I was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and spent most of my life in Chocolatetown, USA, the sweetest place on earth. My undergraduate degree is from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science; I earned a Bachelor’s in pharmacy in 1994 and have continued to practiced pharmacy in one capacity or another (full time, part time, community, mail order, consulting) ever since. A few months after graduating from pharmacy school, I matriculated into a graduate program at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) College of Medicine (COM) in Hershey. I completed a PhD in pharmacology in 2000, studying molecular characteristics of dopamine receptors.
Just a few months before I defended my PhD thesis, my oldest child was born, and that change-of-life event shifted my priorities and led me to explore work-from-home medical writing, consulting, grant-writing, and part-time teaching opportunities for the next few years. When my children transitioned to elementary school, I was offered a faculty position in the Department of Pharmacology at PSU COM. I was awarded tenure in 2014 and rose through the ranks to become a full Professor in pharmacology, Assistant Dean of Interprofessional Education, and was cross-appointed to Family and Community Medicine in 2021 for educational initiatives that directly impacted patient care. As an aside, until April 2022, when I transitioned to Quillen, I completed my PhD thesis and worked in the same building in Hershey that I was born in! I hadn’t made it very far in life!
Developing, implementing, and assessing outcomes of novel educational activities has been my passion for more than 20 years. I have received local, state, national, and international accolades and recognition for both pharmacology and interprofessional education (IPE) endeavors including selection as a Josiah Macy Faculty Scholar, appointment to an Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) expert panel, appointment to two International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) working groups, and recent induction as a Distinguished Fellow into the National Academies of Practice.
I am excited to embark on new adventures as I transition to a novel role as Associate Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Innovation for Quillen College of Medicine (QCOM) at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). I expect to collaborate extensively with the ETSU Department of Family Medicine, IPE center, and college of pharmacy to develop and implement new initiatives that transform health professions education and healthcare delivery to patients, families, and communities of northeast Tennessee.
When I am not working, I relish spending time with family and friends. We enjoy being outdoors – especially bike riding, tailgating at Penn State football games, and spending time on the water with our kayaks, jet skis motorboat, or sailboats. Since I am a new-kid-on-block, please introduce yourself to me. If you have any questions about pharmacology or safe and effective medication use, I will do my best to answer them. I hope you can join us for some outdoor adventures.