3 honored as emeritus faculty

Pamela Murray, Ph.D.The UA System Board of Trustees elevated three former faculty to emeritus status during its Feb. 3 meeting. The rank of professor emeritus is an esteemed campuswide appointment conferred on an individual with 10 or more years of exceptional service to UAB once the individual has retired. Those honored were Pamela Murray, Stephen James O’Connor and George Howard.

Pamela Murray, Ph.D., who retired in June 2022 after a total of 32 years of loyal and dedicated service now, is professor emerita in the Department of History at UAB.

Murray taught more than 15 different classes while at UAB with great effectiveness and with the deep respect of her students and distinguished herself with research activities exploring the social and political history of modern Spanish America, the history of women in Latin America and modern Colombia.

Murray is the author of two monographs, both translated into Spanish, and a sourcebook widely praised by colleagues. She also has published extensively in other forms, with 21 articles and 18 book reviews, and has presented 57 invited lectures at professional meetings and
prestigious groups, nationally and internationally.

Murray joined UAB in 1991 as assistant professor, then rose through the ranks to become associate professor in 1996 and professor in 2009.


Stephen O’Connor,Stephen O’Connor, Ph.D. Ph.D., who retired in August 2022 after 34 years of loyal and dedicated service, now is professor emeritus of Health Care Management in the Department of Health Services Administration in the School of Health Professions.

O’Connor distinguished himself as a program director for the Master of Science in Health Administration Program, the Executive Program and the Residential Program, leading the latter two through several re-accreditations. 
O’Connor served on the doctoral committees of nearly five dozen doctoral candidates at the top of their academic fields, and he received the UAB School of Health Professions Excellence in Teaching Award in 2012.

O’Connor was a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a valued member of many professional and scholarly organizations. He received the American College of Healthcare Executive Distinguished Service Award in 2012 and the American College of Healthcare Executive Exemplary Service Award in 2014. He was editor of the Journal of Healthcare Management, the official journal of the American College of Healthcare Executives from 2010 until 2014, and he authored and co-authored 87 publications for peer-reviewed journals and newsletters.


George Howard, DrP George Howard, DrPH, who retired in October 2022 after 23 years of loyal and dedicated service, now is professor emeritus of biostatistics in the School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics.

An accomplished and productive academician, Howard was elevated to Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics in 2020 for his work that brought unprecedented international attention to UAB from professionals and major media outlets.

Howard, who received UAB’s 2022 Distinguished Faculty Investigator Award, was the inaugural principal investigator for 18 years on the NIH R01 REGARDS study, which focused on factors that contribute to the higher stroke risk among Southerners and African American individuals; the data has been used by scientists around the nation in more than 110 ancillary studies, leading to hundreds of scientific discoveries.

Howard has served on numerous data safety and observational study monitoring boards for trials and studies funded by many institutes of the National Institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical industry. Howard has published extensively and served on numerous editorial boards for major journals, including Stroke and Lancet Neurology.