Achievement Awards

National Alumni Society Supports Students

A new endowed scholarship and a new endowed award have been established by the UAB National Alumni Society. The Virginia D. Gauld National Alumni Society Endowed Scholarship is named in honor of the former UAB vice president for student affairs. The Ray L. Watts, M.D., National Alumni Society Endowed Award is named for the current chair of the UAB Department of Neurology and president of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation.

Virginia Gauld

More than $25,000 in contributions from the UAB National Alumni Society as well as Gauld and many of her friends, family, and colleagues made the scholarship possible. Gauld was vice president for student affairs from 1990 until 2006, and during that time she helped implement the successful development of significant campus improvements, including construction of new residence halls, the Campus Recreation Center, the Commons on the Green dining facility, and the Campus Green. She also made great efforts to promote diversity on campus and to create a disaster relief fund and committee to aid students displaced to UAB by Hurricane Katrina.

The Watts endowment will provide awards to deserving students at UAB. Watts is a 1976 graduate of the UAB School of Engineering who has demonstrated exemplary service to and generous support of the university and specifically the UAB National Alumni Society. He earned his medical degree at Washington University in St. Louis and completed a residency and fellowship training at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Before joining UAB, Watts and his colleagues built an internationally renowned Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Research and Clinical Center at Emory University. He is a member of the American Parkinson Disease Association Scientific Advisory Board.

Ray Watts

“The National Alumni Society is very pleased to support the new scholarship and the new endowed award for the students,” says Rebecca Watson, associate vice president for alumni and annual giving. “We continue to look for opportunities to assist the students and the university, especially in these challenging times. This past year, the National Alumni Society gave more than $700,000 in scholarships, grants, and gifts back to the university.”

Maintaining the Momentum / Winter/Spring 2010