In the summer of 2020, the UAB School of Medicine (SOM) created the Hispanic/LATINX Faculty Association under the leadership of Selwyn Vickers, M.D., Senior Vice President for Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) lead by Mona Fouad, M.D., M.P.H., Professor and Senior Associate Dean. They asked three faculty members to co-lead it: Marcela Frazier from Ophthalmology, Marisa Marques, M.D., from Pathology and Fernando Ovalle from Medicine.
Marisa Marques, M.D., Interim Division Director, Laboratory Medicine
The group was initially called simply LATINX, which according to Oxford Languages means “a person of Latin American origin or descent (used as a gender-neutral or nonbinary alternative to Latino or Latina)”, when used as a noun, or “relating to people of Latin American origin or descent (used as a gender-neutral or nonbinary alternative to Latino or Latina)” as an adjective. According to Google, it was introduced less than 20 years ago, which may explain many (perhaps most) faculty members were not familiar with it. For this reason, a permanent name is under debate to encompass individuals either born in Mexico, Central or South America, or Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy or France) or who have ancestors that came to the United States from one of these countries.
Three UAB Pathology professors, each internationally renowned in their respective specialties, have been honored with the establishment of endowments in their names.
At the February 2021 meeting, the University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved the establishment of two endowments and the renaming of one endowment supported by UAB Pathology, to honor our esteemed colleagues. The Translational Research Endowed Professorship in Pathology, held by C. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D., is renamed the Vishnu Reddy Translational Research in Pathology Endowed Professorship, after Dr. Vishnu Reddy. The department also announces the establishment of the Gene P. Siegal Endowed Professorship in Pathology, and the Ona M. Faye-Petersen Endowed Professorship in Pathology.
Vishnu Reddy, M.D., Professor, Anatomic Pathology 
Gene Siegal, M.D., Ph.D., Robert. W. Mowry Endowed Professor, Anatomic Pathology, and Interim Chair, UAB Department of Genetics 
Ona Faye-Petersen, M.D., Professor Emeritus, Anatomic Pathology
This month, the Department of Pathology learned we received an honorable mention ranking in the School of Medicine Office for Diversity & Inclusion's 5th annual Diversity Fair, which was virtual this year. Each department was tasked with creating and submitting a video that represented the diversity of the department. Pathology chose Argentinian empanadas as our featured recipe, prepared by Arlene Litovsky, wife of Dr. Silvio Litovsky, Professor, Anatomic Pathology. Arlene prepared beef empanadas while Monica Henderson, Residency Program Coordinator, and her son Aiden prepared a modified chicken recipe.
The two recipe variations went up for a vote, with faculty and trainees from throughout the department tasting and voting on their favorite version. The full video is featured on our department YouTube Channel.
All of the recipes that were submitted for the fair are compiled into a cookbook which can be downloaded here.Featured on the cover are Monica Henderson and Susan Mills, Fellowship Program Coordinator, from our second-place winning 2020 display.
Monica Henderson, below, left, and Susan Mills, organizers of the 2020 Pathology display
Eason Hildreth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, was recently awarded a two-year Early Career Investigator grant from METAvivor Research and Support for his resarch on breast cancer. The title of his proposal is, “Targeting the CSF1R/PU.1 axis and PU.1/BET super-enhancer regulome in breast cancer bone metastasis.” Dr. Hildreth is an Associate Scientist with the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
METAvivor Research and Support Inc. is an Annapolis-based, volunteer-led, non-profit organization founded by metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients in 2009. The organization’s main focus is to fund critical research that will lead to advances in treatment options, quality of life and survival for patients diagnosed with MBC. Since 2009, METAvivor has awarded 129 research grants totaling $17,250,000. METAvivor is the only national organization with a peer-reviewed grant program aimed at exclusively funding MBC research, and 100% of all donations go to fund research.
Eason Hildreth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, UAB Pathology
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