February 26, 2009
Nine faculty members from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy attended the Lilly South Conference on College and University Teaching at UNC Greensboro on February 20-22.
Lilly Conferences combine workshops, discussion sessions, and major addresses with opportunities for informal discussion about excellence in college and university teaching and learning. Internationally known scholars join new and experienced faculty members and administrators from around the world to discuss a variety of topics. This year’s theme was “Millennial Learning: Teaching in the 21st Century.”
The faculty members who represented the School at the conference were: Tracie Christian-Rothrock, PharmD; Huyla Coker, PharmD; Wendy Cox, PharmD, BCPS; Lisa Dinkins, PharmD; Peter Koval, PharmD, BCPS; Susan Miller, PharmD, MBA, BCPS; Adam Persky, PhD; Jo Ellen Rodgers, PharmD; and Joan Settlemyer, PharmD.
Coker, Persky, and Settlemyer made a presentation titled “Bringing Experiential Education into the Classroom: Service Learning in the Professional Classroom”. Service learning was one of the themes of the conference, and these faculty have incorporated service-learning experiences into their elective courses — Public Health Perspectives and Pharmacy, Foundations in Exercise Prescription, and Medication Therapy Management, respectively. The presentation provided an overview of the lessons they learned and the challenges they faced in implementing service-learning experiences. They also discussed the short- and long-term impact of those experiences and projects on students, faculty, and the community.
The faculty who attended had a very positive experience at the conference, Persky says.
“I think we came away with three important things,” Persky says. “The first thing was ideas on how to better engage students in their learning both in the classroom and on their experiential experiences. The second is the importance of the instructor in not only designing the learning experience but also setting the tone for the learning environment — the faculty are a very powerful influence on the students. Finally, the Lilly meeting is always a great place to revisit the reasons we decided to go into an educational environment in the first place. It is energizing to be around other faculty from other disciplines who care about student learning”
The Lilly Conference will be offered in Greensboro, North Carolina, again in mid- to late-February 2010.
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