“From the beginning, I was made to feel part of the team,” she says of her early years there. In 1981, she joined the faculty and began clinical investigation. She recalls Dr. Koopman’s encouragement for her lupus research, which began her “second career” at UAB. During her time at UAB, she also served as Arthritis Care & Research editor in chief, gained national prominence for the lupus research program, and was the 2011 recipient of the Evelyn V. Hess Award. Private foundation funding made it possible to bring Latin American rheumatologists to UAB for training. Now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, she maintains contact with UAB fellows, giving input to their research projects. She was especially gratified with the way in which UAB nurtured its trainees. “We have retained some of our fellows as faculty [Drs. Bridges, Curtis, Chatham, Danila, for example]. We have retained the best and the brightest.”
Graciela Alarcón, MD, MPH (left), with
Bevra Hahn, MD
When talented faculty move to other institutions, as has epidemiologist and rheumatologist Ted R. Mikuls, MD, MSPH, Umbach Professor of Rheumatology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, the division profits from continuing collaborations. When he was searching for a fellowship, Dr. Mikuls, now the Umbach Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, had already interviewed with Dr. Saag before the latter relocated to UAB. “The timing was perfect,” Dr. Mikuls recalls. After Dr. Saag joined the division, “I interviewed there at UAB. I had never seen myself going to the South, but they had a diverse, powerhouse group and were all very approachable. It was a great place and I’m glad I went there.”
