UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine E-Edition 2017 | Page 10

THANK YOU NOTES
MICHAEL BERTRAM
MONA FOUAD
Associate Director for Administration at
the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center
I greatly appreciate the
opportunity Dr. Partridge
has given me to work at the
UAB Comprehensive Cancer
Center. It has truly been the
best professional experience of
my career. It has been tremendous for me to be along
for the ride as he revived and led the Cancer Center to
new heights. His character-driven leadership has been
inspirational to me personally.
Professor and Senior Associate Dean in the
School of Medicine and Division Director
in the UAB Department of Preventive
Medicine
I have had the pleasure of working
side by side with Ed Partridge for
20 years. One of his core principles
has remained constant since the
beginning: Research must lead to improving the lives of
people in communities. Ed’s passion for research and his
big heart for doing good drives his science.
CLAUDIA HARDY
Program Director of the Cancer Center’s
Community Outreach Office
KIRBY BLAND
Professor and Chair Emeritus of the UAB
Department of Surgery, Senior Advisor to
the Director of the UAB Comprehensive
Cancer Center
We considered Ed Partridge
the consummate leader and
coinvestigator who led and
championed diversity research
begun in breast, cervical and uterine carcinomas. As a
coinvestigator on these projects, he oversaw mentoring
for the development of grants, foundation support, NIH
awards and local philanthropy.
The state and UAB are indebted to Ed Partridge for his
insight and progressive leadership in this seminal effort
that truly moved cancer therapy and the Cancer Center
into the 21st century. We are grateful for the major
achievements provided during his leadership as the Cancer
Center director.
We wish Ed and Barbara well in his retirement as they enter
a new phase in their life.
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C O M P R E H E N S I V E
C A N C E R
Dr. Partridge and I met at
Tuskegee University in 1997. We
were a part of a work-group
where I shared my experiences
growing up in the Black Belt and
the role that the church then
played as a sphere of influence for minorities. When I went
to work for Dr. Partridge, my first major responsibility
was a project that tests the effectiveness of using rural
Community Health Advisors to promote and increase
mammography and cervical cancer screenings for African
American women in several underserved counties. We
were able to show our viability and subsequently use this
data to receive a key grant which began the Deep South
Network for Cancer Control.
Dr. Partridge has always referred to me as his “right
hand” in managing the Cancer Center’s community-based
outreach and research initiatives. As my boss, mentor
and leader, he has allowed me to be assertive, bold,
courageous and creative while we came up with innovative
ways to reach the medically underserved. Through this
work, Dr. Partridge allowed me the opportunity to have a
meaningful career that is much more than a job.
C E N T E R