Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

April 12, 2004

McKinley Award, February 2004 Winner — Becky Alderman
Top UA Graduate Students Honored
Action Card Office Wins Design Awards

McKinley Award, February 2004 Winner — Becky Alderman

Becky Alderman

Becky Alderman, administrative secretary in The University of Alabama's Office of Leadership Development, was named the McKinley Employee Award winner for February 2004. Her nominator, Dr. Cheree Causey, assistant vice president for student affairs, wrote that her nomination of Alderman is due to Alderman's exceptional contributions to UA.

"I cannot imagine anyone else being able to accomplish her quality of work," Causey wrote. "As soon as she joined the staff, she began to evaluate every office process and determine a more effective way to improve our efficiency and our quality."

Causey provided examples. Check-in and registration for UA's Family Weekend had been difficult, she said. Problems required that employees work late for several days prior to the weekend to ensure accuracy and completeness. "Becky designed and implemented a new registration and check-in process. ... This year we were able to go home at decent hours, thus saving costs. Payments were correct, families commented on the quick and easy check-in system, and our volunteers were able to invest more energy in visiting with family members."

Alderman also improved database merging with the six large collections of information. "Becky has designed and is working with the Computer Based Honors Program and Seebeck to have future application information automatically 'dump' necessary demographics into applicable databases."

She also serves as a role model, said Causey, and is an innovative and creative thinker. Her quality of work, diligence, and pride clearly meet the criteria for and spirit of McKinley Award winners.

The McKinley Award was established by Helen H. and John K. McKinley of Darien, Conn., and Tuscaloosa in honor of John McKinley's father, Vergil Parks McKinley. The award recognizes enterprising employees who, by action or idea, contributed to the University's mission of teaching, research and service. The monthly award carries a cash prize. Vergil Parks McKinley came to UA in 1918 and retired as head of the College of Education's trade and industrial development department in 1945. If you would like to nominate an employee for future awards, contact Human Resources at 348-6690.

Top UA Graduate Students Honored

by Chad Gilbert

UA's Graduate School has announced the recipients of the 2004 Outstanding Graduate Student Awards to be presented during this year's Honors Week. The award categories are: Outstanding Dissertation, Outstanding Thesis, Outstanding Teaching by a Master's Student, Outstanding Teaching by a Doctoral Student, Outstanding Research by a Master's Student and Outstanding Research by a Doctoral Student.

Committees of faculty emeriti selected the thesis and dissertation winners. The Graduate Council's Committee on Teaching and Research Awards evaluated the nominations for the four awards for excellence in teaching and excellence in research. This year's recipients are:

Justin Benefield

Justin Benefield, finance, Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Doctoral Student. Benefield taught Introductory Corporate Finance, a required course for all business majors. His evaluation scores were among the highest in the department. Benefield also taught Investments, Real Estate Appraisal and Real Estate Finance and Investments, all while taking his own courses and maintaining certification by the Alabama Real Estate Commission.

Julius Nathan Henderson, chemistry, Outstanding Thesis Award for "Creating and Characterization of an In Vitro System for the Study of Photosystem I Disassembly and Degradation." His adviser, Dr. Kevin Redding, assistant professor of chemistry, described Henderson as "highly motivated, self-directed and well grounded in chemistry and biology."

Jacqueline Trimble, English, Outstanding Dissertation Award for "Confounded Identities: Race, Gender, Culture in Adrienne Kennedy in One Act." Dr. Elizabeth Meese, professor of English, considered Trimble's work to be "original, engaging, and ultimately publishable." The dissertation represents the beginnings of what promises to be the first book-length, single-author study of Kennedy, a distinguished 20th century African-American playwright.

Zhiya Zhao, physics, Outstanding Research by a Master's Student. Zhao's research demonstrates the origin of biquadratic coupling in magnetic multilayers which has important implications for future design of spintronic devices such as magnetic sensors, reading heads for hard disc drivers and magnetic memory.

Jane Sandor

Jane Sandor, English and creative writing, Outstanding Teaching by a Master's Student. Sandor has taught both required composition classes and electives in creative writing. Her students find her "inspiring, encouraging and exacting," according to Sandy Huss, associate professor of English.

Nancy Ryba, psychology, Outstanding Research by a Doctoral Student. Ryba's work focused on the relationship between cognitive abilities, psychiatric symptomatology and competence-related abilities. Ryba has presented eight different papers at national and international conferences. She has been actively involved in departmental committees and in the American Psychological Association.

Among those working on the project are, left to right, Robin Coleman, Pam Winters, Bill May, Jeanine Brooks, Carrie Hargle and Sharon Styron.

Action Card Office Wins Design Awards

UA's Action Card Office recently won the Best Card Design Award and, for the second year in a row, the Best Marketing Design Award at the recent National Association of Campus Card Users Conference. Collaborating to make the Action Card a winner were University Printing, which designed and produced the card, and UA's auxiliary services, which supported the effort.

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