Katherine Meese, Ph.D., has been named director of the UAB Center for Healthcare Management and Leadership, charged with providing mindful and strategic vision to the center’s programs by using a translational approach to bridge the gap between academia and the evolving healthcare landscape.

Shannon H. Houser, Ph.D., MPH, RHIA, FAHIMA, professor in the UAB Department of Health Services Administration, won an American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Triumph Mentor Award.

Rachel Mars, lead academic advisor for our B.S. in Health Care Management program, has been elected president-elect of the UAB Council of Academic Advisors. She is the first from the School of Health Professions to hold a leadership role in this organization.

For the second year in a row, a student team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham M.S. in Health Informatics (MSHI) program wins the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Student Case Competition.

Sue Feldman, R.N., Ph.D., director of the UAB Graduate Programs in Healthcare Informatics, is 1 of only 4 subject matter experts selected by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) for the HIMSS21 health and safety panel.

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).

Kristine Ria Hearld, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Health Services Administration, director of the doctoral program in Administration-Health Services and past chair of the UAB Faculty Senate, will receive the 2021 President's Award for Excellence in Support of UAB and Shared Governance.

University of Alabama at Birmingham professor Sue Feldman, R.N., Ph.D., is one of 11 people around the world named a recipient of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Changemaker in Health Award. The award is determined by a public vote, making it a unique representation of the voices of the health care industry.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship of Alabama (ASF) announced Ibukun Afon, a student in the UAB School of Health Professions’ M.S. in Health Administration program (Class 56), as a member of its 2021-22 class of Alabama Schweitzer Fellows. Afon is one of 14 graduate students from UAB, the University of Montevallo, and Samford University chosen to spend the next 13 months immersed in community public health projects.

The UAB National Alumni Society has named six UAB School of Health Professions’ (SHP) alumni to the UAB Excellence in Business Top 25. The program was created to identify, recognize, and celebrate the success of the top 25 UAB alumni-owned or UAB alumni-managed businesses.

Lauren White, a student in the UAB School of Health Professions’ M.S. in Health Administration program, is one of eight UAB students selected as Hoover Fellows, an initiative enabling students to be a part of advancing education, economic development, technology, business and innovation in the state.

Four faculty and staff from the School of Health Professions have been selected to receive the inaugural President’s Award for Excellence in Shared Values. The award honors Blazers who demonstrated one or more of UAB’s shared values in the course of their work during the extraordinary times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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 School of Health Professions has awarded inaugural faculty grants to Matt Ithurburn, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, and Haiyan Qu, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Health Services Administration.

Students in the UAB M.S. in Health Administration program (Class 56) had a “day on” rather than a “day off” on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The UAB School of Health Professions has 16 people, including Dean Andrew J. Butler, Ph.D., named to the Birmingham Business Journal’s 2020 Who’s Who in Health Care.

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.

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 Academy for Addressing Health Disparities Through Health Care Leadership.

Hope Gray, MTS, BCC, a student in the UAB Doctor of Philosophy in Administration-Health Services program – Health Informatics track, has been awarded the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Leadership and Education Award (LEAD) Fund Scholarship. She is one of only two to earn the award.

Established in 2016, the AMIA LEAD Fund is focused on supporting membership diversity, trainee engagement and developing future AMIA leaders.

“I am honored to have been selected as an AMIA LEAD Fund Scholarship Awardee this year,” said Gray who is a Board-Certified Chaplain with training in ethics, empathy and diversity, equity and inclusion. “I presented my PhD work to AMIA members and gained meaningful feedback for which I am thankful.”

“We are grateful to AMIA for seeing the value in developing future Health Informatics leaders with the LEAD fund. Their mission in doing so is very much aligned with the mission of UAB’s Graduate Programs in Health Informatics and further develops our students to lead and innovate in the field,” said Sue Feldman, RN, MEd, Ph.D., director, Graduate Programs in Health Informatics.

Gray has participated in the AMIA Clinical Informatics Conference (CIC) as well as several JAMIA Journal Clubs. In addition, she is a member of many AMIA workgroups including:

• AMIA First Look
• Clinical Information Systems
• Clinical Research Informatics
• COVID-19 Community & Discussion Forum
• Natural Language Processing
• Student Working Group
• Women in AMIA Discussion Forum

The AMIA LEAD Fund promotes the value of informatics in transforming health and healthcare by awarding scholarships and research, highlighting innovation and discovery, recognizing professional achievement, and promoting leadership and advocacy.

Students in the UAB M.S. in Health Administration program helped UAB Hospital surpass its goal of collecting more than 268 bicycles for the annual Salvation Army Toy Drive.