Adam M. Persky, Ph.D., has been promoted to clinical professor. He served previously as a clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics.
Persky has been at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy since 2004. From 2011 to 2013 he was the director of the Center for Educational Excellence in Pharmacy where he worked to promote innovative teaching practices at the School.
Persky was the first to introduce the flipped classroom model to the School, which became a core part of the School’s curriculum in 2015. He’s also credited with bringing the first multimedia tools to School classrooms, introducing the clicker system, ExamSoft and the process of scaffolding, a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process.
In 2017, Persky received the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award. He has been named Instructor of the Year at the School twice and Best Overall Instructor three times. He’s also received two Academic Excellence Awards in Teaching from the School, bringing his total teaching award count to 13. In addition, Persky has led over 100 national and international workshops on teaching and learning.
Persky’s research is mainly in teaching and learning, and he is the author or co-author on more than 80 publications with 40 of them focusing on education. His papers have an h-index, the metric that measures the productivity and citation impact of the publications of a scholar, of eight, which external reviewers called significant.
Finally, Persky has served as member and chair of the School’s curriculum committee as well as chair of the capstone experience committee, among others. His service extends to the university level where he is a member of multiple university-wide teaching committees. In the professional sphere, he’s served committees of the AACP and been an associate editor at the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.
“Dr. Persky’s work laid the foundation for our School’s educational renaissance and new curricular approaches,” said Angela Kashuba, Pharm.D., John A. and Deborah S. McNeill Jr. Distinguished Professor and chair of DPET. “I believe he has met all of the requirements for promotion to clinical professor.”
Persky received an M.S. in exercise science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Florida.