History
Founded in 1831 as Alabama's first public college, The University of Alabama (UA) is dedicated to excellence in teaching, research and service. The University of Alabama has ranked among the top 50 public universities in the nation in U.S. News and World Report’s annual college rankings for more than a decade. UA is ranked 38th in the 2015 rankings. Of the 36,155 undergraduate, professional, and graduate students enrolled at UA in the fall semester of 2014, 49% come from Alabama, 55% are women, 12% are African-American and 3% are Hispanic-American. UA is ranked first in the nation in enrollment and graduation of minority doctoral students under the Southern Regional Education Board’s (SREB) Minority Doctoral Scholars Program. A total of 66 SREB fellows have completed their doctorates at UA, and 20 SREB doctoral fellows are currently enrolled in this program that encourages minority students to pursue doctoral degrees and become college-level professors.
CCTS Partnership
As a partner of the CCTS, they share investigative expertise in rural health expertise, community engagement and clinical trials. The University of Alabama participates in the CCTS Executive Council and the biostatistics Collaboratory and pilots and panels. As part of the CCTS Training Academy, they participate in the KL2 training programs, K writing club, research team training, TIERS, workshops and offer mini-sabbaticals.
In the area of community engagement the CCTS Partner Network collaborates with the Institute for Rural Health Research. The Institute works to bring the highest attainable standard of health to rural citizens. The Institute pursues this mission through the combined strength of scientific knowledge, community involvement and informed public policy. The Institute’s research efforts are focused on health issues that impact people who live in rural areas. The goal is to produce research that is useful to communities, policymakers and health care providers as they work to improve the availability, accessibility and quality of health care for rural and underserved citizens. The Rural Health Institute also serves as a resource for researchers, individuals and organizations working to improve the health of rural communities.