UA’s Black Scholars Honor Program Set For April 18

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — More than 300 University of Alabama African American students will be recognized for their academic success during the Black Scholars Honor Program, Wednesday, April 18, at 4:30 p.m. in UA’s Ferguson Center Theatre.

Guest speaker at the event, sponsored by UA’s Black Faculty and Staff Association, will be Kathy Elmore Sawyer, commissioner of the state’s Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

The program, with the theme “Academic Success: Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow,” will honor 330 African American students, each with a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Special outstanding achievement honors and scholarships will be awarded in honor of Autherine Lucy Foster, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood.

A reception in the Ferguson dining area follows the program. The event is part of UA’s annual Honors Week activities to be held April 16-20 this year. Throughout the week, scholarship and leadership among UA students and faculty will be honored.

Governor Don Siegelman appointed Sawyer commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation in 1999. The department is one of Alabama’s largest state agencies with more than 4,000 employees and budget of more than $400 million.

Sawyer’s professional affiliations include current and past leadership positions with the Mental Health Association in Montgomery, the National Association of Social Workers, the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work research board, and the board of directors for Certified Public Managers of Alabama. She has also served on the advisory board for the social work departments of three major state universities — UA, Troy State University and Alabama State University.

Sawyer earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees in social work from UA’s School of Social Work. She graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery in 1971