Diversity honor for UAB, Dean Vickers picked for prestigious post, other campus news

UAB was honored by a national magazine for its diversity efforts. A UAB dean is now president of a prestigious national organization. A graduating senior in the theatre department will pursue a dream at UCLA. And UAB’s bioethics debaters nearly won a fourth national title.

National honor

UAB, which provides itself on its diversity, was named America’s No. 4 Best Employer for Diversity by Forbes in April.

Forbes’ Best Employers for Diversity were picked based on an independent survey of more than 50,000 employees working for companies employing at least 1,000 people in the United States.

Respondents were asked questions concerning their employers regarding age, gender equality, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQA+ and general diversity.

“Being counted among the top five employers for diversity in the entire country speaks to the intentionality of inclusion and equity efforts throughout the UAB enterprise,” said Paulette Dilworth, UAB vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, in a news release.

Mr. President

Dr. Selwyn Vickers, dean of the UAB School of Medicine, was recently named the president of the American Surgical Association for 2021, according to UAB News.

The ASA, founded in 1880, is the nation’s oldest, most prestigious surgical organization.

Vickers is only the third African-American president in the association’s history and the second UAB surgeon to serve as president.

A surgeon, pancreatic cancer researcher and pioneer in health disparities research, Vickers is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Following a dream

David Parker graduated from UAB in May with a bachelor’s degree in performance and directing from the Department of Theatre.

Now Parker, 22, will pursue a master’s degree in theater directing at UCLA on a full scholarship this fall.

“Everything I aspired to — but never thought I could realistically achieve 10 years ago — led to UCLA, and now I’m getting paid to go,” Parker told UAB News.

At UAB, Parker appeared in shows such as “Hairspray,” “Hay Fever” and “The Glass Menagerie.”

A strong showing

The UAB Bioethics Bowl team won national championships in 2011, 2017 and 2019, and the team finished a strong second in this year’s academic competition, hosted by Oklahoma State University in April via Zoom.

The UAB team consisted of Anna Townsend, a biochemistry major, and Daniel Elston, Fuad Quashair and Elena Chesnokova, who are philosophy and neuroscience majors.

The team is coached by Gregory Pence, professor in the Department of Philosophy.