UA’s Watters Winner of 2009 Miles Excellence Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Annette Watters, project manager for The University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research and manager of the Alabama State Data Center, has been awarded the 2009 Dr. Minnie C. Miles Endowed Excellence Award.

Miles, who died in 2001, was professor emerita in UA’s Culverhouse College of Commerce. She established the award in 1995 to promote and recognize administrative excellence. The award is given annually to a non-faculty, administrative staff member who has performed in an exemplary manner to further the mission of the university.

“The committee made an excellent choice,” said Dr. J. Michael Hardin, senior associate dean of the business school. “Annette’s professionalism and her dedication to serving the community is a model of excellence and should serve as an example for all of us.”

“Annette’s work with CBER has been exemplary,” said Hardin. “Her work with the Alabama Entrepreneurial Research Network has resulted in an incredible resurgence in the economies of several of the state’s economically distressed counties. She is dedicated to making the lives of Alabamians better and her work is a credit to the university, to CBER and to the business school.”

Watters has worked for UA for since 1977. In addition to her work with AERN, she manages the State Data Center and is the liaison between the center and the U.S. Census Bureau. She is frequently called on by the media for explanations and comments about the state’s population trends.