June 26, 2020
Stefanie Ferreri, Pharm.D., has been named the Henry L. Smith and James L. Olsen, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor in Pharmacy Practice at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
About the professorship, Henry Smith, of Farmville, N.C., finished his UNC pharmacy degree in 1972, after beginning at Campbell. After graduation, he taught pharmaceutical manufacturing to students at the School with James Olsen. Olsen left Clark Cleveland, a small pharmaceutical company, in 1968 to join the School’s faculty as assistant professor of pharmacy and director of the Drug Product Development Program in the School, under Dean George Philip Hager.
Together, Smith and Olsen started Carolina Medical Products, located in Farmville. Smith sold the company about 10 years ago, and renamed this professorship in 2016 to include Olsen.
“This University has always aimed to serve our state and its citizens, so I am particularly pleased to hold this professorship named for two pharmacists who served their own North Carolina community so well. We have a spectacular faculty and I hope to guide them and provide the resources they need to push pharmacy to the forefront of health care in this state,” Ferreri said.
Ferreri currently serves as the Chair of the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Her main research interests include advancing clinical practice in the community pharmacy setting. Through her research, she hopes to change the way community practice is portrayed and delivered to the population of the United States while influencing reimbursement strategies that affect health policy. Her other teaching and research interests include nonprescription therapeutics, medication management and team-based care.
Prior to serving as chair, Ferreri served as director of the community pharmacy residency program from 2004 to 2015. Prior to that she served as a preceptor for the program. Since 2001, she has supervised and mentored more than 100 community pharmacy residents. The purpose of the community pharmacy residency program is to prepare pharmacists to guide the profession as innovative clinical practitioners with the skills, confidence and experience necessary to create change and advance patient-care services in community pharmacy practice.
Based on her residency leadership, Ferreri also developed two additional postgraduate learning opportunities. The first is the Community Pharmacy Research Fellowship. This two-year fellowship trains graduates for research careers in academia. The second is the Independent Pharmacy Ownership Residency. This one-year residency trains future independent owners.