The mission of the ‘Mike’ Wilson Gift is to support service projects, teaching endeavors, and speakers or panels that lift the vision of ‘Mike’ Wilson. This includes topics related to gender and health.

Upcoming Event: The first event sponsored by the ‘Mike’ Wilson Gift and hosted by UAB Sociology is a lecture by Chloe E. Bird, PhD, FAAAS, FAAHB on October 10, 2025. Dr. Bird is the Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at Tufts Medical Center and Sara Murray Jordan Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Learn more about the inaugural talk.

Dr. Michele ‘Mike’ Wilson was a sociology professor and activist who was devoted to better conditions for women. She retired as Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2008 and continued working for the university for several years afterwards. She had a large following of students and won Outstanding Teacher of the Year at UAB. She taught Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, the Sociology of Gender, and Deviance. She started and directed the Women’s Studies Program at UAB. In 2006, she received the UAB President’s Diversity Champion Award.

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