Jim Bakken

Jim Bakken

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jimb@uab.edu • (205) 934-3887
Chief Communications Officer, Public Relations 

As chief communications officer for the University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine, Bakken leads teams that set and execute internal and external communications strategy. Prior to joining UAB in 2012, Bakken spent a decade working with a diverse client base at two full-service communications firms. Bakken spent eight years in Nashville at McNeely Pigott and Fox – one of the largest PR firms in the Southeast – prior to launching Peritus Public Relations in Birmingham in 2010. Bakken has served on the board of the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America and has been a Birmingham Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 honoree.

In JAMA Viewpoint, Edward W. Hook III, M.D., says doctors and patients must be willing to talk about sex if we are to decrease the nation’s rate of sexually transmitted infections.
The former UAB Pediatric Optometry Service director will be recognized during the annual AAO meeting this October in New Orleans.
In a sedentary office environment, participants working in 78° to 80°F temperatures consumed nearly 90 fewer calories than those in a cooler environment.
Phillip D. Smith, M.D., has been awarded a two-year, $200,000 grant from the DeGregorio Family Foundation to study the bacteria in children’s stomachs that potentially protects them from stomach cancer.
Epidemiologist Olivia Affuso studies new ways to prevent obesity and chronic disease through physical activity. She also volunteers with two groups that use running to help women and girls achieve fitness and personal goals.
While it is well-known that nonsmokers can get cancer from inhaling smoke, the amount of risk associated with secondhand smoke and stroke has remained unclear until now.
Virginia Wadley, Ph.D., says until this new JAMA study, whether or not stroke survivors are at-risk over the long term was an unknown.
Foods high in fats have long been put into the “unhealthy” category by nutrition experts, but UAB researchers believe this may have been all wrong, all along.
Convergence insufficiency can be mistaken for attention deficit disorder because the inability to focus eyesight can lead to reading and attention problems.
The online MPH from the UAB School of Public Health ranked second out of about 70 programs nationwide.
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