The Office for Diversity and Inclusion Black and African-American Faculty Association is excited to gather once again for its second annual Juneteenth Commemoration.

The month of May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. In commemoration of this rich cultural heritage, Heersink Office for Diversity Inclusion AAPI Faculty Association hosted an educational and celebratory event open to everyone at the school.

The UAB Medicine Leadership Competency Model features five domains and 19 competencies. In this series, we’ll examine this model and how it can be used to empower leadership.

Global health partners from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) participated in the Global Health Consortium Symposium hosted by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. This event served as a platform for students from collaborating universities to convene in Manipal, India, where they engaged in comprehensive learning experiences focused on health system mapping supported by faculty.

A platform for undergraduate students to advance their research, the UAB Summer Research Academy (SRA) launched its seventh installment of the program on June 3, 2024. This competitive research program provides summer scholarships for students in the joint health sciences while preparing them for advancement to graduate or medical scientist training programs.

Twenty-eight UAB employees recently graduated from the Emerging Leaders Series (ELS) Spring 2024 program. In its pilot year, the program, presented by UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office (LDO), recognized its first cohort of graduates at a ceremony on May 23, 2024.

Mental Health Awareness Month is observed each year during May and is dedicated to shedding light on mental health illnesses and overall well-being in America. Amidst our day-to-day activities, the workplace is a significant contributor to our well-being. 

Runners of all levels will be able to learn from Olympian and UAB alumna Vonetta Flowers as well as explore ways to boost their energy and improve performance at the second Robert A. Ferguson Endowed Lecture Series: A Conference on Running Medicine presented by UAB Sports & Exercise Medicine.

On May 18, 2024, UAB Heersink School of Medicine hosted its 2024 Commencement ceremony at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, to celebrate its 169 graduating medical students.

Durell King is an MS1 student at the Heersink School of Medicine. The first year is always an adjustment, so the Heersink communications team met with him during orientation last July and again during the second semester to see how his first year of medical school was going.

W. Scott Jennings, CPA, MBA, executive administrator of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Radiology, has been named the 2024 Will Ferniany Academic Medicine Leadership Award recipient.

Twenty exceptional faculty members were honored with the 2024 Dean’s Excellence Awards for their outstanding contributions across service, teaching, research, diversity enhancement, and mentorship within the School of Medicine.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office recognized 13 individuals in its third cohort of Momentum Leaders in Medicine at UAB during a graduation ceremony on May 7, 2024.

Mark Dransfield, M.D., has been named interim chair of the UAB Department of Medicine, effective Sept. 1, 2024. Dransfield is a professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine. He also holds the Ben Vaughan Branscomb Chair of Medicine in Respiratory Disease.

UAB Heersink School of Medicine has awarded four grants for the 2023/2024 Heersink Multi-Investigator Program Awards, which are each funded with $150,000 per year for two years.

The House Staff Council (HSC) is a group of residents and fellows that meets monthly with Graduate Medical Education (GME) Office leadership to represent the voice of residents and fellows throughout all programs. A few of the outgoing leaders discuss their time on the HSC and look ahead to the future of HSC leadership.

Each quarter, the Heersink School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion hosts Staff Grand Rounds, featuring guest speakers who provide educational content to staff. This quarter on April 30, Michelle Horvath, J.D., university ombudsperson at UAB, delivered the presentation for Staff Grand Rounds.

Bradley Yoder, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, has ranked No. 8 of over 800 principal investigators in the fields of anatomy and cell biology, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research report for 2023. Yoder achieved this ranking after securing over $4.2 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) hosted its Annual Education Conference March 7-9. More than 4,000 people in health care education leadership, caregiving, and administrative positions attended the conference in Orlando, Florida. Among these attendees were Tekuila Carter, M.D., Anesthesiology Program Director, Kimberly Butler Pediatric Residency Program Manager, and Gabriel Daniels, M.D., PGY 4 fellow in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. There were a total of 14 attendees from UAB.

In today's dynamic and competitive world, effective leadership is not just about the perceived authority that comes with the title but about embodying a set of qualities that inspire and drive positive change. Let's delve into the first of the five domains in the UAB Medicine Leadership Competency Model: personal proficiency.

Eddie Higginbotham, an MS2 student at the Heersink School of Medicine on the primary care track, recently visited his childhood elementary school to perform vision screenings in partnership with Impact America’s Focus First.

The spring 2024 Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception honored the distinguished faculty members of the Heersink School of Medicine for their outstanding impact on contemporary medicine and medical education. Anupam Agarwal, M.D., the dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, extended a warm welcome to the honorees, their families, and other leaders from the school. The gathering took place at the Wallace Tumor Institute on April 17. 

As May approaches, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion looks forward to celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month 2024.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office recently recognized 12 individuals in its fourth cohort of Sharing Authentically to Inspire and Lead (SAIL). The spring 2024 graduates received their certificates on April 9.

Since October 2023, Heersink School of Medicine’s Department of Medical Education has hosted several faculty training sessions in partnership with the Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI). GUSI aims to equip medical professionals with skills to effectively use Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) devices.

The Heersink School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion hosted the annual Women in Medicine and Science Promotion Reception April 11, which recognized women faculty promoted at the end of 2023. The honorees and their guests were greeted by Heersink leadership to celebrate their remarkable achievements.

On April 9, 2024, an AAMC-sponsored briefing was held in a U.S. Congressional session to examine the impact of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA, 2021). UAB’s Craig Hoesley, M.D., senior associate dean for Medical Education, participated as one of three panelists representing health systems and hospitals that have benefited from the legislation.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine saw great success in acquiring research funding in 2023, making significant strides in securing resources to advance human health through biomedical discovery.

Faaiz Saad, a fourth-year MD/MBA student at the Heersink School of Medicine and the Collat School of Business, recently wrote, produced, starred in, and directed a new short film entitled “A Confusing Truth, A Comforting Lie” that was nominated for the Gold Diamond Award for Best Student Short Film at the Asian Film Festival Los Angeles in December 2023.

The second annual Montgomery Health Policy Meeting was held on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Sponsored by UAB Heersink School of Medicine Montgomery Regional Medical Campus and the Kennamer family, the event aims to bring together prominent members of government, public health and policy, and medicine to highlight urgent issues affecting the people of Alabama.