Lynn Gerald, PhD, Canyon Ranch Endowed Chair and professor of health promotion sciences at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, received the Alumni Achievement Award from The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The Alumni Achievement Award is UABs highest honor, awarded to prominent alumni who have achieved distinction in their professions. The award highlights the diverse talents, notable accomplishments, and extraordinary service of alumni and is reserved for those with a history of excellence in their careers.

Dr. Gerald is a nationally known expert in the area of school based asthma including implementation of asthma management programs, school based asthma case detection, and internet based asthma monitoring. She also has extensive experience in the areas of clinical, behavioral and epidemiological research in asthma, COPD, and tuberculosis.

She is a prominent researcher who has had major roles in federally funded grants on asthma and school health, and is the lead or co-author on numerous published papers in referred journals. Among her many honors, she has been recognized by the American Thoracic Society Behavioral Science Assembly (2014 Lifetime Achievement Award and 2014 Health Equality Award for Clinical Programs), and the UAB School of Medicine (2006 Max Cooper Award for Research Excellence). She also received the UAB William C. Bailey Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention and Control Research in 1999.

Dr. Gerald is actively involved in professional and community education related to asthma and has served on many national and local boards including the American Thoracic Society Board of Directors and the American Lung Association of Southern Arizona Board of Directors. She currently serves as principal investigator of the American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Center at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Gerald graduated from UAB with a B.S. in Psychology (1990) and Ph.D. in Medical Sociology (1997).