06/27/2025
MAH would like to take a moment to recognize our amazing Alabama Accreditation Coordinator, Alicia Cowan. Alisha is soon graduating and moving on to a new chapter and will be missed tremendously. Anyone who was lucky enough to work with Alicia knows this very well!
Here are a couple of examples of this:
Paula Pierce said, I will miss Alicia, she has been, not only an Amazing co-worker, but a wonderful friend! So happy for her, now she can enjoy her Grandbabies and travel doing her Mission Trips and helping others! She has the Biggest Heart and has been a true joy to work with!
Dr. Corum had this to say about workinh with her. I have had the pleasure and the honor of working with Ms. Cowan for the past 13 years, first as a clinical dentist at the Limestone Facility in North Alabama, then as the Statewide Dental Director for Alabama, and finally as the Corporate Dental Director for Mid America Professional Group. Ms. Cowan was the hygienist at Limestone in 2012, when I took the dentists position there. She was a tremendous help to me in learning the ropes since this was my first experience with correctional dentistry, after 25 years of private practice. Ms. Cowan had been working in corrections for a number of years prior to that time and she pretty much knew everything there was to know about how the system worked at that time, and I had a lot to learn.
We hung on through some pretty rough times until Mid America Health took the dental contract in April of 2018. We were a little nervous about the change of management since we didn’t know anything about Mid America Health at that time. We soon discovered that it was the difference between night and day as far as the management style and accessibility was concerned, and things got a lot better after April of 2018 in so many ways.
Mid America recognized that due to her years of working in corrections both as a hygienist and a manager for prior contracts, which took her to all the facilities across the state of Alabama, that she was uniquely qualified to take the role of Accreditation Coordinator for the ALDOC dental program. Ms. Cowan accepted the position and continued to work in that capacity from 2019 until now.
I fondly remember all the times when Ms. Cowan and I crisscrossed the state together from the Tennessee state line to the Florida state line, from the Limestone facility to the Holman/Fountain facilities, doing audits and site visits, orienting new staff, putting out fires, counseling as needed, giving moral support when needed, and enjoying the camaraderie at our annual meetings. The dental staff, as well as the Mid America folks, just knew that Ms. Cowan was somebody they could depend on to handle whatever situation arose, with professionalism and grace.
So now the time has come for Ms. Cowan to “graduate” to a new phase of life – a phase that will probably not require the putting out of so many fires, not hearing the phone ring at 4:00 o’clock in the morning, and that will involve time to travel, visit with friends, and of course, spend more time the grandkids. We want to congratulate her on her many years of faithful service to Mid America Health and to the Alabama Department of Corrections and we wish her the best in this new phase of life going forward. Alicia, know that you will be greatly missed but that we wish you health, abundance, and happiness for all your future endeavors.
Alicia, on behalf of MAH, thank you for all that you have given to make us a better team! We wish you the best and will always be your work family!