Dr. Ria Hearld, Chair of the UAB Faculty Senate, gave remarks at the February 7, 2020, Board of Trustees meeting, as the representative of UAB’s faculty. Here are her remarks.

Chancellor St. John, President Pro Tempore Gray, members of the board of trustees, Presidents Watts, Bell, and Dawson, Provost Benoit, faculty and staff colleagues, students, alumni, and all members of this community — thank you for having me here to speak with you today. I am humbled to be a member of a small group of scholars elected to Chair the UAB Faculty Senate and serve as the faculty representative to the Board of Trustees. It is a tremendous responsibility — and I am deeply honored to be amongst their ranks and to have this opportunity to be the advocate for all UAB Faculty and to recognize their talent, dedication, and hard work put forth to achieving excellence in all that they do. I am grateful for the trust placed in me and for the opportunity to serve my university.

This year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of UAB. We can wonder at humanity’s progress during the time of UAB’s existence, making great strides in health and the delivery of health care, civil rights and liberties, genome sequencing, and global interconnectedness through technology. When I reflect on UAB’s 50-year history, I see a university that forged ahead in the pursuit of knowledge and progress, while maintaining steadfast commitment to the richness of diversity. As we look to the future, as faculty we often ask ourselves are we doing all we can to provide our students a powerful foundation for future generations.

Over the past half century, UAB has moved forward in both scholarship and education, gaining in rankings yet never losing sight of the community in which this university resides. Hard work and resilience are part of the culture of the faculty at this university. Our annual research awards exceeded $602 million this past fiscal year. We are a leader in federal research funding, ranking 20th in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding among all institutions and 9th among public institutions. As UAB’s research grows at an impressive rate and impacts communities, sustaining and growing further provides us with an opportunity to improve research processes and infrastructure. I happy to share that members of the Faculty Senate Research Committee and the Office of Research have devoted countless hours collaborating extensively in improving research infrastructure and research environment. These activities span from rolling out a new program to increase the effectiveness of our Institutional Research Cores to revamping the electronic research administration system to increase research productivity. We have found this sustained and collaborative engagement between the Faculty Senate and the Office of Research is crucial to prioritizing the needs of our productive researchers. Our faculty are securing competitive research funding and performing cutting-edge research:

• In preclinical experiments, University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher Qin Wang, M.D., Ph.D., in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, and her colleagues, have revealed a key missing piece of the Alzheimer’s disease puzzle. That allowed proof-of-concept experiments — using an existing drug — that dramatically reduced Alzheimer’s pathology and symptoms in two mouse models, potentially offering an immediate treatment for this devastating disease.
• Smita Bhatia, M.D., director of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, and senior scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, and her team have been awarded a $6.38 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to determine the long-term burden of morbidity borne by blood cancer patients treated with or without blood or marrow transplantation.
• Verna Keith, Ph.D., professor and chair for the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Sociology, has been awarded the James R. Greenley Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociology of Mental Health. The recognition is awarded by the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Society and Mental Health Division.

Our faculty now teach a student body of over 22,000 individuals and UAB has 14 programs ranked in the top 25. Perhaps most exciting to me is from my home department. The Masters of Science in Health Administration program in the Department of Health Services Administration in the School of Health Professions was ranked #1 in the country by U.S. News & World Report. This is something all of us across the university can be proud of because we are creating a learning environment across all of our health sciences programs, illustrating that UAB is a leader in health education and training.

UAB would not be an internationally renowned institution without the strong relationships that have been forged in its backyard. From its inception, UAB was led by President Volker, who knew the value of partnership between the university and its neighboring community. This partnership between campus and community has been valued and cherished by every president since and further reinforced by our invested faculty who facilitate synergistic collaborations through service learning and community-engaged scholarship. Some exemplars include:

• Under the direction of Josephine Prado, Assistant Professor of English learner education, free community English classes are being offered at UAB twice a week and are hosted by UAB School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. The English language classes also serve as a training program for the masters students studying teaching English as a second language.
• Farah Lubin, Ph.D. and Lori McMahon, UAB Graduate School dean and UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center director developed the UAB’s Neuroscience Roadmap Scholars program, which is designed to help engage and retain underrepresented graduate trainees—including ethnic minorities and students with disabilities — in the neuroscience workforce.

This year has not been without its challenges and as a faculty we have had the opportunity to take a step back and put voice to our core values. Although, as an institution of higher education, we are committed to the free exchange of ideas and perspectives, we, as faculty are renewed in our commitment to a culture of mutual respect, one in which each person who joins our community feels included and valued. Diversity, across all of its dimensions, and inclusion are core values of UAB, and the collective efforts of campus leadership and the faculty senate have championed these values to new heights. For this, I am incredibly proud to be part of the vibrant Blazer community.

Transparent and shared governance remains essential to our collective advancement. By continuing to prioritize effective and candid communication, together we can reach and exceed goals outlined in our shared mission and vision. What I strongly believe — is that we are all committed towards is ensuring that our work, our commitments — represent the voices of the entire community including our stakeholders. Through meaningful collaborations with our community and its stakeholders, we can collectively impactful change. We must remain committed to delivering the high quality teaching, research that revolutionizes science, top-tier patient care, and consistent, unwavering service to our community. If we do this and do this well, we will change this world.

It has been five decades since the beginning of this great university. Five decades of excellence, resilience in the face of challenges, and an increasing will to excel in the decades to come. The UAB Faculty thank the Board of Trustees and system administration for your continued investment in UAB and support of our faculty. I would like to thank President Watts and Provost Benoit for their continued commitment to shared governance. I am inspired by the work that our university and community have done so far, and I am encouraged by your collective dedication to advance the priorities we have identified.