Students/Faculty

*Editor's Note: Nicholas Colleran delivered this moving address at the SHP Scholarship Luncheon on Friday, March 21, 2014. He was kind enough to allow us to share his story with everyone and we thank him for being so open and inspirational.

Nicholas Colleran Scholarship Luncheon SpeechNicholas Colleran delivers Scholarship Luncheon speechI want to start by thanking everyone for all your contributions and allowing me to be here. It is my pleasure to speak to all of you this afternoon. My name is Nicholas Colleran and I am from Weymouth, Massachusetts which is about 15 minutes south of Boston. I am a student in The Master of Science in Health Administration program at UAB. I want to personally thank the Ryland Family for the scholarship they provided for me and for all those who have made contributions to our program. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say we are all extremely grateful.

Emily WakefieldEmily Wakefield presentation, Rare Disease DayUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham graduate student Emily Wakefield, a second-year in the UAB School of Health ProfessionsGenetic Counseling program, addressed an audience of rare disease patients, along with their family, friends and care givers, about the benefits, limitations and fears of genetic testing.
February 28, 2014, marks the seventh worldwide Rare Disease Day and Wakefield’s remarks came at UAB’s Rare Disease Symposium. This is the first year UAB has celebrated the international event. Rare diseases are categorized as those that affect fewer than 200,000 people.

james rimmer LakeshoreJames H. Rimmer, Ph.D., director of the Lakeshore Foundation / UAB Research Collaborative, has been selected to receive the AAP Excellence in Research Writing Award by the Association of Academic Physiatrists and the editorial board of the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. The award, which is given annually to the lead author of the best paper published in the AJPM&R each year, is for Rimmer’s article titled “Telehealth Weight Management Intervention for Adults with Physical Disabilities: A Randomized Controlled Trial.”

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Occupational Therapy's OT 673 and OT 674 classes consider Assistive Technology. When many people think of AT, they picture amazing advances like prosthetic limbs, optical character recognition (OCR) software or speech generating devices.

So when co-instructors Deek Cunningham, MS, OTR/L, and Gavin Jenkins, Ph.D., OTR/L, both assistant professors in the OT department, asked the class to build chairs – using only cardboard, paper, flour and water – as assistive devices. You can imagine what went through the students’ heads.