A Greenville native has been named President of the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association (AMAA). Dr. Betty Ruth Speir of Point Clear was installed as president on February 3 during the annual Medical Alumni Weekend at the Renaissance Rodd Bridge Golf Resort and Hotel in Birmingham.

Speir is the daughter of the late Dr. Phillip Speir, who practiced medicine in Greenville for many years and operated the old Speir Hospital in the city.

A graduate of Greenville High School, she received her BS degree from the University of Alabama and her MD from the University of Alabama College of Medicine in Birmingham. Following her internship and residency in OB/Gyn in Birmingham and at Mobile General Hospital in Mobile, Speir entered private practice in Mobile and Fairhope.

Speir served as professor of general surgery at the University of South Alabama and is still on the clinical faculty there. She has served as president of the American Society for Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology and has just completed a chapter for the 10th edition of TeLinde's Operative Gynecology. She recently did a CME program for WedMD (Medscape) on the psychological aspects of pelvic surgery.

&#8220We are thrilled to have Betty Ruth as our president. She is a fine physician and simply an outstanding person,” said Elaine Chambless, executive director of the AMAA.