Mary Roth McClurg, Pharm.D., M.H.S., has been named to the new position of executive vice dean for academic affairs at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
Interim Dean Dhiren Thakker, Ph.D., appointed Roth McClurg to the post on March 1. She was promoted to the rank of full professor in the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education in February.
“Our School’s mission is very broad and very deep, and we are not satisfied with just pursuing this mission to the best of our abilities. We constantly stretch ourselves in all that we do,” Thakker said. “As a result, we have a many consequential initiatives and projects underway at any given time. Over the past decade, Mary has been at the center of our efforts to advance this school and a vital part of every success we have had. Her dedication to the well-being of our School, our students, our faculty and our staff is unmatched.”
As executive vice dean, Roth McClurg will assist the dean in ensuring that the academic programs of the School are being offered at the highest level. The position’s major areas of responsibility include oversight of strategic planning, assessment, and continuous quality improvement; academic innovation in alignment with the mission of the Eshelman Institute for Innovation; synergistic integration of academic programs, educational research and the advancement of pharmacy practice; and faculty well-being.
McClurg will work closely with Rick Wernoski, M.P.A., executive vice dean and chief operating officer to support the Dean and the School’s leadership in fostering a culture of continuous pursuit of excellence, open communication, diversity of thought and engagement and seeking to develop and promote the talents and leadership of the School’s faculty, staff and students, Thakker said.
Roth-McClurg will continue to serve as associate director for academic innovation for the Eshelman Institute for Innovation.
Roth McClurg joined the School in 1998 as a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. At that time, she was also practicing as a clinical pharmacist in primary care at the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center. By November 2002, she was with the School full-time as an assistant professor in DPET and practicing as a clinical pharmacist in outpatient geriatrics at UNC before moving to the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy in 2005. She was promoted to associate professor in 2009 and later joined PACE.
Roth McClurg has been one of the leaders of the design, implementation and evaluation of the School’s transformative new Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum designed to better position students to meet the health-care needs of society. She was one of the primary drivers behind the School’s development of its 2012–2017 Strategic Plan. She served as director of the School’s Office of Strategic Planning and Assessment from 2009 to 2013 and was responsible for establishing new processes for using data to guide decision-making, strategic planning and monitoring of plan progress, and for creating a culture of planning, assessment and continuous quality improvement.
Roth McClurg completed her Pharm.D. and residency training at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and received her Masters of Health Sciences in clinical research from Duke University School of Medicine. She is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.