On August 10, 2024, members from the UAB Heersink School of Medicine incoming MS1 class gathered with friends, family, faculty, and staff to celebrate the White Coat Ceremony. The annual ceremony is the first milestone event for medical students, honoring the receiving of their white coats. The ceremony took place at the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, AL and was facilitated by Heersink School of Medicine leadership from each of its campuses.

The Association for Hospital Medical Education (AHME) declared every third Friday in August the annual GME Professionals Day to recognize program coordinators and GME administrators who help make residency and fellowship training programs successful. This year, GME Professionals Day is celebrated on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024.In recognition of GME Professionals Day, get to know several staff leaders working in residency and fellowship programs across UAB.

David S. Geldmacher, M.D., professor in the UAB Department of Neurology and Warren Family Endowed Chair in Neurology, has been named the 2024 recipient of the Brewer-Heslin Award for Professionalism in Medicine. Established by the late Gov. Albert Brewer, the award honors faculty members of the Heersink School of Medicine who demonstrate extraordinary commitment to providing highly skilled and deeply compassionate medical care to their patients.

Caroline G. Richter, Ph.D., and S. Justin Thomas, Ph.D., have been selected for the 2024-2025 FCIDD McNulty Civitan Scientist Award.

Research in Focus is a series that highlights Neurobiology faculty members’ papers in peer-reviewed journals.

The Department of Neurobiology is hosting two yearlong seminar series designed to foster community and advance knowledge within the field.

Chandler Harris has been honored as the 2024 recipient of the Sara Crews Finley, M.D., Endowed Leadership Scholarship. This prestigious scholarship recognizes and supports students who exhibit outstanding leadership, scholarship, and service within their medical training and in other endeavors. Eligible recipients must be rising third-year medical students who rank in the top 25 percent of their class, and the scholarship is renewable for their fourth year. 

Summer 2024 marked the beginning of several renovation projects to Heersink School of Medicine’s Volker Hall. The current projects will modernize the building and its technology offerings for medical students and faculty. As construction continues in various areas of the building, we are pleased to share renderings of two major renovation efforts.

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.

UAB has committed to a significant leap forward in biomedical research by approving the Center for Integrative Structural Biology during the June 2024 University of Alabama System Board of Trustees meeting.

The Heersink School of Medicine is excited to celebrate the beginning of the new academic year with a Student Welcome Reception.

The Center for Lung Analytics and Imaging Research (CLAIR) will launch at UAB this year to improve diagnosis and monitoring for patients with chronic lung disease. The center brings together experts from nine scientific specialties who will work to establish new methods for lung imaging and other diagnostic modalities, expanding our current understanding of lung disease development and progression and enhancing phenotyping for precision-based therapies.

The Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation hosted a Grand Rounds presentation titled "Innovating the Future of Healthcare Design" with speakers Tushar Gupta, Mark Vaughan, and Chris Ressler, renowned leaders in healthcare architecture and design, on Tuesday, July 16.

August is National Wellness Month, which emphasizes the importance of self-care and stress management, as well as the development of healthy routines. For the UAB Medicine Office of Wellness, these practices are at the forefront year-round. Through its various initiatives and resources, the Office of Wellness strives to create an environment where UAB employees thrive in their work.

Roger Smalligan, M.D., MPH, regional dean of the Huntsville Regional Medical Campus, has been honored with the 2024 Alabama Chapter American College of Physicians (ACP) Laureate Award. The award recognizes his commitment and contributions to internal medicine, leadership, and patient care.

Each July, Disability Pride Month commemorates the strength, resilience, and diverse experiences of individuals with disabilities. In part 2 of this series, the Heersink School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion sat down with two AWARE staff members, Kelly Mayer, Director of Talent Relations, and Dina Jones, HR ADA Specialist, to learn more about accessibility initiatives for employees with disabilities at UAB.

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

Michael Mugavero, M.D., has been chosen as the new associate dean for Clinical and Translational Research, effective July 1, 2024.

Each July, Disability Pride Month commemorates the strength, resilience, and diverse experiences of individuals with disabilities. In part 1 of this series, the Heersink School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion sat down with Allison Solomon, Executive Director of Disability Support Services (DSS) at UAB, to discuss how DSS provides inclusivity and accessibility across campus.

Hassan Ghomrawi, Ph.D., MPH, has joined the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine as an associate professor and the inaugural vice chair for Research and Innovation for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery as well as associate director for the Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone and Autoimmunity Center (CAMBAC).

Jordan Beam, a third-year medical student at the Heersink School of Medicine, recently completed an international research elective at Oxford University in the United Kingdom as part of the Medical Student Enrichment Program (MSEP), sponsored by UAB’s Office of International Medical Education.

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.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office recognized 16 individuals in its eighth cohort of Institute for Leadership at a graduation ceremony on June 26, 2024.

Work has begun on a transformational renovation to Volker Hall’s entrance to create a modern atrium. Due to this construction, the primary entrance into Volker Hall, located at the corner of 16th St and University Blvd, has closed until further notice. This includes the entrance itself, the exterior stairway, a portion of the sidewalk, and the pedestrian crosswalks leading to Volker across both University Blvd and 16th St. S.

The Department of Neurobiology is excited to launch a new series that will highlight faculty members’ papers in peer-reviewed journals.

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) faculty members recently participated in the AI in Medicine and Healthcare Symposium at Maastricht University, which brought together experts and stakeholders to discuss the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in transforming health care.

Cassandra Newsom, Psy.D., director of the Translational Research Core in Autism and Neurodevelopment of Civitan International Research Center, has completed participation in Phase 2 Clinical Trials of a new drug, NNZ-2591, that shows promising results for a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder called Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome (PTHS).

After a national search, Thomas Chi, M.D., MBA, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Urology, effective Jan. 1, 2025.

Anupam Agarwal, M.D., senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, has been selected to Leadership Alabama’s Class XXXIV for the year 2024-2025.

Udbhav Ram, an international scholar from McMaster University, recently joined Carlos E. Cardenas, Ph.D., in his lab to study and research and serve as an undergraduate ambassador.