OXFORD, Miss. – Four faculty members in the University of
Mississippi School of Pharmacy have been recognized through
the Distinguished Teaching Scholars Program, which rewards
faculty for teaching excellence and dedication to student
achievement.
John P. Bentley, associate professor of pharmacy
administration, and Alicia S. Bouldin, associate professor
of pharmacy administration and research associate professor
for instructional assessment and advancement, have been
named Thelma H. Cerniglia Distinguished Teaching Scholars.
Christopher R. McCurdy, associate professor of medicinal
chemistry and pharmacology, is the Dean’s Advisory
Committee Distinguished Teaching Scholar, and John M.
Rimoldi, associate professor of medicinal chemistry, is the
inaugural Galen Order Distinguished Teaching Scholar.
All of the awards include an annual stipend for three
years.
“Teaching is a very high priority within the School of
Pharmacy,” Dean Barbara G. Wells said. “The recipients of
this recognition are not only excellent teachers, but they
care passionately about student learning and student
welfare. They serve as a source of expertise, guidance and
inspiration to other faculty who wish to improve in this
area.”
The program was established in 2005 and is funded through
gifts from the estate of Thelma H. Cerniglia and members of
the Dean’s Advisory Committee and Galen Order.
Full-time faculty members with more than four years of
service at UM are eligible and must be nominated for the
awards. A committee evaluates nominees and makes a
recommendation to the dean.
“These four teaching scholars exemplify the overall quality
of our faculty,” said Marvin C. Wilson, associate dean for
academic and student affairs. “The faculty are dedicated to
continuously improving their skills and abilities related
to their activities in the classroom, laboratory or at a
patient’s bedside. This quest for continuous improvement is
a hallmark of the school and has resulted in its continuous
national recognition as one of the premier pharmacy
schools.”
Bentley was on sabbatical in 2007-08 while enrolled in a
graduate program in biostatistics at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham. His teaching in the professional
pharmacy curriculum focuses on the organization, delivery,
financing and outcomes of health care, and he teaches
applied statistics courses at the graduate level. His
research focuses on understanding how medications and the
medication consumption experience affect quality of life.
Bouldin is involved in the facilitation of assessment
activities at both the programmatic and classroom levels,
as well as faculty and teaching assistant development
activities, including the promotion of the use of
instructional technology within the School of Pharmacy. Her
classroom efforts include directing the Professional
Communications in Pharmacy course and participating as a
guest lecturer in other courses.
This is the second time that Bentley and Bouldin have been
named Thelma H. Cerniglia Distinguished Teaching Scholars.
McCurdy was named Teacher of the Year by the school’s first
professional-year class in 2003 and 2006, and he received
the 2007 School of Pharmacy Faculty Research Award. He was
named an American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
Academic Leadership Fellow in 2005. McCurdy has nine
graduate students and three post-doctoral fellows in his
laboratory, and he conducts research focused on new
treatments for drug addiction, analgesics and novel
antibiotic therapies. This is his second time to receive
the Dean’s Advisory Committee Distinguished Teaching
Scholar award.
Rimoldi teaches pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics to
third-year students. His research focuses on bioactive
amines, in-vitro drug metabolism and small-molecule enzyme
probes, and he is authoring a medicinal chemistry textbook
for a major publisher. Awards during his 12 years in
pharmacy education include the university’s Faculty
Achievement Award and the pharmacy school’s Faculty Service
Award.
For more information on the School of Pharmacy, go to http://www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu