The UAB School of Health Professions has 12 people, including Dean Andrew J. Butler, Ph.D., named to the Birmingham Business Journal’s 2021 Who’s Who in Health Care.

On April 1, 2022, Ritu Aneja, Ph.D., was named associate dean for Research and Innovation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Health Professions. We were fortunate to have an extended conversation with Dr. Aneja about a wide range of topics.

Lenetra King, founder of Watch Me EXCEL™ and health care industry C-Suite veteran, has been named an Executive-in-Residence for the UAB Department of Health Services Administration. She is the first female and the first African-American named to this role.

Recipients of the fall 2021 pilot grant funding opportunity, "Addressing Health Disparities in Adults or Children with Disabilities," have been announced by the Center for Engagement in Disability Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (CEDHARS).

Thomas Giffin has been named senior director of development at the UAB School of Health Professions. He comes to the University of Alabama at Birmingham from the foundation at the University of Cincinnati where he raised private dollars for the law school.

In just 365 days, the UAB Master of Science in Biotechnology trains students to see the solution and be the solution. 

Ritu Aneja, Ph.D., has been named associate dean for Research and Innovation at the University of Alabama at BirminghamSchool of Health Professions.

Each year Tosi Gilford, MD, PA-C, director of the Physician Assistant (PA) Studies program, shares a special message with her students in honor of National Physician Assistant Week, “Being a PA is more than a profession…it is a calling; it is a lifestyle.” 

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Physician Assistant Studies program has been awarded a grant of $1,492,465 from the HRSA to expand mental health training for their students, increase the number of underrepresented in medicine, and extend clinical care to more underserved patient populations.

VerCherria Goodman and Jeff Harris – students in UAB Graduate Programs in Health Informatics. – and Jonathan Patterson, a student in the PhD in Administration-Health Services, Health Informatics Track, have been awarded merit scholarships by the Alabama Chapter of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (Alabama HIMSS).

UAB has honored 27 students in the M.S. in Health Administration (MSHA) program with the President’s Diversity Champion Award for student organizations. The students took the initiative to create the MSHA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Student Council whose purpose is to prioritize DEI as fundamental pillars of the MSHA program and bring heightened social awareness to the faculty, staff, alumni, and students of the program.

The UAB Department of Health Services Administration has named Jessica Williams, Ph.D., director of the B.S. in Health Care Management program and Ria Hearld, Ph.D., director of the PhD in Administration-Health Services program.

The UAB School of Health Professions has partnered with the School of Medicine and the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB to offer a one-year post-graduation fellowship to a student in the M.S. in Genetic Counseling program. The fellowship will provide advanced clinical training, research and teaching opportunities in the area of cancer genetic counseling.  The student who is selected for the position will have full tuition support, be employed by the UAB Department of Genetics, and earn an educational stipend during the fellowship year in exchange for a four-year post-graduation commitment to work at UAB.

UAB Health System has donated $25,000 to establish the John Lewis Health Equity Program Support Fund. The gift, in honor of the Alabama native and civil rights hero, supports the UAB Health Equity Leadership Academy.

The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees appointed Donald Lein, PT, Ph.D., to the Bergman/Pinkston Endowed Professorship in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Physical Therapy on November, 13, 2020. Lein is only the second ever to earn the physical therapy professorship that honors UAB professors emeritus Joan Bergman and Dorothy Pinkston.

Emily Caffrey, Ph.D., supervised practice coordinator and adjunct faculty member of the UAB M.S. in Health Physics program, is the recipient of the 2020 Elda E. Anderson Award. At the age of 31, she is the youngest member of the Health Physics Society to earn the honor that has been delivered every year since 1962.

The Physician Assistant Education Association delivered awards to the UAB Physician Assistant Studies Program, Program Director Tosi Gilford, MD, PA-C, and to student Amber Rohrberg.

Nine people recently made history as the first graduates of the UAB Graduate Certificate in Applications of Mixed Methods Research. Highlighting the diverse nature of this research certificate, the graduates range from Schools of Education, Health Professions, Nursing and Public Health and include doctoral students, researchers, and faculty.

Kathy Nugent, Ph.D., has been named chair of the Department of Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences (CDS) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Health Professions. Nugent is a leader in technology and research commercialization who has been associate vice president and executive director of the UAB Harbert Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HIIE) since 2014.

Today, Joseph Baugh is Co-Managing Partner of Capital Growth Medvest, a Birmingham-based health care real estate development and funding group that has completed well over $1 billion in health care developments and acquisitions. But in his early 20’s, he had no idea what his future would be.