This summer, approximately 1,666 students will graduate from UAB, and nearly 1,000 are expected to participate in the ceremonies.Summer commencement ceremonies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham will be held Aug. 9-10, with an estimated 1,708 students expected to graduate. About 1,000 will participate in the university’s ceremonies.
A doctoral hooding and commencement ceremony for nearly all graduate programs will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, in Bartow Arena. Students receiving master’s degrees will receive their diplomas with the doctoral candidates.
For summer 2019, the UAB Graduate School will confer the university’s highest degrees on 89 students from 20 states and eight countries in 42 disciplines; approximately 59 will participate in the ceremony.
For the Friday evening ceremony, the mace will be carried by the director of UAB’s Institute for Human Rights Tina Kempin Reuter, Ph.D., associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Political Science and Public Administration and Department of Anthropology. Reuter was one of 10 graduate faculty to receive the 2019 UAB Graduate Dean’s Excellence in Mentorship Award.
Undergraduate diplomas will be awarded to students in a university ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, in Bartow Arena. The mace will be carried by Gregory E. Pence, Ph.D., professor and chair of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Philosophy and director of the Early Medical School Acceptance Program. Pence received the 2019 Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction, presented annually by the College of Arts and Sciences to a faculty member for professional and academic achievements and contributions to the university and local community.
A to-do list for graduates, as well as information for guests, is available on the commencement website. Tickets are not required; but seating for the ceremonies are first come, first served. Bartow Arena doors will open one hour prior to each ceremony. University officials recommend guests leave nonessential bags at home or in the car. The ceremonies will be livestreamed on the UAB Facebook page. The ceremonies also will be recorded and added online for viewing at www.uab.edu/commencement about a week after the ceremonies.
Laurence Marie Black The speaker for the graduate ceremony will be Laurence Marie Black. She is graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree with a concentration in cell biology from the Department of Medicine’s Division of Nephrology, under the mentorship of Anupam Agarwal, M.D. Her dissertation, “Mechanisms of Acute Kidney Injury: The Role of Ferritin Heavy Chain in Renal Heme-unology,” focuses on the etiology of kidney disease progression with special emphasis on oxidative stress and iron homeostasis. Black is in the Biochemistry, Structural and Stem Cell Biology theme of the Graduate Biomedial Sciences Program.
Black has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors; she was selected for a scholarship course in renal physiology and health care disparities and received a pre-doctoral fellowship award, both from the American Society of Nephrology. Additionally, her graduate work was funded by a pre-doctoral T32 grant in renal physiology and medicine. Most recently, she received the Morris Award for Exemplary Leadership, Excellence and Service to UAB.
Black was active in the UAB Graduate Student Government serving as vice president (2018-2019), parliamentarian (2017-2018), and Biochemistry, Stem Cell and Structural Biology Theme senator (2015-2019). She served as a member of the Admissions Committee for the Biochemistry, Stem Cell and Structural Biology Theme for the UAB Graduate Biomedical Sciences Program. She also is involved in mental health advocacy, was on the UAB Counseling Services Student Advisory Board (2018-2019), and currently serves on the UAB Suicide Prevention Leadership and Implementation Team.
Black graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology from the University of Georgia in May 2015. From July 2014-May 2015, she was a microbiology fellow for the Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Upon graduating, Black will begin as a postdoctoral scholar in the UAB Division of Nephrology with the intention to pursue a career in academia.
Enyonam “Enyo” J. Kpomblekou-AdemawouThe speaker for the undergraduate ceremony will be Enyonam “Enyo” J. Kpomblekou-Ademawou, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in health care management in the pre-professional track from the School of Health Professions. Kpomblekou-Ademawou has earned presidential and dean’s list honors.
Most recently, she was student analyst for Cooper Green Mercy Health Services in a student-led group, where she assessed its current state using SWOT and Gap analyses, streamlined outpatient development through strategic, business and marketing plans, and delivered strategic opportunity policies to the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, via Armika Berkley, CEO of Cooper Green Mercy Health Services.
Kpomblekou-Ademawou has been active throughout her journey at UAB. She is a project support analyst for UAB Highland’s 4 North Discharge Efficiency Project and the Tinsley-Harrison 9 South Discharge Efficiency Project under UAB Health System’s Department of Performance Excellence. She also served on the African Student Association’s executive board as the secretary of the organization.
After graduation, Kpomblekou-Ademawou will pursue her Master of Science degree in health informatics at UAB in the fall 2019 semester and hopes to then pursue a Master of Science degree in health administration and a Ph.D. in public health. Kpomblekou-Ademawou says she developed a passion for addressing health care disparities through research; her research focused on metastatic breast cancer in African American women. She wishes to become a health care leader who helps foster a positive health consensus, to combat health disparities within underrepresented communities within the Southeast and abroad.