The Annual Professional Excellence Awards celebrate and honor faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in their careers and cultivated an environment that supports and encourages professional development in medicine and science.
They offer mentoring and support and identify barriers to the advancement of academic medicine while developing strategies to combat those barriers.
Each awardee has significant accomplishments within the past one to three years in at least one of the following areas: research, teaching, or service.
Raegan Durant, M.D., associate dean for Diversity and Inclusion, announced the 2024 awardees in person. The awardees are:
Ambika Ashraf, M.D., FAAP, FNLA, Ralph Frohsin Endowed Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology and division director of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes
Lara Ianov, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and managing director of the UAB Biological Data Science core
Helena Gutierrez, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and medical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Center
Tanecia Mitchell, Ph.D., associate Professor in the Department of Urology and Department of Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology
Prior to the Awards Ceremony, Keith (Tony) Jones, M.D., presented his talk, “You don’t know what you don’t know” at the Annual Diversity Grand Rounds. Opened by Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH, the Annual Diversity Grand Rounds boasted a fantastic turn-out at Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium on Friday, Feb. 2. Jones’s wife, Evelyn, former executive director of the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, and their son, Collin were in attendance.
The Annual Diversity Grand Rounds are part of a larger annual celebration called Second Look where prospective residents are invited to campus to network with their respective departments and shown what training at UAB is like. They are offered multiple activities and events to meet current UAB residents, faculty, and staff.