February 4, 2005

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Norman W. Weissman, Ph.D., has been named to the L.R. Jordan Endowed Chair in Health Services Administration in the UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) School of Health Related Professions (SHRP) by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama.

Weissman is a professor in the Department of Health Services Administration and in the divisions of General Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine of the Department of Medicine. He is co-director of the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education.

Weissman also holds UAB appointments as senior scientist at the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, the Center for Disaster Preparedness, the Center for Aging, the Arthritis Center, the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the General Clinical Research Center and the Injury Control Research Center.

Weissman joined the UAB faculty in 1995. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in physiology and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Maryland.

UAB established the L.R. Jordan Endowed Chair in Health Services Administration upon Jordan’s retirement from active practice at UAB in 1987. The chair was the first at UAB outside the schools of Medicine and Dentistry and is one of the first in the country named for a practicing health-care executive.

Jordan had a distinguished 40-year career as a health-care executive and educator at some of the nation’s most well-respected health-care organizations, including Duke University, Shands Hospital at the University of Florida, Birmingham Baptist Hospitals, MedAmerica Health Systems and UAB.

Jordan was a pioneer in introducing business management practices to traditional health-care delivery. He also was instrumental in breaking down racial barriers in health care by integrating hospitals and advocating the advancement of African-Americans into leadership positions in health-care administration.