“I really liked her as a student and we had many long conversations while she was on campus and in her early years as an administrator when she was known statewide as an outspoken health care leader,” said Howard W. Houser, Ph.D., who taught Sister Almeda in the ‘70s and is now a professor emeritus with the UAB Department of Health Services Administration.

Sister Almeda, a member of MSHA Class 11, earned what was then an M.S. in Hospital and Health Administration in 1977. In 1985, after working in Evansville and Montgomery, she was named administrator of St. Vincent Hospital in Birmingham where she served for two years. Following stints in Montgomery and Nashville, Sister Almeda returned to St. Vincent’s in 1995 and was full-time board chair until 2008.