Benyam Muluneh moved to tenure-track in DPET - UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy

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Mariava Phillips
August 28, 2024

Benyam Muluneh, PharmD ‘10, assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (DPET) at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy has moved to a tenure-track position.

“Moving to the tenure-track is really a culmination of the investment that my mentors and collaborators have made to my development from a clinician to a researcher,” said Muluneh. “I am grateful to be in a position to work with diverse teams here in North Carolina and across the world to develop innovative and sustainable solutions for the delivery of cancer care.”

Muluneh received his Doctor of Pharmacy from the School in 2010 and completed both PGY1 (Pharmacy Practice) and PGY2 (Hematology/Oncology) residencies at UNC Medical Center. His research and scholarship are focused in hematology/oncology pharmacotherapy.

After residency, he practiced full time as a clinical pharmacist practitioner where he and his team established a pharmacist-led oral chemotherapy program which was designated with an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Best Practice Award in 2015. Muluneh has since co-authored the 2018 Hematology/Oncology Pharmacist Association Best Practices for the Management of Oral Oncolytic Therapy and the 2022 Oncology Nursing Society’s Guidelines to Support Patient Adherence to Oral Anticancer Medications.

Muluneh joined DPET in July 2019 as a full-time assistant professor. His ongoing research endeavors include developing strategies to improve medication adherence in clinical practice, optimizing tolerability and safety of chemotherapy in cancer patients, and promoting chemotherapy access and affordability to underinsured and uninsured cancer patients in the United States and beyond.

He also teaches in the PharmD curriculum and has a passion for international health. He is the co-director of the UNC-Ethiopia Alliance and serves as a preceptor for one of the Global Pharmacy Scholar experiences to Ethiopia.

“Dr. Muluneh has a unique combination of skills and experiences that integrate his clinical and research expertise in hematology/oncology pharmacotherapy, and DPET is thrilled to support his transition into a tenure-track faculty position,” said Craig Lee, PharmD, PhD, chair of DPET and John A. and Deborah S. McNeill, Jr. Distinguished Professor. “His research programs focus on the application of implementation science methods to improve medication adherence and use of cancer therapies in underserved populations, which offers enormous potential to improve patient care while enriching our education and training programs.”