Harold Kohn, PhD, a William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received one of two Faculty Mentoring Awards from the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council.
The awards, which carry a $5,000 stipend, recognize outstanding faculty members who make extra efforts to guide, mentor, and lead students or junior faculty members as they make career decisions, embark on research challenges, and enrich their lives through public service, teaching and educational opportunities. Kohn received this year’s award for faculty-to-faculty mentoring, while the award for faculty-to-student mentoring went to Sandra Martin, PhD, associate dean for research in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Kohn joined the School in 1999 and served as chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products until 2005. During that time, he recruited five junior faculty members to the division. All five have been promoted and received tenure, and the division has grown to twelve faculty members.
“Hal began by building the unit from the bottom up,” wrote Dean Bob Blouin and current division chair Alex Tropsha, who nominated Kohn for the award. “He recruited five junior faculty members in six years and served as their mentor. He carefully monitored their development, guided them when appropriate, but most importantly, he enabled them to grow in the directions they sought. …
“Significantly, the base that Hal created has allowed us to hire senior faculty members that have elevated the national reputation of the group.”
Kohn is also director of the School’s Bill and Karen Campbell Faculty Mentoring Program, the first sponsored program of its kind among the nation’s pharmacy schools. The program began in 2006 as an effort to help junior faculty adjust to life at the University and to succeed professionally and personally.
On the research side, Kohn’s lab is credited with discovering lacosamide, an agent in the treatment of epilepsy and diabetic neuropathy.
The Carolina Women’s Leadership Council is a volunteer committee formed during UNC’s Carolina First Campaign, a major fundraising drive that ended in 2007. The council remains engaged with the University, and members have raised more than $260,000 to endow the mentoring awards to support faculty.