Jim Bakken
| This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.jimb@uab.edu • (205) 934-3887
Chief Communications Officer, Public Relations
Chief Communications Officer, Public Relations
As chief communications officer for the University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine, Bakken leads teams that set and execute internal and external communications strategy. Prior to joining UAB in 2012, Bakken spent a decade working with a diverse client base at two full-service communications firms. Bakken spent eight years in Nashville at McNeely Pigott and Fox – one of the largest PR firms in the Southeast – prior to launching Peritus Public Relations in Birmingham in 2010. Bakken has served on the board of the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America and has been a Birmingham Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 honoree.
Jim Pittman tried to hire the best people in the country, attract them to UAB, and make them happy here. He was a great man for UAB’s medical school. He was a great man for Birmingham and Alabama and served both of them well.
Successful matches result in real community problem solving and hands-on learning for students.
Working with Healthiest Employers, a technology and research company focused on wellness, we surveyed companies around the Magic City earlier this year to determine which local employers have the best corporate wellness efforts. The University of Alabama at Birmingham was named as one of Birmingham's Healthiest Employers, based on the results of the survey.
An interdisciplinary collaboration at UAB recently established a research method that has expanded the institution’s capacity to expand initiatives addressing diseases including cancer, autoimmune diseases and degenerative diseases.
Early registration ends Jan. 31 for The Bruce A. Harris Symposium: Progress in OB/GYN 2014 for Physicians and Nurses to be held 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Feb. 20-21 in The Wynfrey Hotel at Riverchase Galleria.
Malcovery was launched in early 2013 as a result of an exclusive worldwide license with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and based on research conducted at the UAB Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research (CIA|JFR). Malcovery®, the leader in delivering actionable intelligence that can be proactively applied to neutralize the threats and actions by cyber criminals in the areas of phishing, spam and malware, released today the latest ‘Top 10 Phished Brands That Your Antivirus is Missing,’ a report that discloses leading brands that are most exploited by cybercriminals in phishing attacks with malicious spam.
"Historically, gout has been associated with overindulgence, in people who had access to foods of plenty, but now, in fact, gout is a condition of people with chronic illness such as kidney disease and heart disease, and regrettably it's often relegated to a lesser status given all the other challenges of management," explained Kenneth S. Saag, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Fish caught in the open fishing regions in the Gulf of Mexico are safe to eat following the BP oil spill in 2010. Writing in Environmental Science and Technology, Timothy Gerald from the Environmental Defense Fund and Julia Gohlke from the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported that only two samples from 92 tested had PAH levels above the detection limit in GC/MS tests. The measured ratios of particular PAHs suggested they did not come from oil but were derived from the combustion of hydrocarbons.
Another effort that is yielding data on glaucoma risk is the African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study (ADAGES). This NEI-funded study was launched in 2002, in order to seek explanations for the high prevalence and rapid course of primary-open angle glaucoma in African Americans. Dr. Weinreb is leading it in collaboration with his UCSD colleague Linda Zangwill, Ph.D., and with Jeffrey Liebmann, M.D., at New York University Langone Medical Center, and Christopher Girkin, M.D., at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered a new immune protein influencing autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Robert Kimberly, director of the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science, who co-authored the paper, says "“This new finding could play a significant role in the way companies design treatments for autoimmune diseases, in a more targeted approach. Now efforts can be made to target the individuals who will benefit from the treatments, based on the gene mutation.”