For Women's History Month, we are spotlighting a few of the amazing women in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in collaboration with the UAB School of Medicine's "Women Making History" series. Read below about how they are making history in the mission areas of teaching, outreach, diversity, and clinical areas.
Erin DeLaney, M.D., vice chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality, is a physician, educator, wife, mother, daughter, and friend. A family medicine physician with years of award-winning experience, DeLaney is the first woman to gain a senior leadership position with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, as well as securing a vice-chair role.
DeLaney is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of all family medicine clinics at UAB and for pursuing practice transformation research and implementation to improve patient care and outcomes. A pioneer in the department, DeLaney says, “My role as a clinical leader is to help our team expand the reaches of high quality primary care. That means looking at ways to improve access to patients and how we can deliver on things that really matter in the long run when it comes to one’s health. We also have to constantly ask the questions of how can we make things better both for our patients and providers.”
Jill Marsh, M.D., is an award-winning clinical provider and a clinical skills instructor committed to bettering the world through medical education and advocating for those with limited access to quality care in our state and beyond.
As director of the CU2RE: Urban Underserved Pathway program, she collaborates with dozens of providers and leaders across campus to ensure that the inaugural cohort students are well trained to care for underserved populations.
Brandi Shah, M.D., MPH, is the director of the department’s Office of Identity, Inclusion and Collective Conscience (I2C2). She also serves students in the Student Health Services clinic and teaches courses in the School of Medicine.
Through I2C2 and other leadership positions, Shah provides resources, support and programming to advance the department’s mission for genuine inclusivity, intercultural exchange and progress toward racial and social justice. The office has facilitated listening sessions with all department stakeholders, started a monthly book club for continued discussions, created an inclusive, cultural calendar to increase community-building and awareness amongst the team, and implemented a medical education elective to teach medical students about the power of narrative practice and cultural humility in the patient-provider relationship.
Shah is a champion of her teammates and inspires intentionality and lifelong learning through her example of leadership and self-improvement.
Glenda Stanley, MA, is the associate director of the Alabama Statewide Area Health Education Center program. The AHEC (Area Health Education Centers) program was developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train and retain a health professions workforce committed to serve underserved populations.
Stanley joined UAB as faculty in the School of Nursing and as the Associate Director of the Alabama Statewide AHEC Program in 2015. AHEC is about ensuring that students in rural and underserved areas have the opportunity to get an education that can change the quality of life for them and also future generations and the community at large.
Stanley served in many capacities in AHEC through the years, each advancing the growth of the organization. As a leader, she advises young professionals to do the following: 1) to act with integrity; 2) to be fair; 3) to have fun and 4) to be socially responsible.
We are grateful for all of our female leaders and those who contribute to the important work done in our department each day.