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The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) provides leadership for the Senate. The Senate Executive Committee is composed of:

  • Four officers (Chair, Chair-Elect, Past-Chair and Associate Chair)
  • Seven Standing Committee Chairs (Curriculum; Research; Faculty Development; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Finance; Governance & Operations; Policies & Procedures)
  • Two Senators-at-Large
  • Chair of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (ex-officio)
  • Chair of the Graduate Curriculum Committee (ex-officio)
  • Senate Parliamentarian (ex-officio)

The Senate Executive Committee can make representation in its own name about any matter within the scope of the Senate's responsibilities and functions when, in the committee’s judgment, circumstances require action before it is possible to convene a meeting of the Senate. In such instances, the committee will be guided by its best judgment regarding the intention of the Senate.

The Senate Executive Committee serves in an advisory role to Senate standing committees. Senate standing committees should make reports to the Chair of the Senate at least two days prior to the next meeting of the Senate Executive Committee.

The FSEC also meets once a month with the UAB President and Provost to discuss the needs and responsibilities of the faculty and to provide advice to the President and Provost.


Chair of Faculty Senate
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Psy.D.


Karen CropseyDr. Cropsey attended undergraduate and her masters degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She attended Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana for her doctoral training and completed internship in Clinical Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in forensics and substance abuse at University of Mississippi Medical Center and Virginia Commonwealth University. She stayed on as faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University after completing her fellowship training. She joined the faculty at University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2007 as an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. She is the Conatser Turner Endowed Professor of Psychiatry.

View Karen Cropsey's full faculty bio-sketch.


Chair-Elect of Faculty Senate
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D., MPH

Eric Ford(Ph.D. – UAB; MPH – South Carolina; BS – Cornell School of Hotel Administration) Since 2017, Eric has been a Professor in the School of Public Health with a joint appointment in the Collat School of Business. Prior to that, he served as the Associate Chair and MHA Program Director in the Health Policy and Management Department in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Earlier positions include serving as the Forsyth Medical Center Distinguished Professor of Healthcare at the University of North Carolina Greensboro’s Bryan School of Business. Strategic management, health information technologies, value-based programs, service integration and their combined effects on performance (both financial and population health related) are Eric’s primary areas of research. In particular, he has focused on making the link between Personal Health Record (PHR) use and its impact on care coordination. Eric is the current editor of the Journal of Healthcare Management. He has served as the Academy of Management’s Healthcare Management Division’s Chair and on the board of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA). With his research colleagues, Eric has won numerous publication awards including two Best Theory to Practice Paper recognitions. In addition, he won the 2014 Health Care Management Division’s Teaching Award as part of the Academy of Management.


Past-Chair of Faculty Senate
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.


Joe MarchJoe March is a Professor in the department of Chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences.

In the general chemistry laboratories at UAB, Dr. March has received funding to integrate new technologies and guided inquiry experiments into the laboratory course. In 2005, he acted as the principal investigator on the NSF-funded POGILinPrep grant that adapted the Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry approach to the preparatory chemistry course. This grant resulted in the publication of Introductory Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry approach by Cengage Publishing. Dr. March has also led summer courses for pre- and in-service K-12 teachers that have involve preparing active learning exercises for the laboratory and field testing them under supervision in our summer ChemBridge Program for 9th grade students. Dr. March is currently serving as an Associate Director in the Science and Technology Honors Program.

Dr. March served UAB as Chair of the Faculty Senate in 2006-2007. He served as Senator for the College of Arts & Sciences and as Chair of the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee, in 2020-2021.

View Joe March's full faculty bio-sketch.


Associate Chair of Faculty Senate
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.

Kelly HillI grew up just outside Washington DC, in Northern Virginia. I spent eight years on the other side of the Nation’s Capital, earning my doctorate at the University of Maryland. In between my degree and arriving here at UAB, I lived (and taught) in Minnesota, New York, and Los Angeles. I have been, at various times, a guitarist, a comics enthusiast, and an improv comedian. I can still play the guitar and, occasionally, tell a joke.


Parliamentarian of Faculty Senate
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Ph.D.

Mike WyssJ. Michael Wyss, Ph.D., is a Professor in the department of Cell Biology, Medicine, Neurobiology, and Psychology and the Director of the Center for Community Outreach Development (CORD). He received a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Washington University in St. Louis in 1976. During his postdoctoral studies at Washington University School of Medicine, he applied cell biological methods to elucidate the role of the limbic cortex in behavior and autonomic control and has continued to expand this research at Birmingham (1979-present). Other studies are testing the mechanisms by which a decrease in norepinephrine release in the anterior hypothalamic nucleus leads to of salt-sensitive hypertension.

As Director of CORD, he leads many of UAB's K-12 research and outreach programs to area K-12 students. He is Chair of the UAB Conflict of Interest Review Board. Dr. Wyss has served as Chair of the UAB Faculty Senate in 2017-2018 and has served on the Faculty Policies and Procedures Committee since 2011.


Chair of Faculty Policies and Procedures Committee (FPPC)
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., D.M.D.

Dan GivanDr. Daniel Givan is a Professor of Restorative Sciences at the University of Alabama School of Dentistry and serves as Associate Chair for the Department, Division Head of Prosthodontics, and as the Director of Digital Dentistry and Clinical Laboratory Services. He is actively involved in clinical prosthodontics and has lectured nationally and internationally with an emphasis in occlusion, implantology, and digital dentistry. Dr. Givan received his dental degree from the University of Mississippi in 1992 and afterward completed a general practice residency and a specialty residency in Prosthodontics. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Prosthodontics and has earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with an emphasis on dental materials. He is actively involved in both clinical research and applications of technology to dentistry. Dr. Givan maintains an active faculty practice limited to prosthodontics and is a member of numerous professional organizations including International Association for Dental Research, the American College of Prosthodontists, Academy of Osseointegration, and the American Dental Association.

Dr. Givan has served multiple terms on the Faculty Senate numerous time and has actively served on the FPPC since 2013.


Chair of Curriculum Committee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.

Sarah CulverDr. Sarah Culver is an associate professor of economics in the UAB Collat School of Business. She earned her Ph.D. in 1993 at the University of Houston under dissertation advisor Dr. David H. Pappell.

View Sarah Culver's full faculty bio-sketch.


Chair of Research Committee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.

Peggy Biga headshotDr. Peggy Biga is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at UAB. She completed her doctoral degree in Nutritional Physiology at the University of Idaho. Subsequently, Peggy conducted post-doctoral research at the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, M.A.) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Peggy is a broadly trained comparative biologist and her work focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating body size and muscle growth in organisms and the role of nutrition and epigenetics in growth maintenance.

In 2019, Peggy was awarded a 2-year Science and Technology Policy Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where she worked at the United States Department of Agriculture (Office of the Chief Scientist) in Washington, D.C. Her work was focused on STEM education, nutrition and health policy, scientific integrity, data management policy, and diversity and equity policy.

Outside of the biology-related research Peggy conducts, she is also focused on elevating science policy education and undergraduate curriculum reform at UAB. She is currently a UAB Signature Core Curriculum Faculty Fellow (2021-2023), serves on the CAS Curriculum and Education Policies Committee, and is the co-director of a new graduate certificate program in Science Policy (approved by Board of Trustees 9-15-2021, awaiting Alabama Commission of Higher Education approval).

Peggy was elected to the UAB Faculty Senate in 2021, serves on the Senate Research Committee and as a Senator-at-Large on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.


Chair of Finance Committee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,
Ph.D.

 Peter Jones, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Broadly, his research focuses on the public budgeting processes and financial management of local and state governments. He also studies K-12 public schools and considers the financial ramifications of various education policy issues. Dr. Jones primarily teaches in UAB’s Master of Public Administration program, training the region's future public and nonprofit sector leaders. He offers graduate classes on the public budgeting and financial management, quantitative methods, and data management, and he teaches an undergraduate course on public service. He received the 2021 College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Awards for Excellence in Teaching and was the first UAB faculty member awarded the Center for Teaching and Learning Platinum Certificate.

Dr. Jones co-leads the Alabama Chapter for Scholars Strategy Network (SSN), a nonpartisan, national organization of university-based scholars who are committed to using research to improve policy and strengthen democracy. He is also a member of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama Roundtable and served on the Alabama State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.


Chair of Faculty Development Committee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.

Kelly HillKelly Hill, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She teaches Early Childhood Education and English as a Second Language at the undergraduate and graduate level. Dr. Hill is the graduate program director for Elementary and Early Childhood Education in the SOE. She is currently the director of the Maryann Manning Family Literacy Center and is the primary investigator on a National Professional Development grant through the Office of English Language Acquisition which focuses on preparing early childhood teachers to work effectively with dual language learners and their families. Her research focuses on teacher education, family engagement, and language and literacy development for young emergent bilingual learners. Dr. Hill was elected to the faculty senate in 2019. She serves on the Faculty Policies and Procedures Committee, as Chair of the Election Committee, and as the Associate Chair of the Faculty Senate. Dr. Hill also serves as the Faculty/Senate Representative on select university-wide committee(s).


Chair of the Faculty Senate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (FS-DEIC)
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.

Merida GrantDr. Merida Grant is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology in the School of Medicine and holds a Secondary appointment as Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Grant obtained her PhD from Duke University in Clinical Psychology in 1997 and completed her post-doctoral work in clinical neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, PA in 2000. Dr. Grant is the founding Director of the Trauma Related Disorders Clinic in the department of Psychiatry, a training clinic focused on providing evidenced based care to adults with psychiatric disorders that are the sequelae of early life and adult onset traumas. She also currently serves as the Chair of the Alabama Board of Examiners in Psychology Professional Wellness & Monitoring Committee, established to identify, assist and monitor impaired Alabama psychologists. Dr. Grant's research interests since her graduate training have addressed the long term effects of stress on brain and behavior. This work has primarily focused on the effect of early life stressors, including childhood trauma, on alterations in brain morphology, physiology and connectivty. Dr. Grant is also a member of numerous professional organizations, including the International Society for Traumstic Stress Studies and Trauma Psychology. Outside of these sctivities, Dr. Grant has Chaired the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee in the Department of Psychiatry since 2020 with a focus on improvements in recruitment, retention and promotion of a diverse faculty.


Chair of Governance and Operations Committee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., M.D., Ph.D.

Wei LiWei Li is an associate professor working in the Physician Assistant (PA) Program, Department of Clinical & Diagnostic Sciences (CDS) in the School of Health Professions (SHP). Before joining University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2017, he served as the faculty senator at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis (IUPUI) for two years.

Dr. Li received his medical degree in 1997 from Xinxiang Medical University in China. He earned his master degree in Neurophysiology in the year of 2000 from Capital Medical University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Physiology in 2006 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). Dr. Li has been serving as a senator in the Faculty Development Committee since September 2020. He has also been serving the role of Senator-at-Large for the Faculty Senator Executive Committee since September of 2020.

As a medical educator, Dr. Li has been teaching students at both undergraduate and graduate student levels. He is interested in doing pedagogical research and is the UAB 2020 interprofessional leadership fellow. He enjoys teaching and has received a gold certificate in 2019 from Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). He is currently teaching medical courses at both graduate and undergraduate student levels.

As a scholar, Dr. Li’s research interest is on studying dementia including the most common neurodegenerative disease: Alzheimer’s Disease. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is currently serving as the associate editor for Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. He is also an active reviewer for more than 15 different journals. Further, he is a member of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center and an appointed scientist of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS).

Last but not least, Dr. Li is the ambassador for promoting a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion at the UAB. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family. He likes sports such as Ping Pong, Tennis, and hiking as an outdoor recreational activity.

Dr. Li has served as a Senator for the School of Health Professions and as a Senator-at-large on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee since September 2020. He served on the Faculty Senate Faculty Development Committee in 2020-21. In 2021-22, Dr. Li is also serving as the Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate Governance & Operations Committee.

 


Chair of the Graduate Curriculum Committee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D.


Chair of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Ph.D., M.P.H., CPH