May 25, 2021

Overton named 2021 Dean’s Excellence Award Winner in Service

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Overton TurnerTurner Overton, M.D., professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is the senior faculty winner of the 2021 Dean’s Excellence Award in Service.

He is the co-director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic and the clinic director for the 1917 Hepatitis Clinic.

Early in the pandemic, as UAB Hospital began to admit an alarming number of patients with COVID-19 patients, Dr. Overton volunteered to assist the Employee Health team. He immediately went to work and began providing clear guidance to care for our employees who had exposures or infection with COVID-19. His service was critical at the time, and it laid the foundation for how we have kept our employees safely at work during the pandemic.

As the pandemic continued, not only did Overton care for our employees, but he became the lead physician for the ambulatory COVID respiratory clinic and our COVID monoclonal antibody infusion program. These efforts were critical to our success in helping these patients avoid hospitalization and getting them back to their normal lives. Overton has also utilized these clinics to link hundreds of patients to COVID clinical trials, enabling us to learn more about this pandemic and use science to battle our way back to normal.

Nominator Sarah Nafziger, M.D., professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine says, “Throughout all of these challenges, Dr. Overton has been a steady leader, always with a smile and a word of encouragement to the team. There have been countless days when I am leaving the hospital late in the evening and check in with him only to find that he has gone back to the hospital to check on some patients.”

Overton earned his medical doctorate from UT-Memphis in 1999, and he completed his residency training at UAB in 2002. He also completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital in 2004. He joined the faculty at UAB in 2011.