November 1, 2010
Betsy Sleath, PhD, has been appointed chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She has also been named the George H. Cocolas Distinguished Professor.
Sleath has served as interim director of the division since the former chair Michael D. Murray stepped down in March.
“In her role as interim division chair, Betsy Sleath has clearly demonstrated her leadership ability and vision for DPOP by mentoring junior faculty and developing a high-impact strategic plan for the division,” says Bob Blouin, dean of the School. “She has also worked to build valuable partnerships with the UNC School of Medicine, the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.
“Her dedication to the School and impact on it are obvious to all who know her, and it is my great privilege to appoint her to this vital leadership role.”
Sleath joined the School in 1995, and her work focuses on physician-patient communication about medication and health issues, ethnic and racial differences in medication use, and health behavior and medication adherence. She is principal investigator on a $2.65 million grant from the National Eye Institute to study how physician-patient communication affects health outcomes in glaucoma patients. She is also principal investigator on a $1.6 million grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute for a project that looks at how communication between pediatricians and children with asthma and their caregivers is related to asthma control and children outcomes.
Sleath served on the Food and Drug Administration Risk Communication Advisory Committee from 2008 to 2010, which advises the agency on ways to improve communication with the public about the risks and benefits of FDA-regulated products. She is also past chair of the social and administrative science section of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. She is codirector of the Community Engagement Core of the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute and a research fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.
Sleath received her PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BS in pharmacy and a BA in sociology from the University of Connecticut.