Adam Persky, Ph.D., has been named a recipient of a 2017 Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. He will be honored along with one other recipient during the Opening General Session of this year’s AACP Annual Meeting, held July 15–19 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Persky is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. He joined the School in 2004, and he served as the director of the Center for Educational Excellence in Pharmacy from 2011 to 2013.
Persky has received several prestigious teaching awards, including Best Overall Instructor at the School, and he was named an Atlantic Coast Conference Teaching Scholar during the program’s inaugural year. He has published nearly 30 articles and given over 90 national and international workshops on teaching and learning, and he co-authored Foundations in Pharmacokinetics, a textbook that was released on iBooks earlier this year.
Since 2014, he has been the associate editor for the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and sits on the editorial board for College Teaching. Most recently, he co-chaired the Implementation Committee of the Quality Enhancement Plan – a part of the University’s reaffirmation process that describes a carefully designed and focused plan of action that enhances student learning. “Dr. Persky is well-known for his sustained contributions and excellence in understanding and enhancing student learning,” said Angela Kashuba, Pharm.D., chair of DPET and the John and Deborah McNeill Distinguished Professor. “He was a pioneer in implementing the flipped classroom in a rigorous and meaningful way. This award is well-deserved recognition of his leadership.”
Persky received his B.S. in biology from Purdue University in 1996 and his M.S. in exercise science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1998. He received his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Florida in 2002 before completing an industry-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics at UNC-Chapel Hill and GlaxoSmithKline.