The Offices of the Vice President for Equity and Diversity and the Vice Provost for Student and Faculty Success recently announced winners for the 2014 President's Diversity Awards. This annual recognition honors the significant achievements of full-time faculty, staff and students toward developing a more culturally diverse, competent and inclusive university community. Awards are given in each of five categories for projects or activities that best reflect the implementation of unit and/or campus diversity goals.
2014 President's Diversity Awards winners:
Lois Christensen, Ph.D. (Mentoring)
Professor, Early Childhood Education
Christensen is a mentor to numerous Ph.D. students and graduates in early childhood education. She was also instrumental in the development of two graduate courses that specifically target diversity: Critical Pedagogy and Teaching in a Multicultural Society.
Claudia Hardy (Staff)
Program Director III, Deep South Network of Cancer Control
Hardy has advanced the academic mission of UAB by training both minority and nonminority faculty and by facilitating their engagement with minority residents of the Deep South.
Dwight W. Lewis Jr., Ph.D. (Professional Student)
Postdoctoral Trainee, Epidemiology
Lewis mentors undergraduate students from at-risk backgrounds and has made a difference in student recruitment, retention and community outreach.
| This annual recognition honors the significant achievements of full-time faculty, staff and students toward developing a more culturally diverse, competent and inclusive university community. |
Professor, Accounting
Prather-Kinsey played a significant role as the faculty adviser for an underrepresented student organization: the National Association of Black Accountants. She mentored students and secured $25,000 in funding to support the students' efforts to provide volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) to Birmingham residents.
Chelsea R. Singleton (Graduate Student)
Doctoral Candidate, Epidemiology
Singleton has helped graduate programs with minority student recruitment and cofounded the mentor program Blueprint Connect. This group supports the professional development of minority undergraduate students by connecting them with graduate and professional students with similar research or career interests.
Ariel D. Smith (Undergraduate Student)
Student Assistant, Management, Information Systems and Quantitative Methods
Smith has worked to engage the community and promote diversity by linking UAB students with high school students.
Janet Yother, Ph.D. (Mentoring)
Professor, Microbiology
Yother has demonstrated excellence in mentoring efforts, serving as an effective formal mentor to her own students and generously mentoring countless other minority and female graduate students.
Carlton J. Young, M.D. (Faculty)
Professor, Surgery and Assistant Dean for Medical Student Diversity and Inclusion Department
Within the regional/urban community, Young has proved to be committed to bringing medical education to local populations. Due partly to his cooperation with the Alabama Kidney Foundation and the Alabama Organ Center, he has been involved in a variety of community activities, all of which are aimed at the education of the general public about specific health concerns and general health awareness for diversity progress.