Story: Lisa Sollie | Photo: Cody Ingram

After nearly 25 years of teaching mathematics at the University of West Alabama, Kim Giles has earned one of the institution’s highest honors for classroom instruction.

During UWA’s spring commencement exercises held May 7-8, Giles received the 2026 William E. Gilbert Award for Outstanding Teaching, the honor awarded annually by the student body in recognition of excellence in undergraduate classroom instruction.

After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in industrial engineering, Giles eventually returned to her hometown of Livingston, where she found her calling in the classroom.

“It’s such a huge honor to have been nominated and recognized this way,” Giles said. “I’m very thankful and grateful that I get to go to work every day, and not feel like it’s a job, but something I was meant to do.”

Beyond her classroom responsibilities, Giles also serves as the College of Natural Science and Mathematics coordinator and liaison for the UWA Teach program, the STEM education initiative launched by the University in 2023. This program gives STEM majors an opportunity to explore teaching as a career path to see if it’s right for them.

“I’m the connection between NSM and the College of Education,” Giles explained. “I not only look out for NSM students who are in UWA Teach, but if I have a math or science student who I think would be a good fit for the program, I encourage them to pursue it. I’d rather students find out early if teaching isn’t for them rather than when they’re finishing up their degree.”

Outside the classroom, Giles volunteers with the Wesley Foundation alongside director Elizabeth Stone.

“I’m there every Monday and Thursday evenings when they have Bible studies, helping feed the students and fellowship with them,” she said.  “It’s one of my greatest joys each week.”

Though Giles once considered retiring after reaching the 25-year milestone, she now says she has no plans to step away from the work she loves.

“God put me here for a reason—to teach and encourage my students every day,” Giles said. “I always tell them, ‘You got this, and you got to believe.’ I’m happy, and I enjoy my work, so until the day comes that I don’t enjoy it anymore, I’m going to keep showing up and doing what He called me to do.”

As the recipient of the Gilbert Award, Giles will serve as macebearer and lead the faculty processional at the University’s commencement exercises in August, December, and again next May.

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Story: Lisa Sollie | Photo: Jordan Reese Lay

While college is often seen as a time for academic growth, Parker Woodham views his four years at the University of West Alabama a bit differently. Beyond lectures and exams, he describes his time at UWA as a period of personal transformation, one marked by self-discovery and growth that makes him proud.

An exercise science major and former preferred walk-on for the football team, Woodham stepped away from the program after his sophomore year. In doing so, he said his faith was renewed and he began an internship with the strength and conditioning program, where he worked with freshman football players.

Woodham’s interest in exercise science began in high school, where the all-state football player realized there was a gap between what he knew and how to apply it.

“I came from a 1A school. We didn’t have trainers or anyone working with us in the weight room. I understood the value of strength and conditioning—that exercise is medicine—but I didn’t have the knowledge or science to back it up. Being able to communicate that to someone effectively is something I gained through my exercise science classes at UWA.”

For Woodham, the field also carries personal significance: his family.

His parents had him as teenagers, continuing a pattern from the previous generation.  That family history, along with concerns with their long-term health, became a driving force behind his passion for exercise science.

“I could have found this information another way,” he said, “but UWA and this program are the reason I know what I know and why I’m as confident as I am. Seeing a change in my parents’ health helped me realize I can make an impact on others.”

Woodham is already seeing that impact through his internship.

“The freshman football players listen to my advice and trust me, and that’s reassuring,” he said. “I’ve built several connections with the students in the program that continue today, even with guys who have transferred.”

A first-generation college student, Woodham said he never fully envisioned what his college journey would look like. But once he arrived on campus and realized earning a degree was within reach, he committed to making it happen.

“I did really poorly academically my freshman year,” he said. “That was a wakeup call. I thought I had it all together, but I was wrong. The freedom and free time did a number on me, and I had to learn how to manage it. It also taught me to appreciate things I didn’t even realize I had back home. I decided I was going to be successful and be a good role model for my two younger sisters.”

Reflecting on his experience after being awarded his diploma May 8, Woodham said his time at UWA has been defined by growth. Finding his path, building relationships and discovering a career he’s passionate about have given him a renewed sense of purpose.

Next, Woodham plans to pursue a position as a personal trainer while working toward his Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification. But for him, the goal goes beyond a career.

He wants to keep making an impact at home—helping ensure his parents and grandparents are there for the milestones ahead, from his future marriage to raising a family of his own.

The post Building strength beyond the weight room appeared first on University of West Alabama.

Story: Lisa Sollie | Photo: Cody Ingram

In a small town in Brazil, Dr. Vania Assis grew up riding horses and tending pigs and chickens alongside her father, even helping butcher cattle when the need arose. Back then, she never imagined her love for the outdoors and animals would lead to a life in science.

Assis is now an assistant professor at the University of West Alabama, where she examines how amphibians respond to environmental challenges—integrating ecology, endocrinology, and immunology to better understand biodiversity conservation and disease resilience. She is also committed to bringing science to the community through public talks, field events, international collaborations, and hands-on experiences with local wildlife.

At UWA, that outreach is closely tied to the university’s Cahaba Biodiversity Center, where Assis conducts field research connecting conservation physiology with the Center’s mission to advance biodiversity research and education.

That commitment to education and opportunity is shaped by her own path. She and her brother are first-generation college students, fulfilling their mother’s dream of a better future through education.

“Mom wanted us to have more opportunities,” she said. “She never interfered in where or what we studied, she just encouraged us to earn a college degree.”

That encouragement led Assis to São Paulo State University (UNESP), one of Brazil’s largest and most respected public university systems, where she began her studies after her dream of becoming a medical doctor didn’t pan out. It was 2003, during the boom of the human genome, and like many others interested in biology at that time, Assis initially wanted to work in genetics.

When that wasn’t the right fit, she explored a wide range of research—from molecular biology working with trout, to studying depression models in mice within the pharmacology department. It wasn’t until she began working with amphibians, and understanding how hormones influence behavior and immune response, that she found her lifelong focus: protecting one of the most threatened groups of vertebrates.

Science also led her to learn English.

“I was doing research in endocrinology in college, and there was a book called, Behavioral Endocrinology, but the only copy was written in English,” Assis said with a laugh. “There was no Google Translate or ChatGPT back then—just me with printed pages and a dictionary. Although college was free at state universities, my brother and I didn’t live in our hometown, so our parents were paying for rent, food, and our expenses. Even though we were already in debt, I asked my mom for more money to start studying English. I knew I couldn’t move ahead in my field without it.”

After completing a one-year English course, Assis continued teaching herself by reading scientific papers. It wasn’t until her first six-month doctoral experience in the U.S. that her English improved dramatically. Even then, while she could talk about science, she lacked vocabulary for everyday conversations.

“Even now, in the classroom, I occasionally slip up and call water ’água,’” Assis said. “The other day, I was talking about a plant that changes color depending on the pH level of the soil, and I couldn’t think of the word in English. I knew in Portuguese we called it hortênsia—it was hydrangea,” she recalled.

While she hopes to inspire others with her love for amphibians through teaching, both in the classroom and at the CBC, Assis and her husband, Jefferson, have also been embracing their new life in Livingston since arriving last fall.

“In Brazil, I often spent two hours a day in traffic,” she said.  “Even when we lived in Tampa, I was constantly commuting on I-75, while my husband worked from home without access to a car.  Now, it takes just minutes to get to campus. We’re able to have lunch together every day and go to the gym. It’s the work-life balance we’d been missing all those years.”

For Assis, adapting to new places isn’t just a personal journey, it mirrors the way she believes science should be approached.

“If we only study what we know, we will only know what we study,” she said, a mindset she encourages her students to challenge.

Right now, she and her students are in what she calls ‘stage one’: learning what’s there.

“Take the CBC for example,” she said. “We don’t know yet which amphibians live there, so we’re working to document them through a survey. I visit the Center every other weekend, and I have two students working alongside me—Sophie Phillips a conservation and field biology major, and Pearl Davis, an integrated marketing communications major.”

Her goal is to create a comprehensive amphibian guide for the CBC, combining scientific research with visual storytelling. “Sophie and I are gathering the data, and Pearl will create the artwork,” Assis explained.

She envisions the guide as an interactive resource, either online or accessible through a QR code, where users could see images of each species and hear their calls. “Hearing the call is the best way to identify frogs, she said. “Salamanders don’t make noise, so for those, people will rely on visual identification.”

Perhaps in time, Assis’ love for amphibians will spill over to others at UWA. For now, she is embracing both the work and the life she has built in Livingston—one where science, family, and community are no longer competing, but finally in balance.

It’s a long way from the small town where she grew up, but in many ways, it’s starting to feel like home.

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