Diversity University

The University of Alabama has named a new diversity director. Sounds like she's well-qualified:

Bettina Byrd-Giles, who has served as director of Diversity UAB since 2000, has been named the director of the planned UA Crossroads Community Center, according to a UA statement released Wednesday afternoon.

Diversity UAB is a program that "provides diversity training for UAB faculty, staff and administration, as well as internal consulting to UAB departments," according to UAB's Web site.

While at UAB, Byrd-Giles founded Diversity University, a program that brought together students from six institutions in Birmingham to discuss diversity issues, and Interculture, a group of UAB students who organize celebrations of different ethnic holidays.

Byrd-Giles received a Birmingham Peacekeeper award from the United Nations Association of the U.S.'s Birmingham chapter for her work in founding Diversity University, according to UAB's Web site.

Byrd-Giles earned a bachelor's degree in foreign affairs at the University of Virginia and a master's degree in education from UAB. She also earned an Intercultural Foundations and Intercultural Practitioner's Certificate from the Intercultural Communications Institute in Portland, Ore.