle health disparities, boost regional economies, and build a stronger, more resilient workforce—all through deep and sustained community partnerships.
The Network “builds upon years of work we’ve done on the healthcare side,” said Rob Edwards, UK’s Vice President and Chief Strategy & Growth Officer for UK HealthCare, “building networks of healthcare providers and working together to improve clinical care for patients and to provide that care close to the patient’s home.”
The vision is rooted in Kentucky’s land-grant mission and UK’s history of stepping into real-world challenges with statewide impact.
For Edwards, the concept is straightforward: “I would say we’re taking a lot of long-time relationships that are built on trust…and so we’ve been able to find a model that works from both an expense standpoint and a health outcomes standpoint.”
On this episode of Behind the Blue, Edwards discusses the decades of partnership-building that laid the groundwork for this network, how strategic collaborations can meet local and statewide needs, and why UK is uniquely positioned to lead this effort.
‘Behind the Blue’ is available via a variety of podcast providers, including iTunes and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
Behind the Blue is a joint production of the University of Kentucky and UK HealthCare. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover how the University of Kentucky is advancing our Commonwealth, click here.