Payne-Foster receives UA scholar award

May 1, 2017

Dr. Pamela Payne-Foster, associate professor of Community Medicine and Population Health for the College, received a 2017 Distinguished Community-Engaged Scholar Award from UA’s Council on Community-Based Partnerships. Each spring semester, the council recognizes students, faculty, staff and their community partners for excellence in community-based research. The Distinguished Community-Engaged Scholar Award recognizes a faculty member, student and community partner for public service and engagement efforts that have improved the quality of life in Alabama over an extended period. Payne-Foster, who is also deputy director of the College’s Institute for Rural Health Research, was the faculty recipient. The student recipient was Joon Yea Lee, a doctoral student in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, and Dr. Billy Kirkpatrick, executive director of West Alabama AIDS Outreach, was the community partner recipient. Payne-Foster studies the spread of HIV in the South. Her current research focuses on developing an anti-stigma curriculum for African-American churches in rural Alabama. She hopes her work will educate congregations about HIV/AIDS and reduce the stigma around the disease.