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UA CELEBRATES FORTHCOMING DRUMMOND LYON HALL

9/22/2022

On September 16, 2022, the College of Human Environmental Sciences hosted a celebration of the new building that will house its apparel and textiles program. The facility will also be the home to The Fashion Archive, a collection of dress and related objects that was established at The University of Alabama in the 1930s. Leaders from CHES and The University of Alabama, including President Stuart Bell and Dean Stuart Usdan, offered remarks during a ceremony on the front lawn of Doster Hall.

Drummond Lyon Hall will be situated in a prominent area of The University of Alabama campus and will become part of a CHES hub that includes nearby Adams and Doster Halls. Once completed, the 25,000 square-foot facility will provide space to preserve, celebrate and study fashion history and prepare fashion industry leaders of the future. For more information on Drummond Lyon Hall or to make a gift supporting construction, please go to https://giving.ua.edu/drummond-lyon-hall/.

ASID ALABAMA RECOGNIZES CHES STANDOUTS in INTERIOR DESIGN

9/21/2022

At the American Society of Interior Designers Alabama Conference on September 16, CHES faculty and alumni walked away with a number of awards.

For the second year in a row, Instructor Casey Faulkner was named the Dr. Mary Ann Potter Outstanding Educator Award Educator of the Year for her significant contributions to interior design education.

Recent graduate Sophia Ragusa entered the Daisy Bond Portfolio Competition while a senior at CHES and won five awards. Her entries for Hand Rendering and Commercial Design Concept earned golds and she won bronze for Computer Generated Rendering. No one was surprised when she was awarded Best in Competition and Outstanding Student Member. Ragusa graduated in May 2022 and is now working in Dallas.

CHES alumnus, HES Leadership Board member and director of design at Lathan Associates Architects, Bradley Logan, also won several ASID awards. He took home gold for Corporate Design, gold and bronze for Institutional Design, and swept Digital Rendering with Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Congrats to these talented interior designers!

A dream come true at the zoo

7/13/2022

Assistant professor of hospitality management, Dr. Carla Blakey, recently volunteered at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama as a team attaché for the Estonian, Norwegian and Bulgarian sumo teams. In this role, Blakey went to their trainings and practices, made sure they were aware of important times, attended their competitions, helped them find local gyms, get medical care, and much more. She says, "Unless they were sleeping, I was with them." Luckily for her, all of her assigned teams (a total of 5 athletes) had the same schedule. Being together so many hours a day, she quickly became good friends with each of them and says, "I can't wait for the next sumo event in the U.S."

Eva-Maria Raudsepp, the lone Estonian wrestler was, at 17, the youngest of the athletes and also the smallest. "But don't let her size fool you," says Blakey. Though Raudsepp lost her Saturday match in the women’s lightweight division, she won two matches the following day in the women’s open division before losing the next two. As Blakey notes, "While she didn't place, she was tough and easily the sold-out crowd's favorite."

Traveling to the U.S. expecting to meet her coach, Raudsepp was disappointed to learn he had a last-minute conflict and was unable to make the trip. With an unfamiliar coach in his place and her family unable to travel, she was essentially alone. Blakey, being a faculty member and a mom, immediately stepped in and took the lonely and homesick Raudsepp under her wing saying, "we became very close during her time here."

While most teams left Monday morning, Raudsepp stayed an additional day. Though Blakey's volunteer shift technically ended on Monday, she couldn't leave Raudsepp alone to fend for herself, so she asked the young woman if there was anything she wanted to do during her remaining time in Birmingham. Says Blakey, “I expected her to say some landmark that she'd researched, another sporting event, shopping. No. She wants to see a giraffe." Raudsepp, Blakey explained, had never been to a zoo and seeing a giraffe, her favorite animal, was a life-long dream. "As you can imagine," Blakey says, "my heart melted. It melted [even] more when I had to tell her that the zoo is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.”

Blakey's self-described stubbornness then kicked in. Getting out her laptop, she began emailing and calling anyone who might be able to help, including the mayor of Birmingham. By mid-afternoon on Monday, she feared it impossible to fulfill Raudsepp's dream. As a last resort, Blakey says, "I was actually going to park near the zoo and walk her as close to the giraffe fence as possible. Yes," she says, "I did my research on the giraffe fence and am that crazy." It was then the mayor's office called with good news. After reading Blakey's email, Mayor Woodfin had called Chris Pfefferkorn, the president and CEO of the zoo and arranged a private hour-long tour early the next morning.

Woodfin didn't stop there. He personally escorted Raudsepp and Dr. Blakey on a tour, the highlight of which was, not surprisingly, the giraffe enclosure. There, through tears of happiness, Raudsepp interacted with Willow, one of the zoo's giraffes, feeding her lettuce and leaves.

The south's reputation for warmth and hospitality remains untarnished thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Dr. Blakey, Mayor Woodfin and representatives of the Birmingham Zoo who all worked together to make one young, homesick athlete's dream come true.

UA Dedicates Judy Bonner Child Development Center

6/15/2022

Picture of Dr. Bonner in a red suit outside the building with her name on it.

Dr. Bonner stands outside the newly named Judy Bonner Child Development Center

The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees passed a resolution in February to rename the Child Development Research Center in recognition of Dr. Judy L. Bonner’s dedication, contributions and service to UA.

“We are honored to commemorate Dr. Bonner’s contributions to education at The University of Alabama by officially renaming the Child Development Research Center the Judy Bonner Child Development Center,” said UA President Stuart R. Bell. “Her career is a testament to the powerful role an educator plays in shaping the future of our communities, state and nation. The Judy Bonner Child Development Center will continue to shape young minds for generations to come.”

The Judy Bonner Child Development Center, part of the College of Human Environmental Sciences, is a leader in the study of young children. The state-of-the-art research facility is equipped with the latest multi-media research technology, seven large research suites and eight research rooms. Each research room has an adjoining observation booth.

“If you count the number of years I was a student and the years I was a member of the faculty and an administrator, I spent over 40 years at The University of Alabama,” Bonner said. “I truly love the Capstone, and I am profoundly honored that the board of trustees approved President Bell’s recommendation to name the Child Development Center for me.”

Picture of Bonner and Bell side by side inside a building

Former UA president, Dr. Judy Bonner (l) with current president, Dr. Stuart Bell

The Center houses the Children’s Program, a National Association for the Education of Young Children accredited laboratory school enrolling approximately 114 students ages two months to five years; Child Development Resources, which assists families across the state to provide a safe, loving and enriching life for their young children; Capstone Family Therapy Clinic, which provides the community with help in resolving personal problems and trains graduate students specializing in marriage and family therapy; and the Pediatric Development Research Laboratory. The facility is also home to the College of Education’s Belser-Parton Literacy Center.

“Important work takes place in this building. Combined with the primary mission of educating UA students, the expertise of the faculty and staff has an impact that is exponential,” Bonner said. “With their successful contract and grant activity, they touch the lives of young children and their families throughout our great state and beyond. I am so proud to have my name associated with their work.”

In 2012, the board of trustees unanimously elected Bonner to serve as the 28th president of the University. As president, she was credited with strengthening the diversity and inclusiveness of the student body, achieving new enrollment records, and leading the Crimson Tide to thrilling championships in athletics as well as successes in the pursuit of academic excellence and research.

Bonner began her distinguished UA career in 1981 as an associate professor before serving in several administrator positions including head of the department of nutrition and hospitality management, dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences, provost and vice president of academic affairs, provost and executive vice president, and president.

She has been honored with numerous UA awards during her career including the Amanda Grace Taylor Watson Distinctive Image Award in 2007 and 2015, Frances S. Summersell Award in 2010, Living Legend Award in 2015, and Distinguished Alumna Award from the UA National Alumni Association in 2016. Named in her honor and first awarded in 2016, the Judy Bonner Presidential Medallion recognizes a member of the UA community who has gone above and beyond normal expectations to change the culture or implement new initiatives designed to advance the Alabama experience.

A native of Camden, Bonner earned her bachelor’s degree in dietetics and master’s degree in food and nutrition from UA before receiving her doctorate in human nutrition from Ohio State University. Prior to embarking on a career as an educator, her breakthrough research in the dietary needs of cystic fibrosis patients led to significant improvements in the treatment of the disease.

Faculty Accolades

5/9/2022

Organizations outside of UA often recognize the accomplishments of our talented faculty. Interior Design senior instructor, Casey Faulkner, got a double dose this year. She was named the Dr. Mary Ann Potter Outstanding Educator of the year for 2021 by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and won Best in Show at a juried art show by the Central Alabama Artist Guild for her hand-crafted jewelry. Congratulations, Casey!