UALR’s Alumni Association honored 1963 graduate Dr. Galen Barbour and 1999 alum Jay Hartman, member of the UALR Board of Visitors, as 2009 recipients of the organization’s Distinguished Alumnus and President’s Award.

Barbour, the recipient of UALR’s first pre-med undergraduate degree, and Hartman will receive the University’s top alumni awards at a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 13, at the Little Rock Club.

Barbour, of Bethesda, Md., has been professor of preventive medicine and director of Health Services Administration in the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md., since 2000.

He has held academic and hospital administration appointments in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and several medical schools in Little Rock, Hampton, Va., and Washington, D.C. area. In Little Rock, he was on the UAMS Medical Center staff and associate professor at its College Of Medicine, on the consulting staff at Arkansas Baptist Medical Center, and served as director of the Arkansas VA Medical Center Hemodialysis Unit.

His wife, Carolyn, is a 1962 graduate of UALR.

Jay Hartman manages customer relations at Entergy Corp., handling regulatory complaints and requests from the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

He has held several positions with Entergy, the fourth largest investor-owned electric utility in the U.S., including manager of the Major Accounts Department. As manager of Resource and Operations, Hartman was responsible for developing programs and services for large commercial and industrial customers and managing the field resources and operations.

Hartman served as president of the UALR Alumni Association board in 2005-2006. He is as an officer and past president of the National Society of Black Engineers-Arkansas Alumni Extension Chapter, which sponsors a “Starting Block” program to encourage minority students to enter the engineering field. Hartman is active with the Transportation Advisory Council and Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Leadership program. He serves on the Second Baptist Church Board of Deacons and is vice chair of board of directors of Central Arkansas Water.

Hartman was recognized with Entergy’s humanitarian award in retail services in 1998 for the “Starting Block” program, selected by Arkansas Business as a “40 under 40” honoree in 2003, included in the Most Distinguished Black College and University Graduates list by U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine, and listed as one of Prairie View A&M University’s Distinguished Alumni Graduates.

He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Prairie View A&M University before his MBA from UALR. Married to Exa Hartman, an engineer with the Corps of Engineers, Hartman and his wife have two children, Jay, 14, and Janae, 8.