Armando De Alba Rosales, M.D., is IDEA winner

University of Nebraska President Ted Carter Friday announced the 2020 recipients of the university system’s most prestigious faculty awards for teaching, research and engagement — and UNMC’s Armando De Alba Rosales, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion, College of Public Health, is a 2020 Innovation, Development and Engagement Award (IDEA) winner.

The university-wide President’s Excellence Awards recognize faculty whose work has had a significant impact on students, the university and the state.

“The University of Nebraska exists to transform lives and communities. Our faculty, who are among the best in the world at what they do, carry out that mission every day in classrooms, labs and fields across our state,” Carter said. “It’s an honor to serve among such talented and dedicated colleagues and to celebrate their work and impact. I thank these faculty for all they do for our 51,000 students and people in our state and around the world.”

Award recipients are selected by a system-wide committee of faculty members and, in the case of the engagement award, community members. They will be honored at a luncheon hosted by Carter this spring.

“Armando embodies the ideals and vision of our university in multiple ways within our institution and beyond the boundaries,” said nominator Jame Meza, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for global engagement at UNMC and UNO. “I have known Armando for more than nine years and have directly observed his leadership, commitment, and dedication to protect and improve the health of the communities at the local, state, and global levels. Additionally, he is among the few faculty members who have engaged multiple colleges from multiple University of Nebraska campuses (UNMC and UNO) with international academic and governmental settings. He has a natural sense of connecting academia, government, and private industry.”

Dr. De Alba said he was humbled and honored to receive the prestigious award.
“First off, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, friends, mentors and others who have guided me throughout my career,” he said. “This award is the culmination of the trust, commitment, persistence, diversity and team effort of people whom I have had the privilege to work with. It is an enormous pleasure for me to be part of this great institution. I will continue to maintain the values of the university, in its local, national and worldwide mission.”

Even as a master’s student at UNMC, Dr. De Alba embodied the university’s commitment to improving the health of its community, working for the Consulate of Mexico as a coordinator of a health care program that served immigrant communities in Nebraska and Iowa.

Later as a full-time UNMC employee, Dr. De Alba assisted the consulate in partnering with local organizations to provide free health screenings and vaccinations for underserved communities. He also established and raised funds for an eye care program for the consulate.

Dr. De Alba has served as a Health Disparities Fellow for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Office of Minority Health, identifying strategies for communicating health promotion and disease prevention information to Hispanics with limited English proficiency. The FDA has incorporated some of his recommendations into its Spanish web materials.

During the 2015 Ebola crisis, when UNMC served as a treatment site, Dr. De Alba volunteered to help keep the Spanish-speaking community informed.

As a faculty member, De Alba teaches courses that address health care for the underserved, community-oriented primary care and foundations of public health, enriching UNMC students’ cultural competence while also advancing the cause of health equity.