Posted on September 13, 2004 at 4:43 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) Health Education/Health Promotion doctoral program is first in the nation for faculty mentoring of students and is ranked seventh overall, according to a study published in the American Journal of Health Education earlier this summer.

“The ranking is an important recognition for the program,” says UAB Professor David Macrina, Ph.D., chairman of the School of Education’s Department of Human Studies. “It’s a result of talented faculty being willing to work collaboratively with a diverse student population to train top researchers and academicians.”

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University, reviewed 39 health education doctoral programs based on criteria such as the quality of the faculty, student outcomes and mentoring. UAB’s doctoral program ranked seventh overall in a top 10 list that included the University of Texas Health Science Center, University of Michigan and University of North Carolina.

In analyzing faculty mentoring of students, researchers examined the number of scientific articles published and job placements among Carnegie doctoral research institutions, national health organizations and postdoctoral fellowships.

The UAB Health Education/Health Promotion program is a joint program between the School of Education, the School of Public Health and the University of Alabama Program in Health Sciences.

Graduates from UAB’s program have received employment and post-doctoral fellowships from major universities and health organizations nationwide, such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Macrina said.