UAB Briefs: New director for Comprehensive Cancer Center

Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.

Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention?

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New director for Comprehensive Cancer Center

The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center has named a new director – Dr. Michael J. Birrer, a leading medical oncologist who has conducted important research in the early detection and treatment of gynecologic cancers.

He will join UAB on Aug. 1, according to a university news release on May 31.

Birrer comes to UAB from Massachusetts General Hospital, where he’s director of Medical Gynecologic Oncology and director of the Gynecologic Cancer Research Program at the Gillette Cancer Center. He is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

He will succeed Dr. Edward E. Partridge, the Evalina B. Spencer Chair in Oncology, who’s retiring from UAB after 48 years, including 10 years as director of the center.

“UAB is a first-rate institution with a Comprehensive Cancer Center that is all around one of the best in the nation, offering tremendous opportunities for growth and service to the cancer patients of Alabama, the United States and abroad,” Birrer said.

His research interests include the molecular origins of gynecologic cancers, as well as the identification and characterization of aberrations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in these cancers.

He began his career in 1988 as an investigator at the National Cancer Institute and has served in his current job at Massachusetts General since 2008.

Innovative undergraduates

Five UAB undergraduates who are working to help refine ideas for improved patient care developed by clinicians and graduate nursing students were honored May 23 as recipients of the UAB Presidential Innovation Summer Fellowship program.

The recipients of the summer fellowship are Brody DeSilva, Allaire Doussan, Ali El-Husari, Hira Munir and Paige Severino — all Science and Technology Honors Program students in the UAB Honors College, according to a university news release.

These students have been part of the UAB Solution Studios, which seeks to accelerate the translation of clinical innovation by training clinicians and STEM students — those studying science, technology, engineering and math — to collaborate and think creatively around solutions to clinical problems.

Nurses and clinicians have chosen to devote their lives to patient care, during which they sometimes come across processes or products that could be improved.

The fellowship program will allow the five students to continue the work they started in Solution Studios.

Solution Studios is a partnership among the UAB Honors College Science and Technology Honors Program, UAB Medicine and the UAB schools of Engineering and Nursing.

Going Local

The fourth annual LOCAL, an outdoor, family-friendly festival that is billed as a celebration of everything Alabama, is scheduled to take place at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center on campus on Saturday, June 17. Admission is free.

The event is described as a good way to kick off the summer and features Alabama artisans, artists, farmers and vendors with live performances by local musicians and a children’s activity area.

Food trucks, including Big Spoon Creamery and Old Town Pizza, will be on-site.

The musical lineup for LOCAL, with emcee Thed Weller, includes a half-dozen acts, and there will be more than 30 vendors.

For details, call 975-2787 or go to alysstephens.org.

A distinguished alum

Reba Wadsworth, a retired educator and three-time graduate of the UAB School of Education, was awarded the Boyd Rogan Distinguished Alumni Award on May 4, according to a UAB news release.

The award, named after a longtime educator and director of the UAB Regional In-service Center, was created in 2017 to recognize significant contributions of graduates of the UAB Educational Leadership Program.

“Throughout her career, Dr. Wadsworth has been a staunch advocate for literacy,” said Keith Gurley, Ed.D., assistant professor and program coordinator.