At the Heersink School of Medicine, outstanding women faculty members are honored and recognized. Read about just a few of their remarkable achievements below, along with stories that deal with the issues faced by women in medicine at UAB.New Paid Parental Leave is Added to Employee Benefits
UAB now will provide up to four weeks of paid parental leave for eligible employees expecting the birth or adoption of a child. Even better, employees can redeem the new benefit before exhausting their available paid and unpaid leave.
The new policy, signed by President Ray Watts and slated to be available no later than July 2016, is a collaborative effort between the UAB administration and Faculty Senate that built on an earlier proposal by the Commission of the Status of Women. The benefit aligns the university with the rare U.S. employers that provide gender-neutral, paid parental leave. Read more here.
Kendra Sheppard, MD, Selected for Faculty Scholars Program in Health Disparities and Culturally Responsive Care
by Laura Coulter
July 2, 2015
Kendra Sheppard, MD (Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care) has been selected for the School of Medicine Faculty Scholars Program in Health Disparities and Culturally Responsive Care. She is one of a select number of
faculty accepted to this specialized faculty development program. The program's primary goal is to generate a group of teaching faculty as institutional champions to support the further development, implementation, and evaluation of curricula designed to improve the integration of training in health disparities and cultural competence across the entire spectrum of medical education.The objectives of the UAB School of Medicine Health Disparities and Culturally Responsive Care Faculty Scholars Program are to:
1) Provide education and training on leading, teaching, and providing culturally responsive patient care in order to eliminate health disparities.
2) Develop knowledge and skills related to curricular design and innovation focused on enhancing the provision of culturally responsive care.
3) Promote leadership and career development in medical education through scholarly productivity such as publications and leading training initiatives for health care providers at all stages of training and clinical practice.
Dr. Sheppard completed a fellowship in Geriatric medicine at UAB in 2009, following a residency at the University of Louisville in 2008. She received her medical degree from Meharry Medical College School of Medicine in 2005.
UAB Dermatologists' Drive to Eliminate Psoriasis is Personal
by Nicole Wyatt
June 23, 2015
Psoriasis care has seen great advances in the past several decades, and many are thanks in part to the numerous treatment studies led by dermatology experts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB dermatologists believe a combination of ongoing studies and their focus on treating the disease may soon make psoriasis a thing of the past.
Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease affecting approximately 5 million adults in the United States, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Muscoloskeletal Skin Diseases. The condition causes patches of inflamed, scaly skin that can vary in coverage from a small amount to full body.
One of the nation's leading psoriasis researchers, Boni E. Elewski, MD, professor of dermatology and a past president of the American Academy of Dermatology, says her father had psoriasis; seeing how it affected him was her motivation to become a dermatologist. As a dermatology resident 30 years ago, she saw patients had very few treatment options. Patients with psoriasis have to deal with more than the condition's showing on their skin, Elewski says. Read more here.
Faye-Petersen Named to Leadership Positions in Pediatric Pathology
by Jeff Hanson
June 12, 2015
Ona Faye-Petersen, MD, a professor of pathology at the University of Alabama
at Birmingham with a joint appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been named president-elect of the Society for Pediatric Pathology.Faye-Petersen has also been named one of two North American councilors-at-large (and educational faculty) to the International Pediatric Pathology Association, the organization for certification in pediatric pathology for nations without formal fellowships.
Through the UAB Microdissection Laboratory and the outreach services of the UAB Autopsy Service, Faye-Petersen performs postmortem examinations of stillborn and infant deaths, as well as placental evaluations. These help correlate the pathology found with prenatal clinical data and ultrasound images to help identify the causes of pregnancy loss, fetal growth restriction and maldevelopment, and neonatal complications. Read more here.
Katrina Booth, MD, Accepted to Prestigious Professional Development Seminar
by Laura Coulter
June 10, 2015
Katrina Booth, MD (Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care), has been accepted for the 2015 Association of American Medical Colleges Early Career Women Faculty Professional Development Seminar designed to provide
women physicians and scientists with skills to navigate the academic medicine enterprise as well as continue on the path to leadership.The seminar lasts for three and a half days, and is designed for women physicians and scientists holding medical school appointments at the instructor or assistant professor level and in the early stages of leadership positions within their discipline, department or institution. Seminar attendees develop academic medicine career building skills and employ strategic thinking about their career development. Leadership topics are also covered.
Katrina Booth completed her fellowship at UAB Hospital in Geriatric Medicine in 2013, after finishing her residency and internship at University of Chicago Hospitals. She graduated from the UAB School of Medicine in 2008.
UAB Surgeon, Carla Holcomb, MD, MSPH, Assesses Risk of Coronary Stent on Later, Noncardiac Surgery
by Jeff Hanson
May 13, 2015
A patient who has noncardiac surgery sometime after a stent is put into a coronary artery to open up a blockage has a greater risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACE) following the operation, but the optimal time to delay such elective surgery after stenting was not known.In a study of more than 28,000 patient records, first author Carla Holcomb, MD, MSPH, a University of Alabama at Birmingham Gastrointestinal Surgery postdoctoral fellow, and colleagues have found that during the 12 months following a coronary stent placement, patients have a 2 percent increased risk for heart attack or the need to unlock a coronary artery within 30 days after a noncardiac surgery, but have no greater risk of death. Read more here.
Schweibert Honored as Outstanding Woman Faculty Member
by Kendra Carter
March 19, 2015
Lisa M. Schwiebert, PhD, professor of Cell, Integrative and Developmental Biology in the UAB School of Medicine and Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Education, is the 2015 Becky Trigg Outstanding Woman UAB Faculty Member. The award is one of the UAB Outstanding Women Awards, given each year by the UAB Women’s Center and the UAB Women’s Studies Program to student, administrative, faculty and community leaders who have mentored and served other women or overcome adversity.
“I was completely surprised and deeply moved to receive this award,” Schwiebert said. “For me, working with trainees either in my lab or through the Postdoc Office and having the opportunity to serve as a mentor is a true gift and honor.” Read more here.