BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing Dean Rachel Z. Booth, R.N., Ph.D., and Vice President for Planning and Information Management John M. Lyons, Ph.D., were honored during graduation ceremonies at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 7. Booth and Lyons each received the UAB President’s Medal, which recognizes scholarly distinction and service to the university. The ceremonies were held at Bartow Arena, 617 South 13th Street. About half of the nearly 2,000 May graduates took part in the ceremonies.
The commencement speaker was Jorge Ivan Nuñez, 23, a Birmingham resident and native of Colombia, who graduated with degrees in mechanical engineering and physics. He is the son of Martha Sanchez and Rafael Nuñez. In 2002, he was among an elite group of students selected from across the nation to participate as an intern in field-testing NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover.
Rachel Z. Booth, dean of the School of Nursing at UAB since 1987, is credited with leading the school to national prominence by expanding its role in nursing education at home and abroad, thereby helping establish UAB as a world-renown academic health center.
The School of Nursing, established in 1950, has witnessed steady upward movement in its rankings during Booth’s tenure as dean. Today, its master’s degree program in nursing education is ranked 19th by U.S. News & World Report, and overall the school is 17th in research funding by the National Institutes of Health. Under her leadership, the school’s endowment has grown to $8 million, funding more than 40 scholarships annually.
Booth spearheaded the creation of Alabama’s first Ph.D. in nursing program; the program’s first class of students enrolled in 1999. In 1993 the school received designation as a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for International Nursing, one of just 12 in the nation and 36 worldwide. She also oversaw the inception of a long-term collaborative relationship in nursing education with Chiang Mai University in Thailand.
In 1999, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand presented her with an honorary doctoral degree, making her the first foreigner to receive such an honor in the country’s history. She also was named a distinguished practitioner by the National Academy of Nursing Practice and inducted into the Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame in 2003. The Birmingham Business Journal named her a Health Care Educator of Birmingham at their Health Care Heroes luncheon in 2004.
John M. Lyons is credited with establishing and guiding the university’s institutional research and planning office, which has played a vital role in supporting the institution’s planning and budgeting processes as well as policy development for the past 32 years. He is the longest serving of UAB’s current vice presidents.
As vice president for planning and information management (PIM), Lyons has responsibility for Institutional Studies and Services (ISS), which is the resource center that supports the institution’s planning and budgeting processes and the President’s office in its interactions with the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the University of Alabama System. PIM also supports the President’s office as it works with the Chancellor’s office in the areas of new program development, appropriation requests, general tuition and fee schedules, and an ever-increasing range and number of information requests from state and federal agencies.
Lyons has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Alabama Supercomputer Authority since 1989 and has been as Chairman for the past three years. In the private sector he serves on the Board of Directors of OFMS Inc. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Institutional Research and the Society for College and University Planning.
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