UAB President Dr. Ray Watts to speak at April Chamber luncheon

The Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce has selected UAB President Dr. Ray Watts as their speaker for their April luncheon. Birmingham native and graduate of West End High School, Dr. Watts earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering at UAB in 1976. 

He attended medical school at Washington University at St. Louis and was class valedictorian at graduation. Dr. Watts completed a medical internship, neurology residency and clinical fellowships at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a two-year medical staff fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. Before returning to UAB in 2003, he was part of a team that helped to create an internationally renowned research and clinical center for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders at Emory University in Atlanta.

At UAB, Dr. Watts served as the John N. Whitaker Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology. He played a key role in the establishment of the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center and was also was named president of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation. In 2010, Dr. Watts accepted the position of Senior Vice President and Dean of the School of Medicine at UAB.

He has been tireless in his efforts to enhance medical student training from increasing available scholarships to supporting Equal Access Birmingham. Dr. Watts and his wife Nancy, who just retired as a nurse at UAB, have five children.

The luncheon will be held Tuesday, April 8 from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Vestavia Country Club. Reservations must be received by 4 p.m. the Friday before the luncheon and the cost is $18. Late reservations cost $25. For more, visit vestaviahills.org.