Susan Campbell, Ph.D., is a scientist and a researcher. And after reading that sentence, she knows what you're thinking: Socially inept, has obscure interests, is single-minded is slavishly devoted to intellectual and/or academic pursuits.

On April 29, Susan Campbell received the charter for the new UAB Research Civitan Club. She plans to capitalize on the community of scientists, educators and employees on campus by using their knowledge and skills to give back to the local community.

"I'm the most anti-social person on the face of the Earth," says Campbell, director for research, outreach & development for the UAB Civitan International Research Center (CIRC). "That's what makes scientists good at what we do, right? We don't speak to anyone; we just get our work done."

Campbell's self-deprecating humor aside, she knows scientists and researchers do tend to become so invested in their work that it's easy to forget the reasons why they crunch data and look through a microscope hundreds of times a day, day after day.

That's one of the reasons why Campbell has chartered the new Research Civitan Club - a first for Civitan International. Campbell wants to capitalize on the community of scientists, educators and employees on campus and use their knowledge and skills to give back to the local community.

"This is a great way for the researchers who are here to get out of the lab occasionally and interact with our neighbors and contribute on a personal level with the people in the community," Campbell says.

Civitan International's long relationship with UAB makes the club a natural fit; it has been supporting the CIRC at UAB for the past 19 years through grants totaling more than $15 million. These monies have been used to hire faculty members working on developmental disabilities, providing shared instrumentation — including the 3T Functional Neuroimaging Facility — and providing important seed grants to investigators and their trainees.

CIRC Director Harald Sontheimer, Ph.D, says the new club will give members of the campus community a tremendous opportunity to positively impact the local community.

"The establishment of the Research Civitan Club provides a novel venue for research center scientists, clinicians, their trainees and family members to give back to the community through education and service projects benefitting children and adults with developmental disabilities," Sontheimer says. "For many of the club members this will be an opportunity to connect with the human condition that they are investigating in the laboratory. I can only see this invigorating their enthusiasm toward their science."

That human interaction led Campbell to begin the process of chartering the club.

Campbell came to the CIRC this past September and has been a liaison between the center and Civitan clubs in the Birmingham area. She was asked several times to be a part of community service projects and accepted an assignment earlier this year.

A local man who spends most of his time in a wheelchair needed a ramp built to the front door of his home so he could easily move in and out. Campbell came to the man's home on a Saturday morning with Civitan volunteers from the Action and Perimeter clubs, and she was certain the day's task would be canceled; it was raining hard, and Campbell didn't expect it to be possible to build the ramp.

But the other volunteers erected a tent, and Campbell worked along with them in the rain until the ramp was completed. When she saw the reaction from the man as he slowly walked down the ramp with the help of his grandson, her heart melted.

"Seeing that was just wonderful," Campbell says. "I've never really been involved in community service - not on a continuing basis. I had never really gotten my hands dirty. But this was a re-invigorating experience, and it reminded my why we are conducting research for people who are affected by developmental disease and disorders."

Campbell had been asked numerous times to join local Civitan clubs, but she decided UAB's resources would enable her to make a greater impact if she started a club on campus.

She sent e-mails, made phone calls and set up meetings, and within three weeks she had 30 UAB researchers and scientists on board. The Research Civitan Club received its charter and had a celebration April 29 at the Civitan International Headquarters in Birmingham. Mark Eisinger, president of Civitan International, and the group's board of directors presented the charter.

"This is an incredible testimony to Civitan - scientists funded by Civitans joining the organization that founded their research center," Eisinger says. "This is very significant to the Civitan International organization. As I travel, I tell Civitans about this new Research Civitan Club, and they are very impressed. Special thanks certainly goes to Susan Campbell, the new charter president of this club. Susan has single-handedly recruited most of the members in the new Research Civitan Club and clearly has a heart for the Civitan mission."

The UAB Research Civitan Club held its formal charter celebration May 6 in the atrium of the CIRC.

CIRC Medical Director Alan Percy, M.D., says Campbell's determination and desire to start the Research Civitan Club will enable UAB to have a positive impact with Civitan International.

"Susan has quickly bonded with the Civitan mission, both in the CIRC and with Civitan International, and she is to be commended," Percy says. "The Research Civitan Club has emerged completely out of her leadership. It is timely and an affirmation of our commitment to neuro-developmental disabilities that the CIRC have a presence within Civitan International."

Sontheimer and Percy have extended an invitation to anyone in the UAB community and their families to become charter members of the club. Membership is open to anyone who has the desire to help those in need.

Contact Campbell at sue08@uab.edu or call 996-4939 for more information.