CCHS 2022 Annual Report

Dr. Richard Friend

a message from the dean

We are dedicated to improving and promoting the health of individuals and communities in rural Alabama.

These words begin our mission statement, and they describe the very reason the College of Community Health Sciences was founded five decades ago. They continue to be our beacon.

Rural communities in our state face myriad of challenges. Many are burdened with high rates of poverty and few financial resources. Their populations are older and sicker. Their hospitals have reduced services or have closed. There is often a lack of access to basic care because health-care professionals tend to practice in urban areas, citing the isolation of rural communities and the resulting lack of peer support and exposure to specialist practice.

Nearly 25% of Alabama’s population lived in rural areas as of 2019. That’s more than a million people. But only 12% of the state’s primary care physicians practice in rural Alabama.

Primary care is important, and our focus at CCHS, because it serves as a first entry point into the healthcare system, which can be particularly important for rural residents who might otherwise not have access to care. Primary care provides diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses, health promotion and maintenance, disease prevention, counseling and patient education.

We believe strongly in our mission to increase the availability of health care, and particularly primary health care in rural Alabama. In recent years, we have accelerated these efforts.

Though slowed a bit by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have nonetheless spent the past handful of years increasing the footprint of our medical practice, University Medical Center, in rural West Alabama. The services we provide are what the communities need most.

After the only ob-gyn practicing in Demopolis retired in 2017, we opened UMC-Demopolis to provide prenatal, obstetrics and family medicine care. We followed with the opening of UMC-Fayette in 2021, providing prenatal and obstetrics care, and now gynecology, to a community suffering from high rates of infant mortality.

Also in 2021, with Carrollton in rural Pickens County reeling from the 2020 loss of its hospital, Pickens County Medical Center, we opened UMCCarrollton to provide family medicine, prenatal, obstetrics and sports medicine care to the community.

We established UMC-Livingston in 2022 to bring family medicine care to the city, which includes the University of West Alabama, as well as to

surrounding communities. In late 2022, we relocated and expanded UMC-Northport, allowing for the delivery of multi-specialty care at that clinic. While Northport isn’t necessarily rural, the new location of the clinic and its proximity to Pickens County provides county residents with another place to access health care.

As we have opened new UMC clinics in rural communities, we have done so with the goal of ensuring their presence can be sustained. I believe we have developed a business model that will enable us to do just that.

In another effort to broaden access to care, UMC entered into a partnership with the Boston-based Ceras Health in 2022 to provide remote digital patient monitoring for patients 65 and older and those with limited health-care access. Using leading-edge patient digital devices, which monitor vital signs and other health factors to provide access to patient health data in real-time, UMC is helping patients manage diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions.

We continue to grow our Capstone Hospitalist Group, whose physicians care for patients at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and Northport Medical Center. To better serve female students at UA, we expanded the Student Health Center and Pharmacy to include a women’s health pavilion and increased the gynecologic and other women’s health services provided there.

On the education front, our Primary Care Track, a medical education track created to address the shortage of primary care physicians in rural Alabama, graduated its first class of medical students. Also in 2022, we launched the Tuscaloosa Rural Pre-Medical Internship to interest and prepare pre-medical students for rural health care.

The College also marked an important milestone in 2022, our 50th anniversary. As we reflect on those five decades, we can point to successes in meeting our mission. Our Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency has graduated 557 physicians, the majority of whom practice in Alabama – in 47 of the state’s 67 counties. Our rural medical education tracks have helped place 85 physicians in rural Alabama communities since 1996. These are only a few examples.

We have a good story to tell.

Dr. Richard Friend Dean, College of Community Health Sciences

We believe strongly in our mission to increase the availability of health care in rural Alabama.

RESIDENCY

1 in 7 Alabama family medicine physicians graduated from the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program

Practice in Alabama

Practice in the Southeast

Total of 557 physicians have graduated from the residency.

Practice in rural areas

3 2

RECRUITMENT 88%

2 7 1

10 1

4 2 4 1

6 4

51% 1 11 4 1 3 2 3 4 8 27 80 8 1 4 4 10 2 1 1 2 3 3 8 4 4 3

6

1 1

1,401

3

2 3 1

5 4

Applicants Interviews 43%

Our alumni practice in 47 of the 67 Alabama counties.

FELLOWSHIPS

Behavioral Health Emergency Medicine Geriatric Medicine Hospital Medicine Pediatrics Obstetrics Sports Medicine

UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

6 University Medical Center clinics serving West Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Northport, Demopolis, Fayette, Carrollton and Livingston.

UMC holds Patient-Centered Medical Home certifications at the Northport location and at the Family Medicine and Pediatrics clinics in Tuscaloosa. Certified

185,389 Total patient visits in 2022

83,210

patients at DCH Regional Medical Center

physician visits at DCH

PATIENT VISITS IMMUNIZATIONS

Student Health Center and Pharmacy

40,298

25,172

Total patient visits in 2022 Total prescriptions filled in 2022

4,375

Flu shots administered during the annual 2022 Flu Shot Campaign.

2,432

COVID-19 vaccines administered during 2022.

vital signs College Updates

COLLEGE EXPANDS HEALTH CARE ACROSS ALABAMA FOR

IN 2022, the College of Community Health Sciences celebrated 50 years of responding to the acute need in the state for more physicians for the small towns and rural communities that suffer from a serious lack of health care.

Founded in 1972 by Dr. William R. Willard who served as the College’s first dean, CCHS looked to the specialty of family medicine.

“We were trying to train a new type of doctor, a family physician,” Willard said in a 1979 UA television production. “We have an opportunity to make a significant impact on an important social problem and that is the health care of the smaller towns and rural areas.”

Since opening its doors five decades ago, CCHS has done just that. The College has educated hundreds of medical students and resident physicians, created programs to recruit and mentor rural Alabama high school and college students interested in medicine and who want to practice in their hometowns or similar communities, and added graduate degree programs in population health and community and rural health.

The Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program has graduated 557 family medicine physicians; more than half of graduates have remained in Alabama to practice, and about half of those practice in rural communities. CCHS has also developed fellowships through the residency to provide additional training for family physicians in behavioral health, emergency medicine, geriatrics, hospital medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics and sports medicine — the most fellowship offerings of any institution nationwide.

The College has built a community medical practice, University Medical Center, that is now the largest multi-specialty practice in West Alabama with locations in Tuscaloosa, Northport, Demopolis, Fayette, Carrollton and Livingston. The College recently formed Capstone Hospitalist Group, whose physicians care for

50 YEARS

hospitalized patients at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and Northport Medical Center.

Together with its Capstone Hospitalist Group and as operator of the UA Student Health Center and Pharmacy, the College’s medical practice recorded more than 185,000 patient visits in 2022.

“It’s been exciting to watch the College thrive and expand in medical education, patient care and research,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS and a family medicine physician. “Going forward, we are committed to further elevating the distinction of our medical student education and residency, the care of our patients, and the translation of research and discovery to improve the health of Alabama and the Southeast.”

PRIMARY CARE TRACK GRADUATES FIRST STUDENTS

FOR decades, reports have sounded the alarm about the looming shortage of primary care physicians in the United States.

To help mitigate the issue in Alabama, where 62 of the state’s 67 counties don’t have enough primary care physicians, the College of Community Health Sciences and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marinex E. Heersink School of Medicine created the Primary Care Track, a four-year MD program for students interested in primary care careers. In the education of medical students, CCHS is a regional campus of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine.

The Primary Care Track, which is only offered at CCHS, admitted its first cohort of students in 2018. The students graduated from the program in May 2022 and 65% entered potential primary care residencies.

“The goal was to address the shortage of primary care physicians in Alabama, especially in rural areas,” said Dr. Grier Stewart, assistant dean for undergraduate medical education at CCHS.

The Primary Care Track provides students with a strong foundation in clinical medicine through longitudinal experiences with patients, lasting relationships with mentoring physicians and special programming on leadership skills.

“This track differs from traditional medicine in the

sense that students get exposure to more outpatient care and follow their procedures in continuity,” said Dr. Renita Daniels, a Primary Care Track graduate. “I got to examine a pregnant woman in family medicine and six weeks later, her baby in pediatrics.”

The Primary Care Track program prepares students for the primary care fields of family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, and community-based specialties and subspecialties such as OB/GYN, neurology, psychiatry and general surgery.

Students spend their first two years on the school’s main campus in Birmingham with traditional MD track students, completing the preclinical and basic sciences curriculum.

Primary Care Track students spend their third year in a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) at CCHS. In the LIC clinical education model, students work alongside faculty for a majority of the year to follow and care for patients longitudinally, learning simultaneously across the core disciplines of medicine and in a variety of settings, including outpatient clinics, hospitals, nursing homes and patients’ homes.

“One of the purposes of the Primary Care Track is to keep students exposed to physicians and mentors who work in primary care and community-based medicine,” Stewart said.

-By Tehreem Khan

SPORTS MEDICINE FELLOWSHIP CELEBRATES A MILESTONE

THE College of Community Health Sciences has for more than a decade provided education and training in sports medicine through its Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship for Family Medicine Physicians. Nineteen family medicine physicians have completed the one-year fellowship and are practicing in states across the country. Going forward, “We want to continue to build on the foundation that has been laid out for us,” said Dr. Ray Stewart, the program’s first fellow and who now directs the Sports Medicine Fellowship.

Stewart is also assistant professor of sports medicine with CCHS, a physician for The University of Alabama Athletic Department and director of the Dr. Bill deShazo Sports Medicine Center at University Medical Center, which the College operates.

The Sports Medicine Fellowship was created in 2010 under the direction of Dr. James Robinson, a family and sports medicine physician and professor with CCHS who held the College’s Endowed Chair in Sports Medicine for Family Physicians.

Studies show that family medicine physicians often serve as team physicians in their communities. In addition, research shows that musculoskeletal injuries can represent more than 15% of patient visits to family medicine physician offices.

Along with education and training in sports medicine, sports medicine fellows care for patients at UMC’s Sports Medicine Center and for UA athletes. They also provide sports medicine coverage at UA and local high school sporting events.

“We take care of athletes’ needs from the most basic to the most complicated medical issues,” Stewart said.

He hopes to expand the Sports Medicine Fellowship curriculum to include care for athletes’ mental health. “We know it’s a growing problem. Athletes are going through challenges because they have to juggle the stress of performing in athletics, performing in school and performing in life.”

NEW PROGRAM EASES TRANSITION TO RESIDENCY

THE University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program offers a one-year Integrated Residency (IR) Program for fourth-year medical students planning a primary care practice to better prepare them for their first year (intern year) of residency.

Established in 2021, students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marinex E. Heersink School of Medicine are eligible to apply for the IR in the spring of their third year. Selection priority is given to students from rural Alabama communities completing their third and fourth years of medical school at the College of

Community Health Sciences, the UAB Heersink School of Medicine’s Tuscaloosa Regional Campus, as part of either the Rural Medical Scholars Track or the Primary Care Track.

“We accepted three students in 2022,” said Dr. Tamer Elsayed, director of the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency. “They’ve had vigorous training in medical school and now they are going into comprehensive training in primary care practice.”

During their fourth year of medical school, each IR student is paired with a resident in the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency and works 36 half days in

From left: CCHS Sports Medicine Physicians Drs. Brett Bentley, Russ Guin and Ray Stewart

-By Kandis Synder

a continuity clinic. The students take over that same patient panel when they start their first year of residency. Each IR student is awarded a $20,000 scholarship in their fourth year of medical school.

“The program is a career preparation step to ease the students into the life of residency,” Elsayed said. “I think it’s a very valuable program for students who are interested in family medicine and rural communities.”

-By Kandis Synder

PROGRAM PREPARES PRE-MED STUDENTS FOR RURAL HEALTH CARE

THE College of Community Health Sciences launched a new summer program in 2022 for college students in pre-medical studies who are interested in rural primary care.

The Tuscaloosa Rural Pre-Medical Internship is a seven-week program that provides opportunities for students to learn about the health needs of rural Alabama residents, particularly in the fields of family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics. Participants also gain a better understanding of the day-to-day life of family medicine doctors. In addition, the program enhances students’ understanding of medical school

and increases their competitiveness for medical school admission.

The program is part of the College’s Rural Programs and its Rural Health Leaders Pipeline. The pipeline is a sequence of programs from high school through medical school that recruits students from rural Alabama interested in working as future doctors and other healthcare professionals in rural communities.

Students spend five weeks at CCHS and two weeks with a family medicine physician near their hometown. Only rural Alabama residents are accepted.

TRPI Class of 2022 Bottom from left (in chairs): Benjamin Mathis of Pelham; Sydney Ratliff of Cullman Back row, from left: Savannah Cook of Meridianville; Fredashia Foy of Dadeville; Cage Cochran of Fyffe; Ariana Ramos of Enterprise; Alia Malone of Odenville; John Kuykendall of Northport; Gabby Murphy of Wicksburg; Marcie Edmondson of Slocomb.

Health Care

INNOVATIVE HEALTH SERVICES FOR VULNERABLE PATIENTS

UNIVERSITY Medical Center has partnered with Ceras Health to offer an innovative digital health monitoring program to patients 65 and older and those with limited health-care access.

Through a partnership with the Bostonbased Ceras Health, UMC, which is operated by the College of Community Health Sciences, will provide state-ofthe-art health services and better care to vulnerable Alabama patients.

Using leading-edge patient digital devices, which monitor vital signs and other health factors to provide access to patient health data in real-time, UMC will help patients manage diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions. UMC physicians will also be able to monitor patients transitioning from hospital to home and more closely oversee their recovery.

“Our work with Ceras Health will bring the company’s Digital Transitions of Care solutions to improve patient connections with their care teams upon leaving the hospital, or after being seen at one of our six UMC outpatient clinics, so that our patients can receive optimal care when needed and where they are most comfortable – at home,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS.

The cost of providing in-patient and out-

patient care for the country’s older adults is expected to grow significantly during the next decade due to a growing elderly population and increasing health-care costs. Spending on Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people age 65 and older, is projected to increase from $768 billion in 2022 to nearly $1.6 trillion in 2032. In Alabama, approximately one million residents are enrolled in Medicare, about 21% of the population.

Alabama is also a largely rural state, where access to health care is limited in many communities. More than 80% of the state is classified as rural (55 of 67 counties), and eight counties have no public-access hospitals, complicating access to care and care delivery for nearly

Leveraging digital health to extend the reach of care teams for older patients and those with limited access to care creates a significant opportunity for better health outcomes, particularly in critical areas for vulnerable patients such as after-hospital discharge and chronic condition monitoring,

-By Leslie Zganjar

CARING FOR PATIENTS AT LOCAL HOSPITALS

Capstone Hospitalist Group, which is part of the College of Community Health Sciences, continued to expand services in 2022 for patients at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and Northport Medical Center.

Services include in-patient care after emergency room visits or doctor referrals, continuity of care with patients’ primary-care physicians and patient consultation. Capstone Hospitalist Group was established by University Medical Center and operates under Capstone Health Services Foundation, an affiliate foundation of CCHS and The University of Alabama. A hospitalist is a doctor who provides care from the time of hospital admission until discharge, for patients who either

SERVICES, SPACE EXPAND AT STUDENT HEALTH CENTER

The University of Alabama Student Health Center and Pharmacy has expanded health services and clinic space since its merger with the College of Community Health Sciences.

A women’s health pavilion was built in 2022 to provide increased gynecologic and other women’s health services and to add a private waiting room. New clinic exam rooms and offices for doctors and other health-care providers were also added throughout the Student Health Center.

“This has provided a better patient experience for students,” said Dr. Karen Burgess, medical director of the Student Health Center.

The merger has also provided UA

students with access to more specialized care – neurology, sports medicine, endoscopy and endocrinology – just next door at University Medical Center. CCHS operates UMC.

Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS, said the expansion will deliver expanded and enhanced health-care services and better support UA’s nearly 38,000 students, a population that has grown significantly since the Student Health Center was constructed in 2005.

UA’s Division of Student Life, which previously managed the Student Health Center, will continue to coordinate mental health services for students from one location – the UA Counseling Center in the South Lawn Office Building.

do not have a regular physician or whose regular physician does not practice at the hospital. Research suggests greater satisfaction among hospitalized patients who are cared for by hospitalists because these physicians are at the hospital and can quickly answer patient questions, meet with family and follow up on tests.

Capstone Hospitalist Group has partnered with the Atlanta-based IN Compass Health, which provides operational oversight and expertise and is responsible for day-to-day operations and quality care metrics of the hospitalist program. IN Compass also works with Capstone Hospitalist Group in the recruitment, selection and hiring of physicians who are employed by the hospitalist group.

The two hospitals are part of the Tuscaloosa-based DCH Health System. The 583-bed DCH Regional Medical Center is the cornerstone of the DCH system, and Northport Medical Center is a 204-bed community hospital that offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services.

Capstone Hospitalist Group previously operated as University Hospitalist Group, whose physicians began providing hospital medicine services at DCH Regional Medical Center in 2003.

-By Leslie Zganjar

GILLESPIE SELECTED AS HOSPITALIST GROUP DIRECTOR

Dr. Lisa Gillespie, who has extensive practice and leadership experience in hospital medicine, was named medical director of the Capstone Hospitalist Group in August 2022.

Capstone Hospitalist Group was established by University Medical Center in partnership with IN Compass Health of Atlanta, a hospitalist physician staffing and management company. Capstone Hospitalist Group physicians practice within the DCH Health System. UMC is operated by the College of Community Health Sciences.

“Dr. Gillespie brings years of experience as both a hospitalist and physician leader in hospital medicine,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS. “She has a proven track record of providing high-quality, compassionate care for patients.”

Gillespie said Capstone Hospitalist Group “combines a local presence with a firm that has a national reputation in hospital management to drive performance.”

Prior to joining Capstone Hospitalist Group, Gillespie practiced with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville. Before that, she worked as chief medical officer for LifePoint Hospitals at Rockdale Medical Center in Conyers, Ga., as chief medical officer for Piedmont Health System at Piedmont Rockdale in Conyers, and as hospitalist medical director for Rockdale Medical Center in Conyers. Gillespie was awarded the Georgia Hospital Association Distinguished Physician Leadership Award in 2016.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in public healthnutrition from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health. She received her medical degree from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and completed a residency in internal medicine at Emory University Affiliated Hospitals Program in Atlanta.

-By Leslie Zganjar

Research

PROPELLING BASIC SCIENCE AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

THE College of Community Health Sciences has long conducted clinical and community-based participatory research, but in the past several years has increased its emphasis on basic science research. “It helps us as a College take what we’re seeing clinically and use it to improve health outcomes,” said Dr. Martha Crowther, CCHS associate dean for Research and Health Policy.

To that end, a team of leading CCHS faculty researchers specializing in biomedical sciences, biochemistry and bioengineering are part of The University of Alabama Center for Convergent Bioscience and Medicine (CCBM).

The center is led by Dr. M.N.V. Ravi Kumar, Distinguished University Research Professor with CCHS, who is internationally recognized for his significant contributions to nanoscience and nanomedicine research with applications for the treatment of diseases.

Drawing upon expertise from across UA, the CCBM works to overcome obstacles that keep promising drug therapies in the lab from translating to treatments for patients. The center focuses on immune-inflammatory diseases, with research dedicated to developing novel therapies that combine drug-discovery and drugrepurposing.

Many leading causes of death in the US can be classified under the immune-inflammatory umbrella, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.

GRANT SUPPORTS STUDY OF ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY TREATMENT

Dr. M.N.V. Ravi Kumar, Distinguished University Research Professor with the College of Community Health Sciences, was awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study nanomedicine treatment for acute kidney injury (AKI), a common disease that frequently leads to acute renal failure. AKI is a side effect of some cancer drugs, sepsis, heart surgeries, lengthy hospital stays and trauma, and it affects about 13 million people worldwide each year. The grant will allow Kumar and his research team to engineer nanoparticles from a common gastrointestinal microbe and study their effectiveness in treating AKI.

RESEARCHER RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS

Dr. M.N.V. Ravi Kumar was the recipient of several prestigious awards in 2022. He received the McCormick Science Institute Research Award, presented by the American Society for Nutrition Foundation to recognize outstanding contributions by top researchers, clinicians and educators. He was inducted into the French Academy of Pharmacy in 2022. A year earlier, Kumar was chosen for the Humboldt Research Award, granted annually by the internationally recognized Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. Researchers nominated for the award must have fundamental discoveries, new theories or findings with a lasting effect on their discipline.

Outreach

ASSISTING RURAL CORONERS WITH DEATH INVESTIGATIONS

RURAL communities have long struggled with a lack of forensic experts to collect evidence from the scenes of crimes and accidents. The National Center on Forensics at The University of Alabama is hoping to fill the gap by training primary care physicians in rural areas to serve in that role.

“We want to create a system where we can get primary care physicians in rural counties to assist coroners and to help improve death investigations,” said Dr. John C. Higginbotham, a professor of community medicine and population health with the College of Community Health Sciences and a lead member of the National Center on Forensics team.

The center is a collaborative effort of UA, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It will be created virtually and provide a framework to systematically expand outreach and offer:

• Scientific and technical learning opportunities for the medical-legal community specifically targeted for and focused on underserved rural areas.

• Forensic science and legal training as well as support to law enforcement, district judges and other appropriate criminal justice agencies.

• Access to resources and opportunities for education, training and best practices in the forensic science community structured to benefit current and future practitioners in the field.

“What we are trying to do is help improve the forensics coroner system in the state of Alabama,” Higginbotham said.

The National Center on Forensics will also provide web-based learning opportunities for continuing education approved courses. In addition, the center will offer a fellows program for medical students from rural Alabama communities and rural medical-legal professionals. The program will consist of 8-week rotations for fellows working side-by-side with coroners and provide hands-on experience with crime scene and accident investigations.

“We want to get people interested in going into forensics because we (don’t have enough)

forensic scientists to meet the need nationwide,” Higginbotham said.

While the idea of the National Center on Forensics dates back a decade, it wasn’t until 2021 that funding became available. In December of that year, Alabama’s former U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, then vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice had awarded $4 million to UA for the center.

-By Kandis Snyder

A Blueprint For Rual Alabama

-By Leslie Zganjar

The2020 closure of Pickens County Medical Center left a large void in the small community of Carrollton, Ala. “We had no hospital, no emergency department. It created quite a gap that our patients and family members had for health care services,” said Rebecca Richardson, a nurse practitioner and native of Carrollton.

Richardson had worked at Pickens County Medical Center for years — her first job after nursing school — and its closure was a devastating blow to the community and to her personally. When she learned that University Medical Center planned to open a primary care clinic in Carrollton, “I was happy to be one of the first people to come back here and work in my hometown.”

University Medical Center is a multi-specialty community medical practice operated by the College of Community Health Sciences, whose mission is to improve the health of individuals and communities in Alabama, particularly in rural communities where there is often a critical shortage of primary health care.

“Health care from birth to age 101” is how Dr. Catherine Lavender, a family medicine obstetrician who practices at UMC-Carrollton, describes primary care. “Everything related to diabetes and high blood pressure management, well-child checkups, sick child visits, immunizations and women’s health care.”

The kind of care that everyone needs.

Carrollton, with a population of roughly a thousand people, resembles many other rural communities in Alabama, communities that suffer from a lack of health care services and providers, and that struggle with hospital closures.

When the local hospital in Demopolis, located in the rural and impoverished Alabama Black Belt

region, stopped providing labor and delivery services, and the city lost its only obstetrician to retirement, UMC moved quickly to fill the need. Within a matter of weeks, UMC was providing obstetrics, prenatal and family medicine care for Demopolis and adjacent communities — and slowly developing a practice model with the potential to be replicated in other rural Alabama communities, including Carrollton.

Not only was the establishment of UMC-Demopolis a means by which UMC could help the community by providing much-needed patient care, a key tenant of its mission, but the practice model being developed would ultimately sustain that patient care by linking the rural clinic to the larger infrastructure of UMC in Tuscaloosa. That linkage would allow UMC-Demopolis to share the larger UMC practice’s support functions.

“Our UMC location in Demopolis continues to experience significant growth and that success means we have a practice model that can be sustained in similar Black Belt and medically underserved Alabama communities,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS.

UMC-Demopolis

University Medical Center added a permanent location in Demopolis in August 2017, adjacent to Whitfield Regional Hospital and within the hospital’s outpatient facility.

The initiative began as a temporary response to an immediate need to help the only local physician still providing prenatal and obstetrics care following the closure of the hospital’s obstetrical unit in 2015. The unit's closure left expectant mothers with a one-hour trip to hospitals in either Tuscaloosa or Meridian, Miss., to deliver their babies.

For several years after the closure, a UMC obstetrician traveled from Tuscaloosa to Demopolis once a week to help the city’s obstetrician. When the Demopolis physician retired in 2017, the temporary coverage UMC had been providing transitioned into a permanent location.

Since then, UMC-Demopolis has provided needed prenatal and obstetrics care in the community, as well as family medicine care, and UMC physicians there worked together with Whitfield Regional Hospital to re-open the hospital’s labor and delivery unit.

Established: 2017

2022 Patient Visits: 5,980

UMC−Demopolis is located inside the Outpatient Medical Center.

Rural Challenges

Providing health care to communities is not an easy endeavor in a state where nearly half of the population has a rural address. “Alabama is a very rural state, and to deliver a precious commodity like health care is challenging,” Friend said.

Rural areas are often burdened with higher rates of poverty, less access to health care, fewer financial resources, and populations that are older and sicker. People suffer from higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and cancer.

All of this, and other factors, make it challenging for doctors to set up practice in rural communities. Often, local, rural hospitals have closed, and insurers provide few, if any, reimbursement differentials for rural practice. Young doctors worry that they will earn less, which is a serious concern for those with major student debt from medical school. In addition, rural areas offer fewer opportunities for working spouses, and schools in rural communities may have less resources.

As of 2019, about 23% of Alabama’s population lived in rural areas, some 1.1 million people, but only 12.8% of the state’s primary care physicians practiced in rural Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

With that in mind, UMC has been working to bring primary health care to rural, medically underserved communities in West Alabama by establishing UMC clinics in those areas. In addition to a large, main location in Tuscaloosa that provides multi-specialty care, a sizeable clinic in nearby Northport that also offers multi-specialty care, and a clinic in Demopolis, UMC has expanded in the last several years to Carrollton, Fayette and Livingston — communities that face a persistent shortage of both physicians and primary health-care services.

“We are trying to make an impact in West Alabama,” Friend said. “We have created a nice network of facilities, but the goal is to provide a sustainable solution.”

ALABAMA IS A VERY RURAL STATE, AND TO DELIVER A PRECIOUS COMMODITY LIKE HEALTH CARE IS CHALLENGING.

Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS

The Beginning

The College of Community Health Sciences was founded at The University of Alabama in 1972 to respond to the acute need in the state for more physicians for the small towns and rural communities that suffered from a serious lack of health care. CCHS looked to primary care and the specialty of family medicine to achieve that goal.

Three years later, the Family Practice Center was established as a clinical education and training site for medical students and resident physicians who planned to specialize in family medicine with an eye toward practicing in rural Alabama communities. The Family Practice Center also provided primary health care for the UA campus and the Tuscaloosa community. The 30,000-square-foot Family Practice Center opened just off University Boulevard in Tuscaloosa and across the street from DCH Regional Medical Center. By 1981, the number of patient visits totaled 26,000, requiring the addition of five double-wide trailers set directly behind the center to accommodate a growing patient population.

A year later, in 1982, the Family Practice Center was renamed Capstone Medical Center and work began to expand the facility. More than 7,000 square feet of clinical space was added by 1985, providing new exam rooms, an ob-gyn suite, a minor surgery/procedures room and a new waiting room. The number of patient visits continued to grow.

In 2002, construction began on a new building for the clinic at the corner of University Boulevard and Peter Bryce Boulevard, and a new name was chosen: University Medical Center. The new building opened in 2005. In the ensuing years, steps were taken to modernize clinical care with the introduction of an electronic medical record and more specialty care.

Today, UMC in Tuscaloosa, the largest of the UMC clinics, provides care to the local community and the UA campus in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, ob-gyn and other women’s health services, psychiatry, psychology, endocrinology, geriatrics, neurology and sports medicine. The center also has social work and nutrition services, and it provides on-site lab, X-ray and ultrasound services. Patient visits totaled nearly 70,000 in 2022.

UMC-Livingston

UMC-Livingston joined the network of University Medical Center clinics in fall 2022 to provide family medicine and other primary health-care services to individuals and families in Sumter County.

Livingston Mayor Thomas Tartt said the city looks forward to the health care the clinic will provide to its citizens, adding the city’s population is starting to increase and the University of West Alabama, located in Livingston, is set to grow exponentially over the next few years.

“We are very excited to have University Medical Center in our community to provide expanded health care opportunities in Livingston, for the university and for the entire county,” Tartt said. “Any time you can offer more choices and places to receive medical services, it’s always a plus.”

Established: Fall 2022

2022 Patient visits: 805

UMC-Fayette

With a high infant mortality rate, the rural community of Fayette needed additional prenatal and obstetrics care. UMC-Fayette opened in February 2021 and began offering those services one day a week. Today, the clinic has more availability for patient appointments and has added gynecology services.

The infant mortality rate for Fayette County, where the city of Fayette is located, was nearly twice the national average in 2019, with 10.2 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, and higher than the state rate of 7.7 infant deaths per live births, according to the Alabama Perinatal Report.

Providing health-care services in Fayette means expectant mothers have more access to pre-natal and postnatal doctor visits. “It’s easier for them to get to their appointments because they’re not having to travel to Tuscaloosa or Northport,” said Dr. Jane Weida, professor and chair of family medicine at CCHS and a practicing physician at UMC in Tuscaloosa who helped open UMC-Fayette. Having access to good prenatal care means better outcomes for mother and baby. “Our goal is to serve this underserved area and provide prenatal services and decrease that infant mortality rate,” said Dr. Cheree Melton a family medicine obstetrician who cares for patients at UMC-Fayette.

Established: 2021

2022 Patient Visits: 593

First Expansion

For its first expansion outside of Tuscaloosa, University Medical Center didn’t look far. A UMC clinic opened in the neighboring city of Northport in 2015. Though 40 years had passed since the Family Practice Center had first opened in Tuscaloosa, the goal remained the same — to provide increased access to primary health care, this time to Northport and areas adjacent.

“We know primary care and family medicine are key to a healthcare system that is not only more effective, but more accessible and more prevention-oriented and ultimately results in improved population health,” UMC leadership said at the time.

UMC-Northport opened in the former Fitness One building on McFarland Boulevard, in 6,000 square feet of space, with 11 exam rooms. The clinic offered family medicine, prenatal and obstetrics care. Pediatric care was later added. Patients received preventive care and wellness exams, management of chronic conditions, and treatment for acute illness and accidents.

It wouldn’t be long before UMC-Northport would outgrow its space and UMC leadership would begin planning for a new, larger clinic in the city.

Although delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, construction began in 2022 on a new, significantly larger clinic for UMCNorthport that has also allowed the clinic to increase and expand the health-care services it provides.

The new UMC-Northport includes 15,000 square feet of space, 28 exam rooms and offers family medicine, prenatal care, obstetrics and pediatric care, as well as internal medicine, women’s health, geriatrics, neurology, behavioral health and sports medicine. There is on-site social work and nutrition services, as well as lab, X-ray and ultrasound services.

“The expansion and relocation of UMCNorthport is another step in our efforts at University Medical Center to improve the health of individuals and communities in Alabama. That is our mission and at the heart of everything we do,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS, which operates UMC.

Established: Fall 2022

2022 Patient Visits: 9,301

I THINK WE HAVE DEVELOPED A SUSTAINABLE MODEL FOR RURAL ALABAMA. Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS

UMC-Northport

The Model

In opening its outlying clinics, UMC has created a model that relies on a concept known as shared services — the consolidation of support functions from a well-defined infrastructure, in this case UMC in Tuscaloosa, that are used by many divisions or units of the same organization.

It is not easy for rural physicians and smaller medical practices to survive in the current health care environment; sharing services and support functions is a way to sustain those practices and patient care.

From its main location in Tuscaloosa, UMC shares with its satellite clinics an electronic medical record, coding and billing services, insurance verification and authorization, claims processing, medical records management, finance and accounting, payroll, purchasing, marketing and advertising, regulatory compliance and human relations.

In addition, the services of behavioral health specialists, social workers and a dietitian — providers who are based at UMC in Tuscaloosa — are also shared with UMC’s smaller, rural clinics, giving patients at those clinics access to even more services and care they might not otherwise have the opportunity to receive. Shared services are significantly cost effective because redundancy is reduced, and economies of scale are achieved. More importantly, according to Friend, patients receive better care, have improved health outcomes and have a more positive patient experience.

He said with a shared-services model, UMC has been able to provide much-needed health care to rural communities with a persistent shortage of primary care, and to do so in a way that provides as much sustainability as possible.

Today, UMC is the largest multi-specialty community medical practice in West Alabama and in 2022 recorded nearly 90,000 patient visits among all its clinics. The practice has six locations — Tuscaloosa, Northport, Demopolis, Fayette, Carrollton and Livingston.

“Through economies of scale and other efficiencies, and the support of The University of Alabama, we have been able to open additional UMC clinics. Without economies of scale, it’s hard to provide care in rural areas,” Friend said. “Our mission is to take care of the health of individuals and communities in Alabama and that’s what we are going to do. I think we have developed a good and sustainable model for rural Alabama.”

University Medical Center locations

“University Medical Center has long had a presence in Carrollton, but with the closure of the hospital there in early 2020, we believed it was imperative to increase the care we provide there,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS, which operates UMC.

For nearly a decade, doctors from UMC in Tuscaloosa traveled to Carrollton several times a week to provide prenatal and obstetrics care before UMC opened a clinic in the town in fall 2021. Today, availability for those health care services has expanded, and family medicine, sports medicine and colonoscopy and endoscopy consultations are also provided. UMC-Carrollton has 14 exam rooms, a procedures room, a lab and X-ray services.

Dr. Catherine Lavender is a family medicine obstetrician who practices at UMC-Carrollton. “I’ve tried to dedicate my career to ensuring that all women have access to prenatal care, especially women in rural areas. There are so many challenges to accessing care, including transportation. Being in the community helps us facilitate that care.”

Dr. Jake Guin, a family medicine physician who grew up near Carrollton, also practices at UMC-Carrollton. “This has been my lifelong dream, to provide health care for people I know.”

That personal care is also important to Rebecca Richardson, a nurse practitioner at UMC-Carrollton and native of the community. “There are patients that we see that we’ve known for years. You see them in the stores, you know them from church, you know their families. That gives them a sense of trust.”

Established: Fall 2021

2022 Patient visits: 1,840

From left: Rebecca Richardson, nurse practitioner

Drs. Jake Guin and Catherine Lavender

Dr. Alan Blum

Passion and Philanthropy Go Hand In Hand

Sincejoining The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences in 1999, Dr. Alan Blum has been a champion for education, advocacy and research in health promotion, especially in reducing the devastating impact of cigarette smoking and the outsized influence of the tobacco industry on society.

Blum is the first holder of the Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine, established by University of Alabama alumna Celia Wallace in memory of her late husband, a family physician and founder of Springhill Hospital in Mobile, Ala. Celia Wallace, who was recently inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame, encouraged Blum to continue combating the tobacco industry, which he began doing as a medical student at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta in the mid-1970s, and welcomed his founding of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society (CSTS) soon after his arrival at UA.

The Center’s website (https://csts.ua.edu) provides

researchers, journalists and the public alike access to portions of Blum’s collection of more than half a million items about the tobacco industry, cigarette marketing and the anti-smoking movement, which he has amassed over nearly five decades. It is the largest collection at any university in the world of original documents, photographs, books, shareholder reports, advertising ephemera, political cartoons and news coverage of the tobacco issue over the past century. Through a long standing collaboration with professors Robert Riter and Steven MacCall of the UA School of Library and Information Studies, Blum has employed more than 30 graduate students in digitizing and cataloging tens of thousands of items for the CSTS website.

He has also mentored more than 20 undergraduate student research projects in the Catherine J. Randall Research Scholars Program, several of which have been presented at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health, the American College Health Association and the Southern College Health Association. “The generosity with which Dr. Blum provides cutting-edge research opportunities for the brilliant students in RRS is an inspiration to faculty everywhere,” noted Randall, a distinguished University of Alabama alumna and director from 1978 to 2004 of the nationally renowned UA Computer-Based Honors Program, which was renamed in tribute to her in 2018. “His mentorship has been transformational in the professional lives of these students, and the quality of their research skyrockets under his leadership.”

An article about CSTS by Riter and the Center’s former longtime collection manager Kevin Bailey, “Exhibitions as Public Health Interventions,” was published in 2021 in the journal American Behavioral Scientist, a theme issue saluting “Exhibitions of Impact.” The Pharos, the journal of the national medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha, recently lauded the CSTS website: “The curated exhibitions offered by the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society are an excellent example of how social history, in this case pertaining to one of our most significant public health problems, can be presented online in an enlightening, educational and entertaining way.”

CSTS exhibitions in 2022 included, “Covering Cancer? How magazines promote cancer research. . .and cigarettes” (http:// csts.ua.edu/covers/) and “Tobacco Heart: Cigarette Smoking and Cardiovascular Health” (https://csts.ua.edu/heart/). Blum has also created tobacco related exhibitions for museums and libraries,

Donor

including the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library at UA and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.

“We’ve made undeniable progress in reducing smoking in the US-from over 40% of the population in 1964 when the first Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health was released by Alabamian Dr. Luther Terry to less than 15% today,” Blum said. “However, upwards of 35 million Americans still smoke cigarettes, which remain the leading preventable cause of premature death and disease. Nearly half a million Americans die each year from smoking.”

Blum is grateful for the philanthropic support of a long–time family physician colleague and friend, Dr. Rick Richards, who cofounded the national physicians health promotion group DOC (Doctors Ought to Care) with Blum in 1977. CSTS also holds Richards’s own early research and medical activism to counter tobacco use, alcohol abuse, poor nutrition, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“It’s important for health promotion research and advocacy efforts that predate the internet be preserved and made accessible,” said Richards. “Many things that I learned and

experienced during the earlier half of my medical career have led to my success during the latter half. It makes sense to support a unique historical resource on physician-led efforts to counteract the promotion of lethal lifestyles so that each new generation doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

In addition to his internationally recognized efforts to help reduce tobacco use and promotion, Blum cares for patients at the CCHS operated University Medical Center, teaches residents and medical students in the clinic, contributes commentaries and original research articles to leading medical journals and hosts a monthly Art of Medicine Rounds that he and CCHS medical library director Nelle Williams started in 2012 (https://cchs. ua.edu/on-rounds-2020/the-art-of-medicine-rounds-toucheshearts/).

We can only estimate the number of hours Blum has poured into his life’s work, but his passionate commitment reaches far beyond CCHS. Not only does he dedicate his time and expertise to the tobacco center, but he and his wife, Doris, have also provided a significant level of personal philanthropic support. The College is grateful for his contributions to the field of medicine and to our community.

By Leslie Zganjar

Maren & Gabriel Pugh

Donors

Pugh Family Creates Endowed Support Fund for Brewer-Porch Children’s Center

Children’s Center after meeting Misha Greer, a counselor who worked there. The center is operated by UA’s College of Community Health Sciences and provides treatment programs for Alabama’s special-needs children, adolescents and their families.

“I remember bonding with the children there and the immediate sense of urgency I felt to help in any way I could,” Pugh said. She became very involved, donating her time, money and items to the children there. The first time she took her son with her, he was about 12 years old. “Shortly after he and I arrived home that evening, Gabe came downstairs holding the Xbox asking if he could give it to the kids so they could have something to play with. He did get to donate not only his Xbox but all the games the staff would allow,” she said.

Not being able to visit Brewer-Porch Children’s Center during COVID-19 is what inspired Maren Pugh to create the endowed support fund. The Gabriel Glover Pugh Brewer Porch Endowed Support Fund will provide funding for discretionary support to enhance the mission of the center and provide basic care needs and other items that will foster a nurturing and caring environment for children. The endowed support fund is the first, and currently the only privately funded endowment, to support the center.

Graduates

of The University of Alabama, Maren and Gene Pugh have been residents of Tuscaloosa since they married in 1999. Maren is a mortgage banker and Gene is a firefighter with Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue. Their son, Gabe, graduated from UA in December 2022 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was also a student athlete, a long snapper, for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.

“God blessed us with a son that not only is healthy but humble and with a heart for others,” Maren Pugh shared. “Gabe has always had high goals and the self-discipline to achieve them.”

As a senior at Northridge High School in Tuscaloosa, Gabe Pugh received the John “Bubba” Trotman “Service Above Self” award from the Montgomery Rotary Club while participating in the AL/MS All-Star football game. “Being there for Gabe during his endeavors is what has made our relationship strong. He has made me a better person,” Maren Pugh said.

In December 2013, Pugh was introduced to Brewer-Porch

Pugh chose to name the support fund in honor of her son as she wants to instill in him a legacy of giving. “Although Gabe grew up in the exact opposite environment that the children at Brewer-Porch have, he has overcome many challenges, as well as proven the many people that have told him ‘He can’t’ wrong. I hope the children at Brewer-Porch will be able to find inspiration in adversity, laugh at the word can’t and never accept defeat.”

Pugh believes keeping The University of Alabama in the top spot on a very long list of academic and athletic distinctions starts with the future of the University, the state and the children. “I truly wish that everyone who cares about the University could visit BrewerPorch as they would not only be inspired to help and support these children but fill a hole in their hearts they never knew was there.

We did not name this endowment after our son to spotlight his achievements. We just chose to give a little so that the children could have a chance at life.”

Alton & Elizabeth

Sturtevant

Donors

The Sturtevant Rural Medical Student Endowed Scholarship

clinical years of education for a portion of students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine.

The Sturtevants’ scholarship would be for medical students who demonstrate financial need, although not necessarily as defined by federal guidelines, and who have expressed an interest in practicing rural medicine. The Sturtevants have contributed $25,000, with the College matching their gift for a total of $50,000.

The Sturtevants first learned about CCHS when they opened LabSouth in Tuscaloosa, a free-standing testing lab for the College, which operates University Medical Center. UMC is the largest multi-specialty medical practice in West Alabama, with locations in Tuscaloosa, Northport, Demopolis, Fayette, Carrollton and Livingston and nearly 90,000 annual patient visits.

“Liz and I personally began making an annual gift to the program (CCHS),” Alton Sturtevant said. “We were influenced by learning about the work being done by CCHS after becoming an outside provider for University Medical Center years ago.”

Alton

Sturtevant said he has known about the need for health care in rural communities ever since he was born in his grandmother’s home in Monroeville, Ala.

His wife, Liz, is also from a rural area. They said their similar backgrounds helped them understand the importance of improving access to health care, particularly affordable care, for rural residents.

“We both believe in giving back where we can through our family’s foundation as well as through other personal giving,” Alton Sturtevant said.

He and his wife, who both attended The University of Alabama in the 1960s, are working to create The Sturtevant Rural Medical Student Endowed Scholarship that will provide scholarships to third- or fourth-year medical students at the College of Community Health Sciences. CCHS provides the

Sturtevant said his prior work in medical laboratories, as well as providing guest lectures to family medicine resident physicians in Selma, Ala., and serving on hospital infection control committees, provided him with significant exposure to Alabama’s rural health care needs.

“I saw first hand the need for improved and enhanced rural health programs,” he said. “We love to give back to Alabama and the University in this way, as well as help students avoid debt while completing their training.”

Robinson’s name. “We’re grateful for everything you have done.”

Robinson joined CCHS a decade before his retirement, but he’s been an important part of the College for much longer. After graduating from Louisiana State University School of Medicine, Robinson was accepted into The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, which is operated by CCHS. At the beginning of his second year of residency, Robinson did a rotation in sports medicine supervised by then Team Physician and CCHS faculty member Dr. Bill de Shazo, enabling him to spend time with the University’s athletic trainers and learning what they did on a day-to-day basis.

By the final year of his three-year residency, Robinson knew sports medicine was his calling. He completed a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio in what was then a new field of medicine – Primary Care Sports Medicine.

Dr. James Robinson

Robinson Honored for Three Decades of Service

Dr.James

Robinson, former Endowed Chair of Sports Medicine for Family Physicians at the College of Community Health Sciences and longtime sports medicine physician for The University of Alabama Department of Athletics, had many titles throughout his long and distinguished career.

The one he’s best known for is “Dr. Rob.”

Robinson retired from CCHS in February 2022, the same month a reception was held in his honor at the North Zone in Bryant-Denny Stadium on the UA campus, where congratulations messages scrolled on stadium digital billboards.

“The impact you have had on so many, that’s the true definition of success,” UA Director of Athletics Greg Byrne said during the reception. Added Associate Athletics Director Jeff Allen: “My memories of Jimmy are not winning games but watching how he treated people and cared for his patients. He has a servant’s heart."

Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS, announced at the reception that an endowed scholarship was being established in

He received a call from Sang Lyda, then the long-time athletic trainer for UA, who offered Robinson the position of sports medicine physician for the UA Athletic Department. Robinson returned to Tuscaloosa as the first Primary Care Sports Medicine physician in the state and started his private practice, West Alabama Family Practice and Sports Medicine, and went to work with the Athletic Department, a position he has held since 1989.

In 2009, CCHS launched its year-long Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship for Family Medicine Physicians, which Robinson helped create. Two years later, he became the College’s first Endowed Chair of Sports Medicine.

Dr. Ray Stewart, assistant professor with CCHS and a sports medicine physician at UMC, said Robinson had a tremendous impact on his life, both professionally and personally. Stewart was the first fellow in the College’s Sports Medicine Fellowship.

“To go in every day and be taught, challenged and driven by someone like him – he pushes everyone to do their best. It’s about doing things to a standard.”

Stewart, who also cares for UA athletes, said Robinson embodies what is so critical for medicine today. “The most important thing he taught me is to be present, be available and treat everyone the same.”

Friend said the College was fortunate to have had Robinson as part of its faculty and medical practice for so many years.

Alumnus

“He helped us create a sports medicine outpatient practice,” Friend said.

“It has been my honor and privilege to serve The University of Alabama and CCHS for the past 30-plus years. It was exciting to undertake a new field of medicine and watch it grow into what it is today,” Robinson said. “I am always thankful to CCHS for all of the support they have given me over the years and I am deeply honored by the endowed scholarship they have created in my name. We could not have created such a premier Sports Medicine program without all of the help that has been given and the incredible people I have had the pleasure to work with.”

During his years at CCHS, Robinson taught and supervised medical students, resident physicians and sports medicine fellows. He directed and provided patient care at the Dr. Bill deShazo Sports Medicine Center at University Medical Center. He led teams of sports medicine physicians and fellows who provided care for UA football, gymnastics, softball, women’s basketball, swimming, track, rowing, and Adapted Athletics. He served as team physician for Tuscaloosa-area high schools, and at community events, like the Tuscaloosa Hot Hundred Bike Ride and the Tuscaloosa Half Marathon.

Robinson served as a physician for the U.S. Olympic team at the 2000 summer games in Sydney, Australia, and for the

USA Team at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland. He served as co-chair of the Alabama High School Association’s (AHSAA) Medical Advisory Board and played a key role in developing the association’s medical health and safety policies. He helped write the Alabama Concussion Law that today governs all athletic events in the state. He has served as medical director of Encore/DCH Sports Medicine, the Good Samaritan Clinic, and the AHSAA. He has been a physician liaison to the SEC Sports Medicine Committee since 2014.

Academically, Robinson attained the rank of professor, authored or co-authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, secured research funding, and provided hundreds of regional and national presentations and lectures. He has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors, including the Slive Distinguished Service Award for the SEC, SEC Team Physician of the Year, Sports Medicine “Person of the Year” awarded by the Alabama Athletic Trainers Association, Alabama High School Athletic Association Distinguished Recognition Award, and induction into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

By Leslie Zganjar

Dr. James Robinson (center) with fellow sports medicine physicians Dr. Ray Stewart (left) and Dr. Brett Bentley (right) in Bryant-Denny Stadium

Dr. Julia Boothe

Boothe Looks to Expand Her Rural Practice

at Birmingham, obtaining her medical degree and a Master’s in Public Health Degree in 2002.

She completed her first two years of medical school at the UA School of Medicine in Birmingham and her third and fourth years – the clinical education years – at CCHS, which also serves as the School of Medicine’s Tuscaloosa Regional Campus. “I fell in love with the Tuscaloosa Family Residency Program,” Boothe said. She finished her residency there in 2005, serving the last year as chief resident.

“I did a lot of moonlighting. I would come to Pickens County Medical Center in Carrollton and work in the emergency room. My first exposure was when I came to Carrollton in the summer of 1999. Working with Drs. Schilling and Tuten at West Alabama Family Care and Obstetrics in Aliceville and Carrollton made me realize that rural medicine was where I really wanted to be. I did a lot of my rotations there, working with the patients.”

In 2012, Boothe left Carrollton to work at Reform Primary Care, which was part of Pickens County Medical Center. Less than two years later, she decided to open her own private practice: Pickens County Primary Care.

Dr.Julia

Boothe is a family medicine physician and owner of Pickens County Primary Care in Reform, a rural community in Pickens County, Ala.

Originally from Northport, Ala., Boothe started her journey into the medical profession during her high school years, doing volunteer work in surgery and in the Candy Striper program at Northport Medical Center. She graduated from The University of Alabama in 1997 with a degree in Biology. She was active in Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED) honor society for students interested in medical school.

As an undergraduate student, she worked part-time in the Medical Records Department at University Medical Center, which is operated by the College of Community Health Sciences. Through AED, she would shadow residents in the UA Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, which is also operated by CCHS. She was also in the second class of the College's Rural Medical Scholars Program.

Boothe received dual degrees from the University of Alabama

Just as she was welcomed to do rotations and provide emergency room care in Pickens County, Boothe welcomes residents from the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency to do rotations at her clinic.

“Working in rural communities is where the ability to do true family medicine lies. The group of residents we have are great and their eyes light up when they get a taste of the real world. A lot of times when we’re talking, it’s like, ‘Here’s your academic answer.’ But when you’re out in the real world, ‘Here’s your actual solution.’”

“Another thing I like about rural medicine is generally the patient would assume I do anything that I can do. If I need to, I’m going to do the referrals, but if it’s something that I’ve been adequately trained in and comfortable with, we’re going to go ahead and do those first steps here to save them an extra co-pay or travel,” Boothe said. “I think it gives opportunities to do more procedures and the residents love that. They have a minimum number (of procedures) that they must have to finish residency, but sometimes, to really feel comfortable, you’d want to do even more.”

Alumna

In addition to providing full-spectrum family medicine care, Pickens County Primary Care also offers X-ray services and care in orthopedics, cardiology and more. Boothe has opened SMART Clinics in several Pickens County schools, including Reform Elementary School, Pickens County High School, the Pickens County College and Career Center, and Gordo High School, with plans to open a Smart Clinic at Gordo Elementary School. “These are rural health care designated clinics,” she said.

Boothe is looking to expand Pickens County Primary Care and add satellite clinics. “We added a skin and wellness studio that’s

taking off on its own. We are constantly looking for what our community needs and we’re trying to fill that niche if we feel like it’s a true community need to improve health and wellness.”

Recently, Boothe was sworn in as the new president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. She is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and holds the highest honor among family physicians: the American Academy of Family Physicians Degree of Fellow, which is awarded for distinguished service and continuing medical education.

-By Kandis Synder

Dr. Chase Britt

From an Accident-Prone Childhood to a Career in Medicine

Growingup around the medical profession, Dr. Chase Britt, a new UAB Heersink School of Medicine graduate who completed his clinical training at the College of Community Health Sciences, was inspired to find his passion in life. His goal: to become a family medicine physician and move back to his hometown in Pickens County to care for patients in the community.

Britt is from Pickensville, Ala., and graduated from Pickens Academy in Carrollton in 2013. His interest in medicine started with his participation in the College’s Rural Health Scholars Program during high school. The program is exclusively for rising high school seniors from rural Alabama communities and provides students opportunities to learn about health care professions and to experience college firsthand.

But Britt said he owes his excitement about a career in medicine to his mother.

“My mother was a nurse working on the administrative side of things at Pickens County Medical Center,” he said. “Most

of my childhood was spent around the hospital and I contribute knowing that I always wanted to be a doctor to her. Also, growing up, my interactions with physicians was due to me being an accidentprone kid. Seeing the things they did for me and watching how they worked with their patients inspired me even more to go into family medicine. I’ve known for a long time that this career path was what I wanted to do.”

After high school and with a desire to stay close to home, Britt attended The University of Alabama, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He also participated in the College’s Rural Medical Scholars Program, which is exclusively for rural Alabama students who want to practice medicine in rural communities. The program includes a year of study, after students receive their undergraduate degree, and leads to a master’s degree in rural community health and early admission to the Heersink School of Medicine.

Acceptance to the Heersink School of Medicine in Birmingham also allowed Britt to remain close to home and family, as well as to rural communities. Britt said his favorite part of being a medical student is getting to know patients, spending time with them and doing the best he can to help care for them.

This summer, Britt will start with the UA Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, which is operated by CCHS. “Practicing in family medicine is a jack of all trades,” he said. “You have someone coming in to help take care of the general population within the community and doing their best to meet the needs that they can within their scope of practice. Being someone from Pickens County, I know that there is a need for rural physicians. My desire is to give back to my community.”

Britt hopes to one day open his own practice. “This career is something I’ve known I wanted to do since I was a kid. I want to go back to a rural area where our patients are not going to have a lot of access to different specialties that they could access if they were in the Tuscaloosa area. I hope to be able to try and meet as many needs as my patients have.”

-By Kandis Synder

Dr. McKenzie Donald

Finding Joy in the Pursuit of a Family Medicine Career

2022 at the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency. “I chose family medicine because I like being able to treat not only people for their lifetime, but also their entire families,” Donald said. “I had great experiences during my third year of medical school where I saw three generations of one single family a week. It was impactful being able to see baby, mother, and grandmother. Family medicine allows you to develop those relationships and the continuity of care.”

Donald said she chose the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency because of UA’s research opportunities and because she is a Crimson Tide fan. “I have always been a big Alabama fan, especially in my family,” she said. “My dad and my brother went here. Also, the (program of study) choices influenced my decision because I knew I didn’t want to major in biology or chemistry so I chose nutrition because I felt like it would be more helpful and relevant to my patients.”

While at UA, Donald participated in the University’s chapter of the Rural Health Association, and she worked in a research lab with the UA College of Human Environmental Sciences Nutrition Department, where she explored the effects of watermelon juice on blood pressure.

Dr.McKenzie

Donald has wanted a career in medicine ever since the second grade, when she fell in love with science and the idea of being a doctor. Now, she is a resident with The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program, which is operated by the College of Community Health Sciences.

Donald is from Chatom, Ala., a tiny town about an hour’s drive north of Mobile. She graduated from Jackson Academy in 2014 and received her undergraduate degree in Human Environmental Sciences at UA in 2018, specializing in nutrition.

During her senior year in college, Donald participated in the College’s Rural Medical Scholars Program, which is exclusively for rural Alabama students who want to practice medicine in rural communities. The program includes a year of study, after students receive their undergraduate degree, and leads to a master’s degree in rural community health and early admission to the UAB Heersink School of Medicine. She earned her medical degree in 2022.

Donald began her residency training in the summer of

“I think it’s very rewarding when you help convince a patient to try a lifestyle modification, a new diet or a new medication, and they see that successful turnout for their health,” Donald said.

Another challenge that is important to her is access to care for all patients. “We have to serve people who are underserved.” When Donald thinks about rural patients who experience a lack of primary care because of a shortage of physicians in their communities, “I feel it’s unreasonable for patients to drive 30 minutes to their primary care physician because there’s not one in their county, or drive an hour to see a specialist.”

She said if people must travel 30 minutes to the doctor, wait for their appointment and then drive back home, “that’s an afternoon off from work. Some people live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to take off from work. It has a ripple effect and people don’t always think about that aspect.”

Donald’s long-term goal is to move back to her hometown and focus on providing outpatient family medicine and geriatric care. “Moving back home to offer my skills will allow me to be around my family and care for the people who have done so much for me growing up.”

-By Kandis Synder

CCHS Magazine Lauded for Excellence

The College of Community Health Sciences Annual Report magazine received two prestigious awards for excellence from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The 2020 publication was awarded a Circle of Excellence Award and a Best of District III Award.

Circle of Excellence Awards recognize outstanding work in communications, marketing and alumni relations from colleges and universities around the world. The CCHS Annual Report was selected out of more than 4,500 entries from 28 countries for a Circle of Excellence Silver Award.

“The Circle of Excellence Awards inspire others by showcasing innovation, best practices and resourcefulness,” said

Sue Cunningham, CASE’s president and CEO. “I encourage you to be proud of this accomplishment. We are thrilled for your success and delighted to celebrate your accomplishments.”

The Annual Report magazine also received CASE’s award for Best of District III. The district spans the Southeast and includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

“You are recognized for extraordinary work. Your creative and innovative ideas will serve as inspiration for countless others in the months and year ahead,” said Vicky Medlock, District III awards chair. “CASE District III is laser-focused on emerging trends. Your work ensures that our profession continues to innovate and improve our practices.”

Added Ryan Bradley, UA's vice president for Strategic Communications: “These awards encourage us to continue producing compelling work showing the world the impact of The University of Alabama.”

CASE works to advance and support higher education institutions by enhancing the effectiveness of communications, marketing, alumni relations and advancement.

The College of Community Health Sciences raised thousands of dollars to support projects for children during The University of Alabama’s annual Bama Blitz online fundraising campaign in 2022. The College received $55,705 in gifts from faculty, staff and friends for its Brewer-Porch Children’s Center. The money will be used to create a SMART gym and smaller environments at the center, which provides in-patient and out-patient behavioral health care and educational services for children and adolescents from across Alabama.

SMART stands for Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment and is an evidence-informed therapy approach for children and adolescents who have experienced complex stress and traumatic exposures. The aim is to help them better manage their emotional, behavioral and interpersonal regulation challenges.

“We are honored that so many of our supporters, faculty and staff came together to contribute to Brewer-Porch Children’s Center and the work we are doing there for children and adolescents who have experienced so much in their young lives and who are working to overcome those challenges,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS.

A special Thank You to our Bama Blitz Donors!

Mr. Paul Abel

Mr. and Mrs. Todd Arendale

Ms. Hannah Blanchard

Ms. Kelly Bond and Dr. Joseph Smith

Mrs. Jennifer Booth

Dr. Caroline and Mr. John Boxmeyer

Dr. Karen Burgess

Mr. Dexter Campbell Jr.

Mrs. Dee Cook

Mr. D. Bradley Cork

Mrs. Joanne Cox

Mr. Glenn Davis

Mrs. Glenda Elmore

Mrs. Richard Freeman

Drs. Marisa and John Giggie

Mr. Caleb and Dr. Abbey Gregg

Mr. Junsheng Guo

Dr. and Mrs. Timothy Hammond

Dr. and Mrs. John C. Higginbotham

Ms. Madeleine Hill

Mr. Lisle Hites

Ms. Barbara Jernigan

Ms. Elizabeth Lary

Dr. Catherine Lavender

Dr. Paul D. Lavender Jr.

Mrs. Sheri Laycock

Mrs. Allison Leitner

Ms. Ruth Mamola

Dr. and Mrs. Edward J. Markushewski Jr.

Dr. Robert McKinney Jr.

Mrs. SaraBeth Miller

Ms. Marsha D. Morrison

Dr. and Mrs. Robert Osburne

Mr. Jake Paul

Drs. Elizabeth and Richard Rand

Dr. James Reeves and Dr. Sarah Bisch

Mrs. Dimetra Rollins

Dr. Nancy Rubin

Dr. and Mrs. Grier Stewart Jr.

Mrs. Joyce Thomas-Vinson

Ms. Katherine Thurman

Ms. Donna Tidmore

Ms. Kathryn Wallace

Mr. Daniel Walters

Drs. Thomas and Jane Weida

Mrs. Nelle Williams

Mrs. Laurie Wright

Mr. Matthew Wood

Dr. Steven Yates

board of visitors

The CCHS Board of Visitors is made up of 35 volunteers, including alumni, donors, community physicians, business people, community activists and other friends of the College of Community Health Sciences. The board’s purpose is to help the College develop relationships and partnerships with communities in Alabama and organizations at the state and national levels.

The Board meets biannually and advises the College on long-range planning, assists the College in securing financial resources and helps to develop opportunities for medical students and resident physicians.

our members 2022

Mr. Eddie Sherwood, Chair

Dr. Thomas Alford

Mr. Brad Cork

Mr. James Cowan, Jr.

Dr. Leisa DeVenny

Dr. Michael DeVenny

Dr. Frank Dozier

The Honorable Mark Ezell

Dr. Stevan Fairburn

new members

Dr. Marc Fisher

Dr. Samuel Gaskins

Dr. Guillermo G. Godoy

Mrs. Heike Harris

Ms. Madeleine M. Hill

Dr. William A. Hill, Jr.

Dr. Robert Ireland, Jr.

Dr. Beverly Jordan

Mrs. Cindy Markushewski

Dr. John Markushewski

Dr. Christopher McGee

Mrs. Voncile Pearce

Mrs. Dorothy Pieroni

Dr. Robert Pieroni

Dr. Robert Posey

Dr. Terrence Pugh

Dr. Elizabeth Rand

Dr. James Robinson

Welcome!

Dr. Marc Fisher completed his residency at The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program in 1983 after graduating from the LSU School of Medicine in 1980. He has more than 30 years of medical experience practicing in Mississippi, working a majority of those years as Emergency Room director at Riley Hospital and Rush Urgent Care. He completed his career at Anderson Regional Medical Center in emergency medicine and urgent care. After retiring in 2015, he and his wife of 32 years, Jimmie Kay, spent five years traveling the country in their motorhome, visiting 42 states and three Canadian provinces. They currently reside in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.

Dr. Edgar Shotts

Dr. Sage Smith

Dr. Rodney Snead

Dr. Vijaya Sundar

Dr. S.B. Sundar

Dr. Mark Williams

Dr. Mark Woods

Dr. Fred Yerby

Dr. Sage Smith is a retired family medicine physician of 35 years who practiced in Monroeville, Ala., as a third generation physician, maintaining an active general medicine practice and taking care of hospital patients. He graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1982 and completed The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program in 1984. In addition to his practice, Smith served as medical director for Monroe Manor Nursing Home and two hospice agencies in Monroeville. His philosophy is the patient always comes first and he never takes anyone for granted. He is passionate about health care in rural Alabama and the need for more physicians there.

scholarships and awards

Thanks to the generous support of donors, the College of Community Health Sciences annually provides scholarships and awards to medical students, students in the College’s Rural Health Leaders Pipeline and residents in The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program.

medical student scholarships medical student awards

Frank Fitz, Jr. Endowed Scholarship

Recipient: Will Fagan

Amount: $7,500

The Dr. Sandral Hullett Endowed Scholarship

Recipient: James Iheke

Amount: $1,000

The Dr. Benjamin Collins Maxwell Endowed Scholarship

Recipient: Peyton Lloyd

Amount: $2,000

Jovita M. Taylor Endowed Scholarship

Recipient: Allison Stephens

Amount: $1,500

Robert E. Pieroni, MD, and Family Endowed Scholarship

Recipients: Jean Butler $900

Willow Bryan $900

Reese Phifer, Jr., Memorial Foundation Endowed Scholarship

Recipients: Madison Peoples $2,000

Andy Thomas $2,000

The Larry Mayes Endowed Scholarship

Recipient: Matthew Kiszla

Amount: $4,000

Dr. William W. Winternitz Sr.

Geriatric Scholarship

Recipient: Lexie Rascoe

Amount: $500

Houston and Voncile Pearce Award

Recipients: Richard Clayton $300

Phillip Hensley $300

Anna LouAllen $300

Emma McKinley $300

John Moon $300

William Newman $300

Venu Reddy $300

LaTimberly Washington $300

Tameron Williams $300

Rural Medical Scholars Endowed Scholarship Fund

Recipients: Richard Clayton $300

Phillip Hensley $300

Anna LouAllen $300

Emma McKinley $300

John Moon $300

William Newman $300

Venu Reddy $300

LaTimberly Washington $300

Tameron Williams $300

William R. Willard Award

Recipient: Madison Peoples

Amount: $1,000

Interprofessional Excellence Award

Recipient: Gaurav Agrwal

Amount: $1,000

Neurology Award

Recipient: Rebecca Massey

Amount: $1,000 residency graduation awards

360 Award

Recipients: Dr. Tameka Hariston $1,000

Dr. Joshua Price $1,000

William R. Willard

Family Medicine Award

Recipient: Dr. Joshua Washington

Amount: $1,000

William W. Winternitz

Geriatric Award

Recipient: Dr. Ellen Lorenzen

Amount: $500

Thank You!

Thank You to all of our donors and friends who gave to the College of Community Health Sciences in 2022 through cash donations, in-kind gifts, estate gifts and matching funds. The gifts benefit faculty, residents and medical studentsand ultimately communities throughout Alabama - by providing resources for scholarships, classrooms, clinics and research opportunities for future primary care physicians.

Mr. Paul R. Abel

Dr. Samuel N. Addy and Dr. Maria Pisu

Dr. Catherine and Mr. James Alexander

Mr. and Mrs. Todd A. Arendale

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Bartlett

Dr. and Mrs. Brett C. Bentley

Dr. Sarah L. Bisch and

Dr. James J. Reeves

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick J. Blanchard

Dr. and Mrs. Alan M. Blum

Ms. Kelly A. Bond and

Dr. Joseph L. Smith

Mr. and Mrs. Will D. Booth

Dr. Caroline and Mr. John A. Boxmeyer

Bryant Bank

Dr. Karen B. Burgess

Ms. Dionne Burr

Mr. and Mrs. Dexter S. Campbell Jr.

Capstone Health Services Foundation

C.A.R.E.S. Direct Primary Care

The Caring Foundation of BlueCross and BlueShield of Alabama

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Cassels

Dr. Lisa D. Columbia

Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham

The Honorable and Mrs. L. Scott Coogler

Mr. and Mrs. Steven Cook Sr.

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene C. Copeland

Mr. and Mrs. D. Bradley Cork

Mrs. Joanne M. Cox

Dr. Debra and Mr. Glenn Davis

Drs. Frank L. and Daveta B. Dozier

Eli Lilly and Company Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Elmore Jr.

Eminence Health Partners, LLC

Fidelity Charitable

Dr. and Mrs. Marc F. Fisher

Mr. and Mrs. Nicky J. Foster

Dr. and Mrs. Richard W. Freeman

Dr. Richard D. Friend

Drs. Samuel and Susan W. Gaskins

Drs. Marisa and John M. Giggie

Mrs. Willie and Mr. Russell K. Giles

Ms. Jennifer Gilmore-Childress

Mr. and Mrs. Caleb M. Gregg

Mr. Junsheng Guo

Dr. and Mrs. Timothy J. Hammond

Reverend and Mrs. Norman W. Hibbard

Sr.

Dr. and Mrs. John C. Higginbotham

Ms. Madeleine M. Hill

Mr. Lisle Hites

Dr. and Mrs. Robert B. Ireland Jr.

Mrs. Barbara A. Jernigan

Dr. Rutwij K. Jotani

Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas A. Knight

Dr. and Mrs. Werner Knurr

Ms. Kirsten Krane

Dr. Lawrence A. Kreiser and

Mrs. Alicia R. Brown

Ms. Elizabeth A. Lary

Dr. Catherine A. Lavender

Dr. Paul D. Lavender Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Laycock

Dr. James D. Leeper and

Ms. Catherine Chen

Mr. and Mrs. James E. Leitner Sr.

Dr. Velimir A. Luketic

Mr. Ravikumar N. Majeti

Ms. Ruth Mamola

Dr. and Mrs. Edward J. Markushewski Jr.

Dr. and Mrs. David H. Maxwell

Dr. and Mrs. Michael L. McBrearty

Dr. and Mrs. John T. McDonald Jr.

Dr. and Mrs. Christopher E. McGee

Dr. and Mrs. Robert E. McKinney Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Jake Miller

Mr. and Mrs. Edwin L. Minges Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Guy E. Moman Jr.

Ms. Marsha D. Morrison

Nick’s Kids Foundation, Inc.

One Hope Church

Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Osburne

Dr. David O. Parrish

Mr. and Mrs. David W. Patterson

Mr. and Mrs. Jake D. Paul

Dr. and Mrs. Robert E. Pieroni

Dr. Terrence M. Pugh

Mr. and Mrs. Harold E. Pugh

Drs. Elizabeth and Richard A. Rand

Reese Phifer Jr. Memorial Foundation

Dr. James J. Reeves and Dr. Sarah L. Bisch

Mr. and Mrs. Claude E. Reynolds

Richards Family Foundation

Mr. Jose R. Rivas

Dr. Nancy J. Rubin

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Russell

Dr. and Mrs. Craig D. Rutland

Mr. Jeff Senft

Mr. and Mrs. Edgar R. Sherwood

Dr. and Mrs. Sage B. Smith Sr.

Southern Obgyn

Dr. and Mrs. Grier Stewart Jr.

ways to give

Alton B. Sturtevant Family

Foundation Inc.

Dr. and Mrs. Alton B. Sturtevant Jr.

Dr. and Mrs. W. Larry Sullivan

Professor and Mrs. Michael A. Taylor

Dr. Lee Thomas and Mrs. Anne Sondergaard

Mrs. Joyce A. Thomas-Vinson and Mr. Edgar L. Vinson III

Ms. Katherine L. Thurman

Ms. Donna Tidmore

Dr. and Mrs. Wilson L. Tucker

Ms. Kathryn Wallace and

Mr. James P. Lamb Jr.

Mr. Daniel G. Walters

Dr. and Mrs. Randall W. Weaver

Drs. Jane A. and Thomas J. Weida

Mrs. Dimetra M. Wiggins-Rollins

Mr. Michael J. Williams Jr. and Mrs. Nelle Williams

Dr. Beverly and Mr. John F. Wingard

Dr. and Mrs. Robert E. Witt

Mr. Matthew G. Wood

Mr. and Mrs. Matthew S. Wright

Dr. Steven D. Yates

More than ever, philanthropy is vital for our future.

The College of Community Health Sciences welcomes your partnership and your generosity in support of our work in shaping medical education, providing high-quality health care, fostering research and expanding our community outreach. Together we can further the College’s mission and significantly improve and promote the health of individuals and communities in Alabama and the region.

Consider a gift today to the Friends of CCHS, the College’s annual fund, or any of our other initiatives.

Our Mission

We are dedicated to improving and promoting the health of individuals and communities in rural Alabama and the Southeast region through leadership in medical and health-related education, primary care and population health; the provision of high quality, accessible health care services; and research and scholarship.

Strategic Priorities

Shape globally capable, locally relevant and culturally competent physicians through learnercentered, innovative, community-based programs across the continuum of medical education.

Forge an international reputation as a health sciences academic research center.

Provide high-quality, patient-centered and accessible clinical services delivered by health-care professionals of all disciplines.

Foster a more diverse, equitable and inclusive CCHS.

Create a culture of employee wellness and growth.

BOX 870326

TUSCALOOSA, AL 35487-0326