UAB Briefs: Healthy food initiative, honor for radiologist, SOPH diversity
In this weekly online feature, we keep track of interesting people and events on campus at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
We also provide updates regarding UAB’s efforts to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, UAB Hospital and UAB Medicine clinics have implemented and visitation guidelines.
For information regarding how to plan your in-person UAB Medicine hospital or clinic visit, click here.
To read other UAB COVID-19 updates or find health information, go to uab.edu/coronavirus.
To learn more about UAB’s COVID-19 safety procedures, visit uab.edu/uabunited.
Let us know about people, events and programs on campus that deserve a mention in UAB Briefs. Email jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
EATING SMART IN EAST LAKE
Finding fresh, healthy food is a challenge for almost three-fourths of Birmingham residents, many of whom live in food deserts.
Many people in the city are forced to buy food from fast-food chains or convenience stores, making it tough to prepare healthy meals.
Village Market, a grocery store located at 7737 Second Ave. S. in East Lake, is trying to help.
Village Market — in partnership with the Live HealthSmart Alabama initiative at UAB — is encouraging its customers to “Shop Smart, Eat Smart, Live HealthSmart,” according to UAB News.
The store features healthy food choices that are marked with a Live HealthSmart Alabama logo and are available at discounted prices.
The initiative began at the market on Nov. 5.
Live HealthSmart Alabama is the inaugural project in the UAB Grand Challenge, which is focused on improving the health of people in Alabama.
The project at Village Market draws on the work of Katie Ellison, a registered dietitian nutritionist and Albert Schweitzer Fellow in the UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences.
Ellison developed a way to guide people in making healthy food choices at a grocery store.
“We are what we eat, and we should use food as medicine,” Ellison told UAB News. “This initiative will teach people to identify and cook healthy food and help them purchase nutritious foods at a discount. I want to encourage people to let food be their medicine for a healthier life.”
Ellison turned to Village Market and Live HealthSmart Alabama as project partners to put her plan into action.
PIONEERING WOMAN
Dr. Cheri Canon — the Witten-Stanley Endowed Chair of Radiology at UAB — has been selected to receive the 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award, the highest honor given by the American Association for Women in Radiology, according to UAB News.
The award recognizes outstanding accomplishments in leadership, teaching, research and scholarship that have impacted women in radiology professions.
“As a budding radiologist, I remember being so inspired by the prior recipients of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award,” Canon told UAB News. “I was in the audience for many of these ceremonies. These women were larger than life and instilled in all of us such optimism and inspiration.”
Canon was nominated by Dr. Kristin Porter, associate professor in the UAB Department of Radiology and AAWR president-elect.
Canon is only the second woman president of the Society of Chairs of Academic Radiology Departments since its inception in 1966, Porter said.
Canon will be recognized by the AAWR for her selection in November 2020
ANOTHER DIVERSITY AWARD
The UAB School of Public Health has received the 2020 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, according to UAB News.
This is the first year that SOPH has received the award, which is a national honor.
It recognizes health-related professional schools in the United States that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.
SOPH will be featured, along with 45 other recipients, in the December 2020 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
UAB as a whole was also named a 2020 HEED Award recipient and a 2020 Diversity Champion, the fourth year the school has been honored.
The university was featured in the November issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
For more information, go to insightintodiversity.com.