Take a tour of three new landmark buildings rising on campus, and meet a few of the community leaders whose generosity is providing the blueprints for a brighter future.

Birmingham’s skyline is growing — and so are the opportunities for discovery for UAB students and faculty. Take a quick tour of three new landmark buildings rising on UAB’s campus, and meet a few of the community leaders whose generosity is providing the blueprints for a brighter future:

Collat School of Business and Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Estimated completion: 2018
Location: University Boulevard

Features:

• Spaces for team-based learning and entrepreneurial projects
• High-tech trading and finance lab
• Behavioral research labs
• Center for Sales Leadership
• Healthcare Leadership Academy
• Nielsen Innovation Lab; Regions Institute for Financial Education

“This state-of-the-art facility, where business students can meet with others from across campus to collaborate, will enhance students’ ability to participate in hands-on work on intellectual property owned by the university, to write business plans, to start companies—what a wonderful, bold idea to contribute to creating an innovative Birmingham community.”
— Eric Jack, Ph.D., Collat School of Business dean and Wells Fargo Endowed Chair in Business Administration

“By turning UAB’s intellectual property and know-how developed by our students, faculty, and staff into successful licenses and business ventures, we are going to have a tremendous impact on Birmingham and the state. I am confident that we’re going to be able to do this because of the wealth of talent we have in our faculty and students who wake up every day to advance research at UAB that is at the cutting edge of science and technology.”
— Kathy Nugent, Ph.D., Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship executive director

“A new building reflects the quality and commitment to the Collat School of Business by the members of the community along with the university to develop visionary and transformational leaders who will determine the future of our city and state in the years to come.”
— Charles Collat, former CEO, Mayer Electric Supply Company. The school is named for him and his late wife, Patsy, who have provided more than $25 million in gifts and pledges to the school, including the lead gift for the Campaign for UAB.

“My parents’ advice was simple and heartfelt: Give back. This gift reflects their philanthropic and community-minded spirit. UAB is the best vehicle to facilitate positive change in Birmingham, and I feel that this new Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will attract additional resources and faculty to UAB by seeding a first-class center for entrepreneurial students.”
— Billy Harbert, chairman, and CEO, B.L. Harbert International, LLC. The Joy and Bill Harbert Foundation pledged the gift to name UAB’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

“Giving back to the community is extremely important, and we cannot imagine a better place to do that than in Birmingham and at UAB. When deciding where to establish our corporate headquarters as we launched the company in 2003, we chose Birmingham because we believe in its future.”
— Edward Aldag, Jr., co-founder, and CEO of Medical Properties Trust, which provided the new building’s lead gift to fund a state-of-the-art auditorium.

“The Collat School of Business has done so much for so many, including me. Giving back and being part of t his transformational project is an honor. There is nothing better you can do than to help others achieve their individual goals, and there is no question that with the school’s talented faculty and a new facility, the school will help future businessmen and women do just that for generations to come.”
— Chad Hagwood, senior vice president and regional manager, Capital One Commercial Banking. His gift makes possible a finance lab where students will gain experience performing business transactions.

“As long time ‘investors,’ we’ve had a unique opportunity to see the Collat School of Business and the accounting department blossom. We receive ‘dividends’ every day from at least one of our UAB graduates. By continuing our support, we hope to catapult UAB into its role as a destination business school and serve as a catalyst in the development of the next generation of our community’s leaders.”
— David Kassouf, director of assurance services and financial services, L. Paul Kassouf & Company. The Kassouf family and the company have made gifts to name the Department of Accounting and Finance suite.

Learn more about naming opportunities, including alumni initiatives from Beta Alpha Psi, Green and Gold Fund, and Business Honors Program: Brad Whisenant, senior director of development, (205) 996-9453, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

School of Nursing

Estimated completion: 2018
Location: University Boulevard

Features:

• High-fidelity nursing competency/skills labs that mimic real-world care settings
• State-of-the-art classrooms
• Student commons areas
• Leadership Institute

“With the continuing growth in our enrollment in the School of Nursing, the expansion of our building is vital to our ability to educate and train outstanding nursing professionals to serv e the critical need for nurses in our city, state, and nation. This is more than bricks and mortar, however. We’re building a School of Nursing that serves as an incubator for the discovery of solutions to medical and health problems. It will help us devel op a competitive advantage in attracting the best students, faculty, mentors, and funding to grow innovative educational, clinical practice, and research programs.”
— Doreen Harper, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing

“We grew up in families that placed a premium on giving and helping others. Supporting the creation of the research conference room provides a treasured opportunity to have our names associated with the cultivation of future collaborative research and supportive mentoring for future nurse leaders.”
— Karen Meneses, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, associate dean for research in the School of Nursing, and Patrick McNees, Ph.D., FAAN, nursing professor and associate dean for research and enterprise development in the School of Health Professions, made a gift to name a conference room in the new Doctoral Education and Research Suite.

“I wanted to give because I know the school educates high-quality nurses, I’m excited about the new state-of-the art building for the future, and I know Dean Doreen Harper will be a good custodian of our money. Mike and I realize this school’s value to our community.”
— Sue Ellen Lucas, M.S.N, R.N., an alumna of the school and pediatric nurse, and her husband, Mike, have named the pediatric nursing competency lab suite.

“I’ve always liked the idea of leveraging, doing something to help multiply. By contributing toward this building, we can foresee more space to educate more great nurses—a legacy for the future.”
— Bill Ferguson, along with his wife, Jan, donated the lead gift for the building project.

“With health-care reform, the home health care industry faces more pressure to keep patients out of the hospital as best we can. We believe UAB knows how to educate nurses to help us do that and provide patients and the ir families the level of home health services they deserve.”
— John G. Beard, M.B.A., J.D., chairman/president of Alacare Home Health and Hospice, which pledged a gift to name a home visit simulation laboratory.

Learn about naming opportunities: Jeannie Horton, senior director of development, (205) 975-2443, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

College of Arts and Sciences

Estimated completion: 2019
Location: 10th Avenue and 14th Street South, on the corner of the Campus Green

Features:

• Large classrooms and labs
• Auditorium; performance space
• Storm shelter
• Departments of anthropology, computer and information sciences, English, foreign languages and literatures, mathematics, philosophy, and social work

“The new building will be able to accommodate the rapid growth of both the undergraduate and graduate programs in the college. While the Humanities Building has served UAB well for 45 years, it was not designed to support our current enrollment.”
— Robert E. Palazzo, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

Learn about giving opportunities: Camille Epps, senior director of development, (205) 996-2154, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..