This month marks the fifth anniversary of a transformational moment in our history: the extraordinary naming gift from Dr. Marnix Heersink and Mary Heersink that named the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine.
While the significance of that gift was evident in 2021, its true impact has become even clearer over the past five years. What began as a bold investment in our future has accelerated momentum across every part of our mission, strengthening our ability to educate the next generation of physician leaders, advance groundbreaking discoveries, and transform patient care and improve health in Alabama and across the globe.
From the start, Dr. Heersink spoke of the "Three Es”—Excellence, Expansive, and Encompassing—values that inspired his family's investment in UAB. As I reflect on the past five years, I see those principles embodied in many of our most important achievements.
We have advanced excellence by recruiting and retaining exceptional faculty, creating endowed chairs and professorships, expanding educational opportunities, and strategically growing our research enterprise. Today, our researchers are tackling some of the world's most pressing health challenges, and our students and trainees continue to distinguish themselves as future leaders in medicine and science.
We have become more expansive in our reach and impact. The Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation has helped position our school at the forefront of artificial intelligence, digital health, precision medicine, and entrepreneurship. The Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health has expanded partnerships around the world while creating new opportunities for students, trainees, and faculty to improve health in communities throughout Alabama and across continents. At the same time, we have strengthened our commitment to serving Alabama through workforce development, clinical training, research, and community engagement initiatives that address critical health needs across our state.
And we have embraced an encompassing approach by fostering collaboration across disciplines, departments, institutions, and borders. Whether through innovative learning environments, global partnerships, or new programs that bring together experts from medicine, engineering, business, public health, and beyond, we are creating the connections that spark discovery and accelerate progress.
Most importantly, these accomplishments are not endpoints—they are foundations.
The momentum we are experiencing today is a direct reflection of the remarkable people who make this school extraordinary: our faculty, staff, learners, alumni, donors, and partners. Together, you have transformed opportunity into impact.
In the coming weeks, you will learn more about the various ways we are commemorating the five-year anniversary. As we celebrate this milestone, I am deeply grateful to Marnix and Mary for their vision, generosity, and enduring partnership. Their gift was never simply about naming our school—it was about accelerating possibility.
Five years later, we continue to build on that momentum, and I am confident that our most impactful chapters lie ahead.