Displaying items by tag: trailblazing alumni

Being the first to do something can be challenging—thankfully, when you have a mentor by your side, the experience can be enjoyable and empowering.

Through language, poets help us better understand and navigate life. However, the journey to a career in poetry is not always clear (or easy).

Inspiration can strike when you least expect it—even while waiting in line for a coffee.

Ashley M. Jones, an alumna of the UAB Department of English, was recently appointed to serve as the next Poet Laureate of Alabama.

When Alex LaGanke, staff attorney at Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, left her hometown of Cullman to attend UAB, she quickly started to see the world through a new lens.

When building something from the ground up, it’s valuable for the builder to be detail-oriented and driven. For Angelo Della Manna, Director of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, both skills came into focus during his time studying in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Criminal Justice.

While growing up in Birmingham, Katie Fagan lived a few blocks away from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Although both of her parents graduated from UAB’s School of Medicine, attending the university was not part of Fagan’s long-term plan. At least not at first.

For students who study math in college, the notion of saving lives with their knowledge may seem distant — maybe even far-fetched. For Eric Teoh, director of statistical services at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the connection between math and lifesaving work is crystal clear.

In 1997, Leigh Willis, Ph.D., a rising senior studying sociology at Albion College in Albion, Michigan, encountered a life-changing document. It was an interest form about a graduate program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Anissa Latham nurtured her storytelling and filmmaking skills during her time at University of Alabama at Birmingham — now, with new partners and supporters investing in her work, she’s bringing her creative vision to the world.

International studies alumna Jolie Thevenot is the executive director of the Japan-America Society of Alabama.

As Ellyn Grady embraces retirement and looks back on her storied career, she does not call attention to her impressive and incomparable fundraising achievements. Instead, she reflects on and celebrates the people with whom she connected, learned from, and worked alongside over the course of her 30 years in Birmingham.

Vincent Cirel developed a passion for mathematics in high school and found personal inspiration even earlier in life working with his grandfather as a land surveyor. When it was time to pursue his undergraduate degree, he looked to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Makayla Smith wants to use poetry to create spaces of joy and representation for Black, queer audiences.

Shelby Morris earned her B.A. in Professional Writing with a minor in Spanish in 2016 followed by a M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition in 2018.

The College of Arts and Sciences is proud that three of the five honorees are our graduates.

Kierstin Cates Kennedy, M.D., chief of UAB Hospital Medicine and clinical associate professor, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish at UAB.

This award honors alumni who have demonstrated extraordinary service to the local, national, or global community.