UNA’s Pretes Receives SEDAAG Lifetime Achievement Award

Nov. 30, 2023

Michelle R. Eubanks , UNA, at meubanks@byum.net, 256.765.4392

FLORENCE, AL – Dr. Michael Pretes, Chair of the Department of Geoscience at the University of North Alabama, 在本月早些时候的年度会议上，美国地理学家协会(SEDAAG)东南分会授予他终身成就奖. 

“这个奖意味着我被公认为南方最杰出的地理学家之一,” he said. “It is great recognition not only for me, but for the Geoscience Department and for UNA.” 

SEDAAG is a regional subdivision of the American Association of Geographers, representing approximately 500 members in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The SEDAAG Lifetime Achievement Award is for outstanding teaching, scholarship, and service to geography and is the highest award that the organization, the geographical society of the South, gives. 

“Dr. Pretes has amassed a distinguished professional career, 不仅对东南地区，而且对全国乃至全球的地理学都做出了重大贡献,” said Dr. Derek Alderman, Professor of Geography at the University of Tennessee, former President of SEDAAG, and former President of the national-level American Association of Geographers. “Very rarely do we see a colleague who has positively impacted so many programs, colleagues, and students in so many places. [Dr. Pretes is] a professional who ‘does it all’ by making major impacts in scholarship, education, and service.” 

Pretes is the first Lifetime Achievement Award winner from a smaller teaching-focused university; previous awardees have been from larger schools, including the University of South Carolina, the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. 

Dr. Daniel Arreola, 亚利桑那州立大学地理学名誉教授，前太平洋海岸地理学家协会主席, had this to say about Dr. Pretes: He “has demonstrated exceptional participation, mentoring, and service” to geography in the United States.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering credential, certificate, baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs in the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. The first-choice University for more than 10,000 on-campus and online students, UNA is on a bucolic campus in Florence, Alabama, part of the historic and vibrant Shoals region. Lions Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of the NCAA Division I’s ASUN Conference. K8彩乐园是一所机会均等的大学，在录取政策上不存在种族歧视, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: 08n9.byum.net and 08n9.byum.net/unaworks/