September 9, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) National Alumni Society (NAS) will present the 2009 Alumni Awards for professional achievement and philanthropy at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 at The Club. The ceremony is among several activities scheduled for University Day, which will commemorate UAB's 40th anniversary. Among this year's winners are three UAB faculty members.
UAB Professor of Pathology Peter G. Anderson DVM, Ph.D., will receive the Ellen Greg Ingalls/UAB National Alumni Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Teaching. The award is presented annually to a faculty member who demonstrates an outstanding commitment to teaching. Anderson is cited for exemplary teaching and for his scholarship.
Anderson, a cardiovascular pathology researcher, is the director of Pathology Undergraduate Education in the schools of Medicine and Dentistry. He also coordinates the Pre-Clerkship Medical Curriculum at UAB. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the 2003 President's Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Joint Health Sciences and the 2008 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award. Anderson also was named as a 2009 UAB Teaching Scholar and recently received the 2009 UAB School of Medicine Excellence in Education Scholarship Award.
Anderson earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Washington State University and his doctorate in experimental pathology from UAB in 1986. He joined the UAB faculty later that year.
UAB School of Engineering Dean Linda Lucas, Ph.D., will receive the 2009 NAS Distinguished Alumni Award. The award is given each year to a faculty member for outstanding professional and community accomplishments. Lucas has earned multiple degrees from UAB, including a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering in 1983. Lucas was the first woman to chair the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering before becoming Engineering's first female dean. Lucas is known internationally for her research into biomedical implants and devices.
UAB Department of Accounting and Finance Professor Frank Messina, D.B.A., CPA., will receive the NAS Honorary Alumnus Award for exceptional contributions to UAB and its programs. Messina, who began his career at UAB in 1993, is the School of Business Ernst and Young Scholar. He also is the university's NCAA Faculty Athletics representative.
Nancy Fouad, J.D., will receive the NAS Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. The award is presented to a UAB alumnus who has graduated from the university within the past 10 years. Fouad earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering from UAB in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In 2008, she earned a law degree from the University of Alabama.
Fouad currently practices with Burr & Forman's Construction Practices Group. She is a member of the Alabama State Bar and a director of the National Association of Women in Construction Birmingham chapter.
Jane Stephens Comer will be honored as an NAS Honorary Life Member. Comer is recognized for her philanthropic work in the Birmingham community, which includes her support for the Alys Stephens Center (ASC), which bears her late mother's name.
Comer was instrumental in founding the ASC Kids' Club Series, an annual series designed to entertain, educate and inspire children through the performing arts - especially children who otherwise would not be exposed to the performing arts. She has supported the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Alabama Ballet, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Women's Fund of Greater Birmingham. Comer also helped launch a childhood sex-abuse-prevention project, "Enough Abuse!" She recently received the 2009 William M. and Virginia B. Spencer Outstanding Philanthropist Award.
About the UAB National Alumni Society
The UAB National Alumni Society (NAS) has more than 9,000 members and 59 chapters around the world. It provides support to the university through scholarships, grants and gifts, and offers its members personal and professional networking opportunities.