Dr. Joy Bradley, assistant professor of community medicine and population health at CCHS, co-hosted the 2025 Seeds of Change Conference April 7 at UA’s Bryant Conference Center. The conference discussed solutions to food access challenges in the Alabama Black Belt, an impoverished region of the state with food deserts and limited health-care access.
Dr. John Wheat, professor in the Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine at CCHS, received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine. The award recognizes individuals with significant accomplishments and contributions to the Heersink School of Medicine. At CCHS, Wheat developed the Rural Health Leaders pipeline to help address the shortage of primary care physicians in Alabama’s rural communities. The pipeline is a sequence of programs from high school through medical school that recruit students from rural Alabama who are interested in health-care careers and working as health-care professionals in rural communities. As part of the pipeline, he created the Rural Medical Scholars Program, a five-year medical education track, which includes a year of study, after students receive their undergraduate degree, that leads to a master’s degree in Rural Community Health and early admission to the Heersink School of Medicine.
Dr. Alan Blum, director of The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, which is housed within CCHS, released a four-part exhibition that can be found on the center’s website. The exhibit, “Universities and Tobacco: The Ties That Blind,” focuses on smoking on college campuses and looks at how major university career centers have rolled out the red carpet for cigarette manufacturers to recruit students at campus job fairs.
Dr. Bob McKinney, associate professor of social work at CCHS, received the Joel L. Walker Friend to Psychology Award from UA’s Department of Psychology. The award recognizes individuals who significantly impact the department in various ways. McKinney, director of the Office of Case Management and Social Services at University Medical Center, is an investigator for a grant-funded project through the department to train graduate psychology students to assess and treat patients with substance use disorders. He also provides clinical supervision to psychology students at UMC-Northport and has served on several dissertation committees for students in the doctoral psychology program at UA. CCHS operates UMC.
Four CCHS faculty members were promoted in academic rank by The University of Alabama: Drs. Nathan Culmer, Marisa Giggie, John McDonald and Ashley Steiner.
- Culmer, director of academic technologies and faculty development for CCHS, was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor.
- Giggie was promoted from clinical associate professor to clinical full professor in the College’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. She also cares for patients as a psychiatrist in the Betty Shirley Clinic at University Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, which is operated by CCHS.
- McDonald was promoted from clinical associate professor to clinical full professor in the CCHS Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He also cares for patients as an ob/gyn at University Medical Center in Tuscaloosa.
- Steiner was promoted from clinical assistant professor to clinical associate professor in the College’s Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine. She also cares for patients as a family medicine obstetrician at UMC-Demopolis.
Dr. Ravi Kumar, Distinguished University Research Professor at CCHS, was recognized by The University of Alabama President Stuart Bell for his dedicated work to faculty research during the University’s Spring 2025 Campus Assembly. Kumar is also the recipient of the SEC Faculty Achievement Award that honors SEC faculty members who have exceptional achievements in research and scholarship.