Posted on June 6, 2002 at 9:19 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Christie Borgford Summerlin, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry in the UAB School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has been selected as an Outstanding Advising Award Winner for 2002 in the Faculty Academic Advising Category by the National Academic Advising Association.

The award is presented to individuals who have demonstrated qualities associated with outstanding academic advising of students. The Faculty Academic Advising Category includes those whose primary responsibility is teaching and who devote a portion of their time to academic advising services to students.

At UAB, Borgford Summerlin has worked to expand the chemistry department’s awards program and plays a key role on the Pre-Health Faculty Advisory Committee. She was instrumental in developing two new courses, an MCAT prep course and a medical co-op experience that serves students from all majors. She also assumed the leadership for implementing a workshop for freshmen interested in careers in medicine, dentistry and optometry. She is responsible for advising more than 130 chemistry majors.

“It is great fun to work with this dynamic, curious and talented group of undergraduates,” she said. “You see, in teaching we might like to know about individual students' plans and dreams. But in advising and teaching this is possible for me — and I try to make the most of this advantage.”

In addition to her teaching and advising duties, Borgford Summerlin is the chair-elect of the American Chemical Society’s Alabama section and is credited for redeveloping a student affiliate chapter of the American Chemical Society at UAB. She has worked at UAB for six years.