As Women's History Month comes to a close, we are reflecting on this year's theme: "Providing Healing, Promoting Hope." It is a tribute to the countless women within the School of Health Professions and beyond who have devoted so much of themselves to improving health care so that others may follow in their footsteps. We asked a few of the many outstanding faculty within our school to talk about their work, in their own words, through the lenses of their identities and experiences. Read their answers below.

In honor of Women's History Month, the School of Health Professions is celebrating the creative, passionate, and driven minds who are blazing the trail for women in their field. From researchers to educators to leaders — these women have inspired so many within SHP, UAB, and beyond.

Sue Feldman, RN, MEd, Ph.D., director, UAB Graduate Programs in Health Informatics, and Wei Li, Ph.D., associate professor, UAB Physician Assistant Studies program, were awarded the UAB Graduate Dean's Excellence in Mentorship Award. The honor recognizes full-time regular UAB faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments as mentors of graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows.

Health quality advocates have supported the idea of a Learning Health System (LHS) for decades. Now, in collaboration with the Center for Outcomes Effectiveness Research and Education (COERE), the UAB Health System is on a journey to develop and implement its own LHS principles to improve patient care.

Lavern Smith, a first-year dual-degree graduate student in the M.S. in Health Administration and M.S. in Health Informatics programs, has been awarded the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Foundation Scholarship. The $5,000 award is only given to one graduate student each year.

February is the time when we keep matters of the heart close to us. Between American Heart Month and Valentine's Day, it's a great opportunity to focus on adopting a healthier lifestyle to prevent cardiovascular disease—the number one leading cause of death in the U.S. 

Tara Harman, MS, RDN, instructor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences, shares how nutrition can play a huge role in building a resilient heart to battle against disease.

New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Nutrition Sciences is shedding light on why weight loss may take longer than expected, due to an exaggerated reduction in energy expenditure below predicted values (metabolic adaptation) in women with overweight.

James O. Hill, Ph.D., chair of the University of Alabama at BirminghamDepartment of Nutrition Sciences, has received a five-year, $10.8 million award as part of the Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH) study through the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program.

Paige Bates, UAB MSHA Class 57 President, constantly asks herself: “How can I leave a positive impact on my community?” Read on to learn more about Bates and her vision for the future of health care. 

Introductory Biology II covers a wide range of topics: Students learn about plant parts, cells and life cycles, the animal kingdom, how the heart works, and how the digestive system operates. Laura Calvert, a senior majoring in biomedical sciences, was not having much luck with the often-recommended method of learning — repeatedly sketching the processes and diagrams on paper — and said the idea of traditional study methods “fills me with dread, so any time I can find a way to make the process more interesting, I jump on it.”

Valley McCurry, Ph.D., MBA, OTR/L, received the Alabama Occupational Therapy Association (ALOTA) Elsie Holmes McKibbin Award, the highest honor within the organization. It is presented to those who have made significant contributions to the profession's body of knowledge. 

Five students have been awarded a UAB School of Health Professions Blazer Forever Scholarship. The award is given to SHP students during Homecoming Week based on their answer to an essay question. This year, we asked the question: What makes you different? 

Katherine Meese, Ph.D., has been named director of the UAB Center for Healthcare Management and Leadership, charged with providing mindful and strategic vision to the center’s programs by using a translational approach to bridge the gap between academia and the evolving healthcare landscape.

Muhammad Jan, a second-year student in our Physician Assistant Studies program, has been selected by the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) for the 2021-2022 Future Educator Fellowship. He is one of only 15 from the entire country chosen for the prestigious position.

Department of Nutrition Sciences researcher Drew Sayer is a pioneer in the field of SMART trials for weight-loss research and was recently featured in the #UAB Reporter for his studies that go against 'one-size-fits-all' diets and work toward precision nutrition and precision exercise.

Shannon H. Houser, Ph.D., MPH, RHIA, FAHIMA, professor in the UAB Department of Health Services Administration, won an American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Triumph Mentor Award.

One-fourth of the UAB faculty selected to receive the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, are connected to the School of Health Professions.

Rachel Mars, lead academic advisor for our B.S. in Health Care Management program, has been elected president-elect of the UAB Council of Academic Advisors. She is the first from the School of Health Professions to hold a leadership role in this organization.

W. Timothy Garvey, MD, Butterworth Professor of Medicine in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was chosen to receive the Master of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) award.

For the second year in a row, a student team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham M.S. in Health Informatics (MSHI) program wins the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Student Case Competition.