Once you start shaping the future, it’s impossible to stop. Right now UAB’s alumni are making important contributions in every field in all 50 states, more than 65 countries, and even outer space—proving that you can really go places with a UAB degree. Here are just a few of the success stories.
- Vonetta Flowers made history when she became the first black athlete to win a Winter Olympic gold medal. The bobsledder and UAB track coach is now training for the 2006 games.
- Lawrence J. DeLucas became the first optometrist in space and was NASA’s chief scientist for the International Space Station. Today he heads the UAB Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering.
- Sonya Leslie Shepherd starred in the original Broadway cast of The Lion King and recently wrapped production on an independent film.
- Steve Vinson is the London-based global director of financial risk management for Barclays Capital, one of the world’s 20 largest banks.
- Michael Williams assists the U.S. Secret Service head of intelligence and was part of the team that guarded President Clinton.
- Martha Warren Bidez developed a breakthrough biomedical implant and now chairs a company, BioHorizons Implant Systems, that markets it.
- Joey Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for his editorials in The Birmingham News.
- Martin Morgan serves as research historian at the National D-Day Museum.
- Amy Dowe Berman provided rehabilitation care—sometimes by airplane—to patients in remote villages in Africa and South America.
- Greg Lee is founder and CEO of Nexity Bank, a Web-based financial institution with customers worldwide.