Bissell to Receive Blackmon-Moody Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Kim Bissell, a professor in The University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, is the recipient of the 2015 Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor Award.

Bissell will receive the award Nov. 13 in a ceremony at the UA President’s Mansion.

“Dr. Bissell has distinguished herself and The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences with her research, service and outstanding commitment to teaching our students,” said Dr. Mark Nelson, dean of the College. “She is richly deserving of this award, and it is a great honor to have her among our faculty.”

The Frederick Moody Blackmon and Sarah McCorkle Moody Outstanding Professor Award is one of the highest awards given by UA. It is based on a specific accomplishment that is innovative, creative and useful or that captures the imagination.

Created by Frederick Moody Blackmon of Montgomery to honor the memory of his grandmother, Sarah McCorkle Moody, of Tuscaloosa, the award is presented annually.

Dr. Wilson Lowrey, professor of journalism and chair of the department, nominated Bissell for her research on child nutrition and development of the Track My Plate smartphone app.

The development of the iPad app was a culmination of Bissell’s research on the use of new media technologies for teaching children how to become more proactive in their own health. The goal of the app is to educate children about the foods they eat each day in an effort to make children more health literate.

Bissell, who is the Southern Progress Corporation Endowed Professor of Journalism, associate dean for research in the College and director of UA’s undergraduate research, has broader research interests, including mass communication processes and effects and the role of media and cognition in the development of negative attitudes surrounding weight stigmatization.