UA Professor Selected for SEC Honor

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Kim Bissell, professor of journalism and director of undergraduate research, was selected as The University of Alabama’s 2015 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award recipient.

As the UA winner, she also becomes a nominee for the SEC Professor of the Year, which will be announced later this month.

“I am extremely honored and humbled to be selected as UA’s nominee for the SEC Faculty Achievement Award,” said Bissell, who is also director of UA’s Institute for Communication and Information Research.

“This University has outstanding researchers and scholars, and I can not state strongly enough how much it means to me to be UA’s nominee given the excellence on this campus.”

Bissell’s primary research focuses on media messages about self-image and health, particularly those directed toward children.

“An award like this demonstrates that excellence is all around us, even in areas where external funding patterns may not traditionally be as high as they are in other research fields,” Bissell said. “I think it is important to acknowledge and recognize all kinds of research because we are all making a contribution.”

To be eligible for the SEC Faculty Achievement Award, a professor must be a teacher or scholar at an SEC university; have achieved the rank of full professor at an SEC university; have a record of extraordinary teaching; and a record of scholarship that is recognized nationally and/or internationally.

The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards and the SEC Professor of the Year Award are both selected by SEC provosts, and the program is administered by SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference.