hydrangea blooms

Faculty and Staff Accolades for Summer 2024 

Printing Services 

UA’s Printing Services won the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association and In-Plant Impressions Gold Award and a Silver Award in the 2024 In-Print® Awards. 

Inaugural Honors Transdisciplinary Course Design Fellows 

Eleven fellows were selected for The University of Alabama Honors Transdisciplinary Course Design Fellowship presented by the Honors College and UA Honors Program. Each fellow received a $5,000 summer stipend to develop an innovative interdisciplinary course. Approved courses will then be taught as University Honors seminars for the following two years.  

This year’s fellows: 

  • Dr. Lawrence Cappello, associate professor, history 
  • Dr. Amanda Espy-Brown, senior instructor, new college  
  • Dr. Gayle Faught, assistant professor, psychology  
  • Connar Franklin, EdD, instructor, early college 
  • Dr. Jolene Hubbs, professor, American studies  
  • Amy McLean, MSW, instructor, social work 
  • Dr. Gina Stamm, associate professor, modern languages and classics  
  • Dr. Matt Valasik, associate professor, criminology and criminal justice  
  • Dr. Matt VanDyke, associate professor, advertising and public relations  
  • Dr. Crystal Veronie, instructor, English  
  • Dr. Yuliya Zabyelina, associate professor, criminology and criminal justice 

Small Business Development Center 

Two members of the University of Alabama’s Small Business Development Center received national recognition for leadership in working with entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start and grow. Heather Wright was selected by the America’s SBDC National Association for its Top 40 Under 40 small business advisors across the country. Emily Moore was selected as the State Star, the association’s highest recognition for individual achievement. 

College of Arts and Sciences 

Cheryl Toman, professor of French and chair of modern languages and classics, was awarded a Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Short-term Fellowship to complete her monograph on Malian women writers. The Schomburg Center is a division of the New York Public Library. Toman will be consulting archives of rare Malian photographs from the 1960s for a comparative study of women’s literature and Malian photography. 

Dr. Christy Adams, music history professor, co-curated a prestigious international exhibit on opera and new media to mark the centenary of the death of Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini titled “OPERA MEETS NEW MEDIA – Puccini, Ricordi and the Rise of the Modern Entertainment Industry.” The exhibit was held in Berlin April 18-May 16 at the headquarters of Bertelsmann, which houses one of the largest archival collections related to Puccini and his operas. The exhibit received roughly 10,000 visitors and will reopen at the Museo Teatrale alla Scala in Milan this October. 

Capstone College of Nursing 

Dr. Amy Lee, clinical professor and associate dean for graduate programs, and Dr. Kristi Acker, clinical associate professor, were selected as American Academy of Nursing 2024 Fellows. They will be inducted along with the rest of the cohort in November.  

College of Community Health Sciences

Dr. Robert McKinney, MSW, LCSW, PIP, ACSW, associate professor of social work with CCHS and director of University Medical Center’s department of case management and social services, presented “Connect: Where Love Never Forgets” for adults with memory loss. The program, operated by Christ Episcopal Church, provides fellowship and stimulation for people who have memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and other memory-related disorders. 

Dr. John Burkhardt, associate professor, department of psychiatry and behavioral medicine, and Dr. Jonathan Baccus, assistant professor, department of family, internal, and rural medicine, completed The University of Alabama at Birmingham Family and Community Medicine Faculty Development Fellowship. The fellowship is a 10-month program for family medicine and primary care faculty members designed to prepare them for a career in medical education through improved skills in effective teaching, scholarship and leadership in academia and clinical practice. 

Dr. Jane Weida, professor of family, internal, and rural medicine, was elected vice-chair of the Board of Censors of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. The Board of Censors is comprised of 12 members and manages the association’s property and financial affairs. 

Dr. John Higginbotham, director of the Institute for Rural Health Research, was selected to serve as editor for a special journal issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The special issue will focus on rural health. 

Dr. Alan Blum, director of The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, was a guest on WBUR Boston’s “On Point” radio program about whether the United States should ban menthol cigarettes. Blum also released two new online exhibitions that can be found on the UA Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society website.  

 
More Accolades from this Summer 

Members of the Kumar Lab

UA Professor at the Cutting-Edge of Medicine Design

Marking Milestones: Employee Service Recognition Celebration  

Marking Milestones: Employee Service Recognition Celebration  

A set of gold Emmy award statues.

UA Earns More Emmys, CASE Awards

UAPD Deputy Police Chief Micah Rodgers shakes hands with FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Deputy Police Chief Graduates from FBI National Academy

The University of Alabama entrance marker is pictured with flowers in front.

2 UA Faculty Named Fulbright Scholars

Innovative UA Research Recognized with NSF CAREER Awards

Innovative UA Research Recognized with NSF CAREER Awards

Submit Your Accolades    

UA News Center publishes accolades for UA faculty and staff from the calendar year. Entries include publications in peer-reviewed journals; awards and elections; national and international fellowships; exhibits and performances. We do not publish conference papers, in-process publications or keynote addresses. To submit an accolade, use the online form.