Pharm.D. students at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy selected the Instructor of the Year award winners for 2018-19, honoring the winners at the annual awards ceremony on April 13.
The Instructor of the Year award recognizes one course instructor from each year of the Pharm.D. curriculum who demonstrates the highest qualities of instructional ability and an interest in both the students and the educational programs of the school.
- Overall Instructor of the Year Award: Philip Rodgers, Pharm.D.
- PY3 Instructor of the Year Award: Kathryn Morbitzer, Pharm.D., M.S.
- PY2 Instructor of the Year Award: Suzanne Harris, Pharm.D.
- PY1 Instructor of the Year Award: Carol Otey, Ph.D.
Philip Rodgers
Philip Rodgers is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education and serves as the Director of Interprofessional Education and Practice at the School. He coordinates several courses in the School, including Integrative Pharmacotherapy 2 (PHCY 732), and the Patient Care Experience 2 (PHCY 718), as well as teaching in other courses such as Patient Care Experience 1 and Pharmacotherapy Foundations. He also serves as a faculty advisor for the Carolina Association of Pharmacy Students (CAPS) and to Kappa Psi Professional Pharmacy Fraternity.
Rodgers received his B.S.Pharm. and his Pharm.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill. After earning his Pharm.D., he completed a pharmacy residency in ambulatory care at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond, Virginia. His areas of scholarship and teaching are primary care pharmacy practice, chronic disease management and innovative pharmacy education programs. Rodgers has been named a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Prior to joining the School, Rodgers was a clinical pharmacist and faculty in ambulatory care at Duke University Hospital.
“Dr. Rodgers’ expansive knowledge and expertise has always inspired the Class of 2019, but it was also always very clear that he respected us as student pharmacists as much as we respected him,” said Taylor Dennison, the Class of 2019 president. “Ultimately, he cared for us as people — our professional successes were just as important as our ability to learn and our personal successes.”
Kathryn Morbitzer
Kathryn Morbitzer is an assistant professor of clinical education in PACE and the curriculum design and innovation director within the Office of Curricular Innovation. Morbitzer works closely with the faculty, students, partners, and leadership in teaching pharmacotherapy courses and promoting and ensuring curricular innovation and sustainability.
Morbitzer received her Pharm.D. from Wayne State University in 2012. She then completed a pharmacy practice residency at the Medical University of South Carolina and an academic research fellowship at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Morbitzer received her Master’s in Biomedical and Health Informatics from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2017.
Suzanne Harris
Suzanne Harris is a clinical assistant professor in PACE, and also serves as a clinical pharmacy specialist in psychiatry at UNC Medical Center and as the UNC Health Care experiential director. Harris has directed the Applied Pharmacotherapy course at the School. Additionally, she was extremely involved in leading the School’s inaugural Week of Wellness events this year.
Harris’ career and research interests are in transitions of care for psychiatric patients, experiential training, and innovative practice models and teaching strategies. Harris received her Pharm.D. in 2002 from the University of Texas College of Pharmacy and completed a psychiatric specialty residency with Kaiser Permanente Colorado Region in Denver.
Carol Otey
Carol Otey is a professor of cell biology and physiology at the UNC School of Medicine. Otey studies the molecular basis of normal, regulated cell movement to understand how this fundamental process is controlled and how it is subverted to give rise to pathological situations. She teaches Pharm.D. coursework in disease pathophysiology.
Otey came to UNC as a postdoctoral fellow in 1987 and joined the School of Medicine as an assistant professor in 1998. She was promoted to associate professor in 2004. She received her Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of California, Los Angeles.