Rana Aldrees, M.D., a current PGY-3 resident in the UAB Department of Pathology, has been awarded with inaugural Ona Faye-Petersen Educational Support Fund. 

Dr. Aldrees will be using the fund to attend an additional course at the annual meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, USCAP 2020 in Los Angeles titled, "Major Advances in the Diagnosis and Management of Breast Disease." She will be presenting a poster at the USCAP conference on March 2 titled, "Validation of the Revised 8th AJCC Breast Cancer Prognostic Staging System: Analysis of 5,321 Cases from a Single Institution." 

Aldrees has been a member of the Program Evaluation Committee since her PGY-1 year and has contributed greatly to the committee's work. She recently accepted a cytopathology fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Department of Pathology, and will soon begin applying for breast pathology fellowships. 

The Faye-Petersen Educational Support Fund was established in 2019 by Dr. Ona Faye-Petersen, Professor, Anatomic Pathology, who has worked in the UAB Department of Pathology for 28 years and supported an annual trainee award for much of that time. Dr. Faye-Petersen created the fund to support trainees' attendance of courses, workshops, and symposia at national and international meetings held in the U.S. 

"I very much believe in paying things forward, and this is one way to do that," says Faye-Petersen, "Providing trainees additional funds during a time in their careers when they're generally more financially limited is key." 

The UAB Department of Pathology is grateful to Dr. Faye-Petersen for the establishment of the fund and congratulates recipient Dr. Aldrees on this unique opportunity for professinoal development at USCAP 2020.