BlouInsight, September 2009
September 2009
Pam Joyner, EdD; Adam Persky, PhD; Gary Pollack, PhD; and I traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona, for the AACP Curricular Change Summit held September 9 to 12 to present a position paper written along with our co-authors from the University of Florida and the Western New England School of Pharmacy.
AACP’s charge to us was to talk about the role of technology in pharmacy education. We’re well known for our partnership program with Elizabeth City State, but as many of you know, technology cannot stand alone in the classroom. Our paper was titled “Role of Innovation in Education Delivery,” and it engendered a very provocative discussion at the meeting.
We are seeing the leading edge of a new generation of learners entering pharmacy schools. They have grown up with the instant access to information afforded by the World Wide Web and have developed their own strategies for finding this information. They have little patience for a traditional lecture where an instructor presents the same information that can be found in a book. As a faculty, we agree that students deserve more at a research-intensive university such as Carolina and at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
It is our intention to continue to move content delivery (i.e. book learning) out of the classroom. While it is crucial that students have a solid foundation of information and a grasp of core concepts, they can gain this information outside of the classroom setting. Time spent in class should leverage the strength of the faculty member teaching the course to assess the information students have and teach critical thinking skills.
I know I have spoken to you a number of times before about our educational renaissance initiatives here at the School. I am telling you about this meeting because I would like us all to be more aware of our role as a national leader in this area and the obligation we have to continue on this path. We will soon begin a curricular strategic-planning process and conduct a faculty retreat on this issue in January. I will also seek the involvement of student leaders to help us make this the finest pharmacy program in the country.
Faculty
| The American Chemical Society has announced that Michael T. Crimmins, senior associate dean for the natural sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has been awarded the 2010 Ernest Guenther Award for outstanding achievement in the chemistry of natural products. |
Mary Roth McClurg, PharmD, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. | |
| A paper coauthored by Gary Pollack, PhD, has been selected by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists for the 2009 AAPS Pharmaceutical Research Meritorious Manuscript Award. The paper, “Kinetic Considerations for the Quantitative Assessment of Efflux Activity and Inhibition: Implications for Understanding and Predicting the Effects of Efflux Inhibition,” proposes a new way of analyzing data gleaned from experiments exploring how drugs move through the body. Pollack’s coauthor is John Corey Kalvass, PhD, a former graduate student in Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics who now works for Eli Lilly. |
Students
PharmD student Adam Overberg was a winner of the RXportfolios National Achievement Award. The National Achievement Award is judged on the quality and completeness of the contestants’ RXportfolios, and each school of pharmacy can have only one winner.
Bob Schuck, PharmD, a graduate student in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics, has received a $2,000 grant from the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute. His study will try to determine whether cardiovascular disease patients who have a genetic variation of the enzyme 5-lipoxygenase have higher levels of leukotrienes, which promotes inflammation. Assistant professor Craig Lee, PhD, is Schuck’s adviser.
Stedman Stevens, a graduate student in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, presented a poster at the annual meeting of the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics on September 23 in Washington, D.C. The presentation was titled “Pharmacogenomic Medical Education meets the Business of Medicine.” The abstract is based on his work with Assistant Professor Lynn Dressler, PhD, and can be viewed at www.nchpeg.org.
Staff
Barbara Jones has returned to the School from the Department of Psychology to serve as our new director of finance. Prior to serving as the psychology department's accounting manager, Jones was the accounting tech for DPET.
Michelle Martensen joins the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy as a social/clinical research assistant.
School
The 2009 State Employees Combined Campaign has begun with Lisa Dinkins, PharmD; Casey Emerson; Adam Persky, PhD; and Krista Williams leading the School’s efforts. Our goal is to raise $20,000 in donations and pledges, which is an approximate 10 percent increase over last year. For more information about the campaign, visit: www.ncsecc.org, which has a description of the more than 800 charities.