January 31, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Four individuals received the 2008 University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) President’s Awards for Diversity during a public ceremony Jan. 31. The awards recognize the importance of institutional diversity and honor those who nurture diversity of thought, culture, gender and ethnicity on the UAB campus and elsewhere. UAB President Carol Garrison, Ph.D., created the awards.

Mona Fouad, M.D., winner of the 2008 President’s Diversity Faculty Award, represents someone who has taken an active role in diversity through health, education and leadership, said Thomas Alexander, director of student involvement and special assistant for diversity to the vice president of student affairs.

“As the director of the UAB Minority Health and Research Center, the Minority Health and Research has become a powerful and valuable resource for the UAB community in securing grant funding, recruiting participants for clinical trials and studies, collaborating on projects and programs that reach across institutional boundaries,” Alexander said. “She is deeply committed to developing the next generation of minority physicians, health care workers and scientists.

Cynthia Scott, UAB director of minority student recruitment and retention, is the winner of the 2008 President’s Diversity Staff Award.

“She joined UAB as a freshman and never left,” said Doug Rigney, Ph.D., UAB vice president for student affairs. “Her life’s work is the recruitment and retention of African-American students to her alma mater.”

In addition to recruiting minority students and mentoring them, Rigney said, Scott established a mentoring program for minority scholarship students. She worked tirelessly, building bridges in Alabama high schools, and the program has received recognition throughout the state. She encourages student to form study groups and socialize together, and regularly schedules meetings to support their progress.

Kajal Buckoreelall, pharmacology and toxicology doctorial student, is the winner of the 2008 President’s Graduate Student Diversity Award. She has a record of supporting and encouraging diversity awareness, Thomas said.

“During her second year of graduate school, she increased her involvement on campus,” he said. “As chair of the International Expo, she planned, organized and led an event that both introduced and educated 1,000 people about cultures that were different from their own.”

Thomas added that Buckoreelall was the driving force behind the Tunnel of Oppression project at UAB. She brought several student organizations together to present the “in-your-face” experiential diversity activity that has been presented on numerous college campuses for more than 10 years.

Edina Mwangi, a senior economics major, is the winner of 2008 President’s Undergraduate Student Diversity Award.

“She models openness, dignity and respect for all individuals, which is evident from her personal commitment to cultural diversity through her involvement and leadership roles,” Rigney said.

She is an active member of the Undergraduate Student Government Association Stars Committee, which promotes higher education throughout Alabama. She is chair of UAB’s Interculture Committee, and has taken a special leadership role in the Invisible Children event. The event included the screening of a documentary focusing on three young men who travel to Uganda and witness firsthand the plight of Ugandan children brainwashed into becoming guerilla soldiers. She tirelessly promoted this event, invited campus dignitaries to meet the young filmmakers and encouraged all UAB students to get involved with the cause. The result was an inspirational and uplifting evening for 300 UAB students, Rigney said.