School of Pharmacy

The School of Pharmacy, founded in 1841, is the fourth-oldest school of pharmacy in the nation. Through its education, research, and service programs, the school strives to improve the health and well-being of society by aiding in the discovery, development, and use of medicines.

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Nicole Brandt, PharmD, MBA, BCPP, CGP, FASCP

Geriatrics

Since joining the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Brandt has expanded available geriatric training opportunities, including the geriatrics/palliative care pathway, ASHP-accredited geriatrics residency, and two-year post-PharmD fellowship. She was named the 2019 recipient of the American Geriatrics Society’s (AGS) Dennis W. Jahnigen Memorial Award for her leadership in geriatrics education. She has worked on interdisciplinary teams across numerous practice settings and leads initiatives to integrate sustainable pharmacist-directed services to help older adults with multiple co-morbidities at the MedStar Center for Successful Aging. Dr. Brandt is active in promoting optimal care for older adults through her educational, clinical, and health care policy work. She co-led an initiative that led to the University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of Maryland, Baltimore County being the first universities in Maryland to receive Age-Friendly University distinction. She has directed projects focused on Medicare Part D Medication Therapy Management programs, high risk medications, and medication stewardship. She is an author of the 2012, 2015, and 2018-2019 the AGS Beer’s Criteria and past president and board chair of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. She co-chaired a task force convened by the Lamy Center with assistance from the US Deprescribing Research Network to develop an Implementation Guide for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wendy Camelo Castillo, MD, MSc, PhD

Health Disparities

Pharmacoepidemiology

Comparative Effectiveness and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research

Dr. Camelo Castillo is an assistant professor in the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research, where she has been a faculty member since 2017. Dr. Camelo Castillo trained as a physician at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, where she also obtained an MSc degree in physiology. Her PhD training in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill focused on pharmacoepidemiology, after which she joined the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research at the School of Pharmacy as a postdoctoral fellow in patient centered outcomes and comparative effectiveness research. Her research integrates methods in pharmacoepidemiology and patient preferences to develop evidence for populations in whom best practices of care are limited, such as women, youth, and minority communities. Her goal is to inform and improve clinical and policy decision making by providing evidence of benefits or harm of interventions used in real world settings in these populations. She brings an innovative approach into this work by integrating the patient perspective into pharmacoepidemiology and health services research. Her research agenda focuses on improving methods to assess effectiveness of treatments in the context of multimorbidity, and development and implementation of patient-centered methods to address health disparities in minority communities.

Kimberly Claeys, PharmD

Infectious Diseases

Antimicrobial Stewardship

Dr. Claeys completed her PharmD at Wayne State University Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Detroit, Michigan. She then completed her Pharmacy Practice Residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy and University of Illinois at Chicago Hospital and Health Sciences System. After residency, she completed a two-year Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy and Health Outcomes Fellowship at the Anti-Infective Research Laboratory at Wayne State University. She is currently completing a PhD in Epidemiology with a focus on Health-Care Associated Infections and Diagnostic Stewardship at University of Maryland School of Medicine. Her research interests include: infectious diseases epidemiology; antimicrobial and diagnostic stewardship, translation research involving rapid diagnostic testing; optimization of pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of antibacterial agents; and development of predictive/prognostic models and decision analysis to improve antimicrobial stewardship and patient outcomes.

Heather Congdon, PharmD, BCPS, CDE

Interprofessional Education

Ambulatory Care

Dr. Congdon received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a pharmacy practice residency with emphasis in community care from the University of Maryland. Her teaching focuses on interprofessional education, diabetes, and the abilities lab series. She has a clinical practice at Mercy Health Clinic, providing care for underserved, uninsured patients on multiple medications and with various chronic conditions. Dr. Congdon’s research interests relate to her practice at Mercy Health Clinic. She has evaluated the impact of pharmacist-provided medication therapy management (MTM) on clinical outcomes, such as hemoglobin A1C, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Furthermore, her team has demonstrated the importance of interprofessional, coordinated care on clinical outcomes for patients with poorly controlled diabetes.

Catherine Cooke, PharmD, BCPS, PAHM

Outpatient Medication Management of Chronic Diseases

Geriatrics

Health Technology

Dr. Cooke is a board-certified pharmacist with experience in the clinical, business, and research arenas of different health care settings. She has provided direct patient care in ambulatory care environments for patients with chronic medically managed diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and other prevalent conditions found in primary care populations. She has also provided medication therapy management, completing comprehensive medication reviews (CMR) for eligible Medicare beneficiaries. In addition to direct patient care, she has published research on primary non-adherence and continues to study ways to improve patient-centered outcomes. Her work with the School’s Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging focuses on the quality of medication-related care for older adults. In collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), we were able to refine the Standardized Format (i.e., summary document that a patient receives after a CMR), and evaluate it in real-world settings after it was mandated for use in January 2013. Additional quality initiatives at the Lamy Center include the integration of medication-related information within healthcare practices through the use of health information technology standards and systems and assisting with the development and implementation of metrics to improve medication-use for older adults.

Andrew Coop, PhD

Drug Design

Dr. Coop received his PhD from the University of Bristol (England) in the area of chemistry of drugs of abuse, followed by a Fogarty postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has been a School of Pharmacy faculty member since 1999, serving as a department chair from 2007 to 2015. His NIH-funded research focuses on the design and synthesis of new opioid analgesics with reduced tolerance and the development of novel antidepressants. He has developed the compound UMB 425 preclinically as an opioid analgesic with attenuated tolerance development. He has published 130 manuscripts and was the recipient of the 2003 Joseph Cochin Young Investigator Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). In 2014, he was named a fellow of CPDD and presented CPDD’s President’s Lecture. In 2014, he received the inaugural Dr. James E. Wynn Memorial Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s Chemistry Section.

Richard Dalby, PhD

Translational Therapeutics

Dr. Dalby received his BPharm from the University of Nottingham and his PhD from the University of Kentucky. In addition to serving as a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSC), he is a fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. His research interests include the formulation and evaluation of pressurized metered dose inhaler, dry powder, nebulizer, and nasal spray products; the development and evaluation of existing and proposed test methods for inhalation products; laboratory testing and patient evaluation of novel pulmonary and nasal delivery devices; and the design of patient education aids. He has more than 25 years experience as an independent consultant working with both national and international companies, and has served as an expert witness and advisor for pharmaceutical companies engaged in intellectual property and other disputes associated with inhaled and nasal medications and devices.

Daniel J. Deredge, PhD

Chemical and Biological Discovery

Dr. Deredge received his PhD in biochemistry from Louisiana State University, studying DNA binding properties of bacterial DNA polymerases. His postdoctoral training was in structural mass spectrometry at Case Western Reserve University, applying Hydrogen-Deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) to HIV reverse transcriptase. At the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Deredge expanded the application of HDX-MS and other structural MS methods to a multitude of systems, including viral RNA polymerases, bacterial heme uptake protein or neurotransmitter sodium symporter, and integrating it with computational methods.

Sandeep Devabhakthuni, PharmD, BCCP

Cardiology

Critical Care

Dr. Sandeep Devabhakthuni received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. He then completed a pharmacy practice residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He returned to Pittsburgh to complete a specialty residency in cardiology and critical care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist with a clinical practice on the inpatient cardiology and medical intensive care services at the University of Maryland Medical Center. His current research interests involve evaluation of appropriate use of cardiovascular medications and sedation in mechanically ventilated patients.

Bethany DiPaula, PharmD, BCPP

Mental Health

Substance Abuse

Dr. Bethany DiPaula received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree and completed a psychiatric pharmacy specialty residency at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Her research and teaching focus involves psychiatry and substance abuse. She serves as director of the University of Maryland Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency Program and is a board certified psychiatric pharmacist with inpatient and outpatient psychiatric and substance abuse practices. In addition, she has worked as the Director of Pharmacy at two Maryland State Psychiatric hospitals. Dr. DiPaula has presented and published research related to psychiatry, substance abuse, and academics. She is specifically interested in comorbidity of psychiatry and substance abuse.

Peter Doshi, PhD

Credible Evidence Synthesis

Drug Safety and Regulation

Evidence-Based Medicine

Peter Doshi, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and senior editor at The BMJ. His research focuses on the drug approval process, how the risks and benefits of medical products are communicated, and improving the credibility and accuracy of evidence synthesis and biomedical publications. Dr. Doshi campaigns for greater transparency of clinical trial data and has received wide recognition for his work. In 2013, the New York Times reported on his work to increase public access to clinical study reports. The same year he was also chosen for The Wired “Smart List.” In 2015, he received a New Investigator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Dr. Doshi has presented on the topic of clinical trial data sharing to the Institute of Medicine in 2013 and 2014, and served on advisory panels to the European Medicines Agency regarding its policy on proactive publication of clinical trial data. Much of Dr. Doshi’s research has examined the science and politics of influenza policy. His most cited publication is a Cochrane systematic review of neuraminidase inhibitors for influenza. This review—the first Cochrane review to be based exclusively on clinical study reports and other regulatory documents—challenged previous understandings of the drugs’ effectiveness, raised new questions about their safety, and led to governmental inquiries in the United Kingdom. It is cited as a milestone in the James Lind Library, which chronicles the evolution of fair tests and research synthesis. Dr. Doshi leads the RIAT Support Center. The Restoring Invisible and Abandoned Trials (RIAT) initiative enables researchers everywhere to address two long-standing problems in the biomedical literature: non-publication and misreporting of trials. The RIAT Support Center aims to accelerate the correction of the scientific record of clinical trials by making publications more accurate and more complete, addressing these problems of publication bias and reporting bias. Dr. Doshi earned an AB in anthropology from Brown University, an AM in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and PhD in history, anthropology, and science, technology and society from MIT. During his PhD, he was an intern at the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, a research student at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, and studied as visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo Center for Biomedical Ethics and Law. Dr. Doshi completed a fellowship in comparative effectiveness research at Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

Susan dosReis, BSPharm, PhD

Pediatric Mental Health

Pharmacoepidemiology

Dr. dosReis is professor and co-vice chair for research in the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She received a bachelor of science in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island School of Pharmacy and a doctorate in pharmacoepidemiology from the University of Maryland Graduate School. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in child mental health services from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was previously on faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. dosReis works closely with the state Mental Hygiene Administration on policies and programs that impact child mental health services. She is a core faculty of the Maryland Child Mental Health Advisory group within the Center for Child Mental Health Innovations at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In this role, she advises the state on child psychopharmacologic treatment of youth in the public mental health system with a specific focus on psychotropic medication use among youth in the child welfare system. Through several federally-funded research grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Dr. dosReis has developed a profile of research on psychotropic medication use among children and adolescents, examining disparities in psychotropic use by age, race, and foster care involvement, characterizing psychotropic treatment by combined use with psychotherapy for ADHD, and use of multiple psychotropic medications, and assessing longitudinal patterns in antipsychotic treatment for adults with schizophrenia. She developed two surveys - the ASK-ME survey, which assesses parental perceptions of stimulant treatment for their child’s ADHD, and a survey to assess pediatricians’ identification and screening of autism spectrum disorders in young children. Using qualitative research methods, she has investigated parental perspectives of their child’s ADHD and developed a conceptual model of how parents approach mental health care for their children.

Alison Duffy, PharmD, BCOP

Medical Oncology

Dr. Alison Duffy graduated from the University of Rhode Island School of Pharmacy and completed her PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency and PGY2 Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Residency at University of Cincinnati (UC) Health in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a Hematology/Oncology Clinical Pharmacy Specialist and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy/University of Maryland Medical Center. She is PGY2 Oncology Pharmacy Practice Residency Director and is a board certified oncology pharmacist with a practice site at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center within inpatient and outpatient oncology. Dr. Duffy has interest in clinical outcomes and practice based research specifically related to patients with cancer, interprofessional education, patient safety, and educational methods and outcomes.

Allison Dunn, PharmD, MS

Clinical Pharmacology

Applications of Pharmacometrics in Clinical Practice and Clinical Development

Allision Dunn received a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and a MS in Pharmacometrics degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She holds a BS in bioengineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests are precision medicine, pharmacometrics, and the utilization of real-world data for treatment optimization. Dr. Dunn's current project include evaluation of the indotecan-neutropenia relationship in patients with solid tumors using population pharmacokinetic modeling and Bayesian regressions and quantifying the effect of hepatic impairment on the pharmacokinetic disposition of belinostat and its five metabolites using population pharmacokinetic modeling.

Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCP

Entrepreneurism

Medical Cannabis Education

Regulatory Affairs

Dr. Eddington became dean of the School of Pharmacy (SOP) in August 2007. An alumna of the school, she was formerly chair of its Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Eddington graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Howard University. She later earned her PhD from SOP and, after working as assistant director of new drug development at Pfizer Inc., joined the faculty in 1991. She was appointed director of SOP’s Pharmacokinetics/Biopharmaceutics Laboratory in 1999 and became chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2003. As chair, she guided the launch of the Bio- and Nano-Technology Center, which brings together scientists to find new and better ways of providing pharmaceutical treatment. It was SOP’s first organized research center. Dr. Eddington is a nationally known expert in drug delivery and pharmacokinetics, the movement of drugs in the body. Her research focuses on cancer therapy and treatments for disorders of the central nervous system. Her work has been supported by funding from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the pharmaceutical industry. In 2014, she was named executive director of University Regional Partnerships at UMB, a position she assumes while maintaining her leadership of SOP. In this role, Dr. Eddington assists UMB’s senior leadership, working collaboratively with the deans on issues related to the expansion of the University’s academic and research programs in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. In 2017, she was appointed co-decanal lead of the Center for Addiction Research, Education, and Service (CARES), UMB’s interprofessional effort to address the adverse impact of addiction on individuals, families, communities, and society. Under Dr. Eddington’s leadership, SOP has established a number of centers and programs including the Center for Innovative Pharmacy Solutions; the Patients, Pharmacists, Partnerships (P3) Program; the Patient-centered Involvement in Evaluating the effectiveness of Treatment (PATIENTS) Program; the Bio- and Nano-Technology Center; the Center for Translational Medicine; the Mass Spectrometry Center; and the FDA-supported Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation, a collaborative agreement with the FDA to promote innovation in support of the development and evaluation of safe and effective products. She also has envisioned and launched a transformational pharmapreneurism initiative, which seeks to position the school’s world-class faculty, wonderful students, and exceptional staff to achieve their career aspirations and address our nation’s health care, research, policy, and societal needs.

Megan Ehret, PharmD, MS, BCPP

Psychiatric Psychopharmacology

Neurology

Substance Abuse

Dr. Ehret completed her BS and PharmD degrees at the University of Toledo. She then completed an ASHP-accredited residency in psychiatric pharmacotherapy at the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center, after which she completed a Psychopharmacology and Pharmacogenomics Fellowship at Nova Southeastern University. After training, she received her initial faculty appointment at the University of Connecticut and gained tenure there. While at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Ehret served as vice-chair of the Institutional Review Board, Director of Practices for the Center for Correctional Health Networks, and a faculty member for Project ECHO: Buprenorphine. Additionally, Dr. Ehret received her master's in Clinical and Translational Research from the University of Connecticut Health Center. Dr. Ehret is a board certified psychiatric pharmacist. She most recently practiced at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital as its behavioral health clinical pharmacy specialist. She has experience in treating the spectrum of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Additionally, she is a past president of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) and a senior editor on the Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy Review Course. Her research interests are precision medicine, including utilization of guideline based treatment and pharmacogenomics, utilization of long-acting injectables, psychotropic medication adherence, and the role of the psychiatric pharmacist on the treatment team

Agnes Ann Feemster, PharmD, BCPS

Pharmacy Practice Management

Experiential Learning

Interprofessional Education

Dr. Agnes Ann Feemster is an associate professor in the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the medication safety officer for oncology with the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She received a bachelor’s degree in pre-professional health studies from Clemson University, a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the Medical University of South Carolina, and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of South Carolina. She completed a pharmacy practice residency at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist. She has more than 15 years of clinical, leadership, and management experience in health-system pharmacy practice at large teaching hospitals. Before joining the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, she served as interim director of pharmacy at the University of Maryland Medical Center and assistant director of clinical pharmacy, investigational drug, and central production services. She leads the School’s pharmacy practice management and health-system pharmacy course and coordinates the international training program for the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research. Dr. Feemster also manages a practice laboratory for first year pharmacy students. Dr. Feemster’s research interests include pharmacy practice management and leadership, medication safety, educational methods and outcomes, pharmacy informatics, global health, and interprofessional education.

Steven Fletcher, PhD

Chemical and Biological Discovery

Dr. Fletcher conducted his second post-doctoral position at the University of Toronto, where he worked with Patrick T. Gunning primarily on the synthesis of small-molecule inhibitors of the oncogenic Stat3-Stat3 protein dimer complex. His first post-doctoral position was carried out in the labs of Andrew D. Hamilton at Yale University on the design and synthesis of farnesyltransferase (FTase) inhibitors as novel antimalarial and anticancer agents. Dr. Fletcher received his PhD in organic/medicinal chemistry at Imperial College London (UK) with Andrew. D Miller, where he was involved in the design and synthesis of temperature- and pH-triggerable lipids for incorporation into liposomes for non-viral gene therapy.

Joga Gobburu, PhD

Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Research

Pediatrics

Pharmacometrics

Dr. Gobburu is a world-renowned scientific leader in the area of quantitative disease models and their applications to decisions. He is best known for transforming the field of pharmacometrics into a decision-supporting science. His experience as a senior biomedical research scientist and director of pharmacometrics at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives him unique insight into the technical, regulatory, and decision-making aspects in all phases of drug development. He obtained his BPharm and MSc in chemistry from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from North Dakota State University, and his MBA from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Gobburu’s research interests include pediatrics, clinical pharmacology and translational research, comparative effectiveness, and pharmacometrics.

Mathangi Gopalakrishnan, MS, PhD

Pharmacometrics

Bayesian Applications in Drug Development

Innovative Clinical Trial Designs

Dr. Gopalakrishnan earned an MS and PhD in statistics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She holds a BPharmacy and a MPharm from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India Her research focuses on pharmacometrics, precision therapeutics, predictive analytics, real world data, and drug development. She utilizes fundamental principles of clinical pharmacology (pharmacokinetics (PK)/pharmacodynamics (PD)), advanced statistical (frequentist and Bayesian) methods (modeling and simulation), and artificial intelligence (AI/ML) techniques to improve clinical and therapeutic outcomes for patients, especially vulnerable populations. Dr. Gopalakrishnan's lab has designed and conducted prospective, real-world clinical pharmacokinetic trials for anti-epileptics/anti-microbials in continuous renal replacement therapy patients with the goal to develop individualized antiepileptic regimens. She has worked on using real world data (electronic health records, prospective pragmatic clinical trials) in the areas of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome, and anti-coagulants in pediatrics to inform optimal dosing. She is involved in design and analysis of pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic studies for nutritional supplements and low-calorie artificial sweeteners in pregnant and postpartum women to answer questions on optimal dosing of the nutritional supplements. Her additional areas of research include models for disease progression (e.g: schizophrenia, binge-eating disorders), AI/ML approaches to identify biomarker-endpoint relationship in medical countermeasure development, innovative quantitative methods for trial design/analysis, and predictive analytics in transfusion decision making. Her lab works collaboratively with academic medical institutions across the country.

Mojdeh Heavner, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP

Critical Care

Medication Safety

Dr. Heavner received a Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Neurobiology from the University of Maryland College Park and a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Subsequently, she completed a pharmacy practice residency and critical care and solid organ transplant specialty residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. She is board certified in pharmacotherapy and critical care. Following her residency training, Dr. Heavner practiced as a clinical pharmacy specialist in the medical intensive care unit, served as the residency director of the critical care pharmacy specialty program, and spent several years as the supervisor of clinical pharmacy services at Yale-New Haven Hospital before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Dr. Heavner is active in professional organizations at the local, state, and national levels, including the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the Maryland Society of Health-System Pharmacists. She served as secretary on the board of the Connecticut Society of Health-System Pharmacists for several years and was recognized as Pharmacist of the Year by that organization in 2016. Dr. Heavner’s practice and research interests include performance management and quality improvement, delirium, medication safety, and antibiotic pharmacokinetics and stewardship in the intensive care unit.

Emily Heil, PharmD, MS

Infectious Diseases

HIV

Antimicrobial Stewardship

Emily Heil, PharmD, MS, BCIDP, AAHIVP is an Associate Professor in the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She is the Pharmacy Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center and provides direct patient care on inpatient and outpatient infectious diseases teams. She completed her undergraduate and PharmD at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and subsequently completed her pharmacy practice and infectious diseases pharmacy residency training at the University of North Carolina Hospitals. She is an Associate Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases and is professionally active in the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists. Her research interests include individualization of antimicrobial dosing, particularly in critically ill patients, antibiotic allergies, gram-negative resistance, and antimicrobial stewardship (domestic and international).

Stephen W. Hoag, PhD

Tablet Formulation and Process Development

Dr. Hoag received his PhD in pharmaceutics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a BS in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin Madison. His two main areas of research interests include developing systematic methods for formulating controlled and immediate release tablets, as well as the use of mathematical models to understand the mass transport processes in hydrogels. Dr. Hoag is also the director of the Applied Pharmaceutics Lab.

Lauren Hynicka, PharmD, BCPS

Internal Medicine

Hepatology

Dr. Hynicka received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. She went on to complete both a PGY-1 general practice and PGY-2 internal medicine residency at the Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia Health System. She served as a clinical pharmacy specialist on a general internal medicine team at the University of Maryland Medical Center for six years before transitioning into her current role, where she manages treatment of HCV infected patients enrolled in Maryland Medicaid. Her teaching, research, and patient care activities focus on the care of patients with chronic liver diseases including chronic HCV infection. Recent areas of research include streamlining the prior authorization process for HCV medications at a large academic health system and evaluating HCV treatment interruptions. Dr. Hynicka has a variety of research interests including transitions of care, infectious diseases, viral hepatitis C, chronic liver disease, provision of care to underserved patients, and global health.

Amy Ives, PharmD, BCPS

Internal Medicine

Practice-Based Research

Educational Methods and Outcomes

Dr. Amy Ives is an assistant professor in the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and an internal medicine clinical pharmacy specialist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Dr. Ives received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from Rutgers College of Pharmacy and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She completed a pharmacy practice residency at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. She is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist and has completed a medical education research certificate sponsored by the American Medical Association. Dr. Ives has more than 25 years of hospital pharmacy practice experience. Prior to coming to the University of Maryland, she was a clinical pharmacy specialist in critical care and anticoagulation at the VA Maryland Health Care System. During her 17 years there, Dr. Ives developed the PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency Program, with 15 residents completing this program under her direction. She remains active in pharmacy residency training through precepting and mentoring research projects at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. In addition, she precepts Georgetown University medical students on their independent study projects. Dr. Ives is active in professional organizations at the regional and national level. She is a past secretary for the AACP Laboratory Special Interest Group and former chair for the Eastern States Residents and Preceptors Conference. She has been an active member of the Eastern States Residency Advisory Board since 2012. Before joining the faculty full time, Dr. Ives served as co-course manager for Therapeutics I and II in the Non-Traditional PharmD program. Since becoming a full time faculty member, Dr. Ives has developed training modules in medication reconciliation, therapeutic drug monitoring, and renal dosing for the PharmTechX program. She has been co-course manger in Abilities Labs 1 and 3, and is currently co-director for the Pharmacy Practice Laboratories. Dr. Ives’s practice and research interests include medication safety, transitions of care, anticoagulation, and medical education research using electronic health record technology.

Chad Johnson, PhD

Medical Cannabis

Drug Addiction

Dr. Johnson received his PhD and completed his post-doctoral research in medicinal chemistry/pharmacology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. His research interests include the synthesis of novel, fast-acting antidepressants targeting the muscarinic receptors (mAChRs) for major depressive disorder and opioid analgesics with reduced reinforcement for treatment of drug addiction. Dr. Johnson is the co-director of the MS in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics program.

Jace W. Jones, PhD

Mass Spectrometry

Drug Development

Dr. Jones received his PhD in analytical chemistry at the University of Washington where he did his thesis research under the supervision of František Tureček. The focus of his thesis was developing gas-phase ion chemistry strategies to gain structural insight into peptides and glycolipids. Dr. Jones then further developed tandem mass spectrometry platforms for structural elucidation of bacterial glycolipids in the laboratory of David R. Goodlett at the University of Washington, School of Pharmacy. At this time, he moved to industry and was the Technical Director at an Analytical Laboratory (Jones Environmental, Inc.) in Fullerton, CA. He made my way back to academic research as a research scientist followed by research assistant professor in the laboratory of Maureen A. Kane at the University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy.

Maureen A. Kane, PhD

Mass Spectrometry

Dr. Kane received a BS degree in chemistry from Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., and a PhD in analytical chemistry from the University at Buffalo-State University of New York. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley, where she received a National Institutes of Health-Kirschstein Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her areas of research interest include mass spectrometry to interrogate biological problems; retinoid (vitamin A) metabolism and active metabolite (retinoic acid) signaling; biomarker discovery, quantification, and validation; mass spectrometry imaging; bioanalysis for pharmacokinetic studies; quantitative mass spectrometry assay development and validation; collaborations pertaining to metabolism, metabolite signaling, lipid profiling, and lipid signaling; and biomarkers, drugs, and drug metabolites. As executive director of the School of Pharmacy’s Mass Spectrometry Center, Dr. Kane heads the areas of metabolite quantification, metabolomics, and mass spectrometry imaging. She also leads several collaborative efforts focused on biomarker discovery, quantification, and validation in drug development efforts.

Cherokee Layson-Wolf, PharmD, BCACP, FAPhA

Immunizations

Medication Therapy Management

Pharmacy Education

Dr. Cherokee Layson-Wolf received her PharmD from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She completed a community pharmacy residency at Virginia Commonwealth University and Ukrop’s Pharmacy. She is associate dean for student affairs, the residency program director for the PGY-1 Community Pharmacy Residency Program, and is board-certified in ambulatory care pharmacy. Dr. Layson-Wolf is also a faculty member of the American Pharmacists Association's Pharmacy-Based Immunization Delivery certificate course. Dr. Layson-Wolf’s research interests include evaluations of immunization programs, point of care testing, medication adherence, and innovative patient care program implementation.

Alexander MacKerell, PhD

Chemical and Biological Discovery

Drug Design

Research in the MacKerell lab involves the development and application of computational methods to investigate the relationships of structure and dynamics to function in a range of biological and chemical systems. These efforts range from empirical force field development, including the CHARMM36 and classical Drude polarizable force fields, development of novel solute and conformational sampling methodologies, understanding the physical forces driving the structure and dynamics of proteins, nucleic acids and carbohydrates and computer-aided drug design (CADD) studies including development of novel methods such as the Site Identification by Ligand Competitive Saturation approach.

Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD, PhD, BCPS

Pain and Palliative Care

Health Professions Education

Dr. McPherson has maintained a practice in both hospice and palliative care throughout her career. She teaches extensively in the School’s Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program on pain management and end-of-life care, including didactic and experiential content. She also developed one of the first palliative care pharmacy residency programs in the United States and is executive program director of the School’s online graduate studies in palliative care, including a Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy, and graduate certificates. Dr. McPherson currently serves as the first pharmacist selected for the board of the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Care and is a founding trustee and board member of the Society of Pain Management and Palliative Care Pharmacists. She has received many honors for her work, including the American Pharmacists Association Distinguished Achievement Award in Specialized Practice, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching, the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Founders Week Teacher of the Year Award, the Maryland Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists W. Purdum Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Robert K. Chalmers Distinguished Pharmacy Educator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. She has written five books, including the best-selling Demystifying Opioid Conversion Calculations, A Guide to Effective Dosing, 2nd ed.

Sarah L.J. Michel, PhD

Metallotherapeutics

Sarah L.J. Michel, PhD, is a distinguished educator and researcher who joined the School of Pharmacy faculty in 2004. She is a former chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSC) and associate dean for graduate studies. Michel is an internationally recognized leader in the field of metals in medicine. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and U.S. Army Research labs for investigating the roles that metals play in the regulation of chronic inflammation, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. She has also been active in clinical research through U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants and has been closely involved with the Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (M-CERSI). Notably, an FDA clinical trial headed by Michel led the FDA to issue new guidance on how generic nanomedicines should be evaluated for approval. In addition, she is part of a PSC and University of Maryland School of Dentistry team of researchers funded by the FDA that is investigating the safety of electronic cigarettes. In her 19 years at UMSOP, Michel has been intricately involved in all of its educational aspects, including PhD and MS programs, as well as the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program, where she re-designed the core biochemistry course to emphasize clinical applications to pharmacy and led the development of the PharmD research pathway. She has mentored dozens of PhD and PharmD students and has a keen understanding of the pharmacy profession, as well as the many roles and career opportunities for today’s School of Pharmacy students. Early in her career at the School of Pharmacy, Michel developed “Spring into Maryland Science” with funding from the NSF to provide research experiences to students from groups underrepresented in science. As director of the School’s PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences program, she was instrumental in partnering with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Meyerhoff Scholars program, which led to the successful application in 2022 of an NIH Initiative for Maximizing Student Development T32 grant to train students from groups underrepresented in health-related sciences. Michel served as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Faculty Senate from 2015 to 2017, where she worked with colleagues in the Staff Senate and Graduate Student Association, as well as UMB leadership, on the UMB Statement of Shared Governance. She also testified in the Maryland General Assembly on behalf of UMB faculty on legislation that led to the formation of the MPower collaboration with the University of Maryland, College Park. Michel earned a BA in chemistry from Cornell University in 1995 and a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Northwestern University in 2000. She completed a NRSA postdoctoral fellowship in biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Jill Morgan, PharmD, BCPS, BCPPS, FNAP

Pediatrics

Dr. Jill A. Morgan is professor and chair of the Department of Practice, Sciences and Health Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.  She practices at the Interprofessional Pediatric GI Clinic at the University of Maryland Midtown in Baltimore.  She received her PharmD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed pharmacy practice and pediatric pharmacy specialty residencies at the University of Maryland Medical Center. For a number of years, Dr. Morgan has been teaching pediatric and neonatal pharmacotherapy to nursing and pharmacy students as well as medical residents. Dr. Morgan served as director for the PGY2 Pediatric Pharmacy Residency program for several years. She is also board certified in pharmacotherapy and pediatric pharmacy. In, 2017, Dr. Morgan became a fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP). Dr. Morgan has been involved with several professional organizations. She served as chair of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Administrative Services Section and the Student Services Special Interest Group, as president of the Maryland Society of Health System Pharmacists (MSHP), as chair of the Research Committee for the Pediatric Pharmacy Association (PPA), and chair of the NAP's Pharmacy Academy. Dr. Morgan serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics. She is the co-advisor for the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Pediatric Pharmacy Association.  Dr. Morgan received the AACP Administrative Services Section Award for Sustained Contribution to Administrative Practice in Pharmacy Education, the Excellence in Innovation Award and the Mentor of the Year Award from the Maryland Pharmacists Association, the Purdum Award from MSHP, and the University of Maryland Board of Regents’ Faculty Award for Mentoring. In 2021, Dr. Morgan received the State of Maryland Governor’s Citation for her teamwork in the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Community Mass Vaccination Site. Her research interests include asthma, constipation, care of pediatric patients in community pharmacy, taste and flavoring of liquid medications for children, nutrition, immunizations, pediatric dermatology, transitions of care for pediatric patients, and interprofessional education.

Jason Noel, PharmD, BCPP

Mental Health

Dr. Jason Noel received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degrees at Rutgers University College of Pharmacy. He completed a residency in Psychiatric Pharmacy Practice at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Dr. Noel’s clinical practice focus is in mental health and intellectual/developmental disabilities. He teaches therapeutics of psychiatric and neurologic disorders in UMB’s PharmD and Nursing graduate programs as well as to audiences of training and practicing clinicians, including pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and social workers. He is a Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist and serves as the administrator for the School’s ACPE-Accredited Continuing Education Program. Dr. Noel’s area of scholarly focus is in the integrated psychopharmacologic and behavioral treatment in people with co-occurring intellectual disability and behavioral/psychiatric concerns.

Amanda Oglesby, PhD

Bacterial Pathogenesis

Dr. Oglesby has investigated the role of iron in bacterial pathogenesis for over 20 years. In 2005, she completed her doctoral training at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, where she studied iron and sRNA regulation in Shigella species, the causative agents of bacillary dysentery. Following her graduate training, her postdoctoral studies at the University of Colorado School of Medicine focused on iron and small RNA regulation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Mandy joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in 2012, and in 2018 she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Her laboratory employs a variety of approaches to understand the mechanism and impact of iron regulatory pathways of P. aeruginosa. A primary focus of her research program is the development of more biologically relevant in vitro growth systems, which have revealed novel impacts in bacterial iron regulation on virulence trait expression.

Neha Pandit, PharmD, BCPS, AAHIVP

Infectious Diseases

HIV

Dr. Pandit is a clinical pharmacy specialist at the HIV ambulatory care clinic at the University of Maryland Medical System's Evelyn Jordan Center and the Oncology Infectious Diseases Clinic. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia and completed her pharmacy practice residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She also completed an HIV/Infectious Diseases Specialty Residency at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Pandit is credentialed as an HIV pharmacist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine and a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist by the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties. She is a member of the Drug Utilization Board of Maryland Medicaid and the Board of Directors of Chase Brexton Health Services in Baltimore. Dr. Pandit’s research interests include adherence, HIV treatment outcomes, HIV complications, antiretroviral drug-drug interactions, education, and other chronic diseases.

Kristine Parbuoni, PharmD, BCPPS

Pediatrics

Dr. Parbuoni obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in 2005. She then completed a PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency and PGY-2 Pediatric Residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Following residency training, Dr. Parbuoni obtained a position as the clinical pharmacy specialist in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, where she later also took on administrative roles. Dr. Parbuoni then moved to California and joined the faculty at Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. Dr. Parbuoni was also the Residency Program Director of the PGY2 Pediatric Residency Program at Loma Linda University. She was excited to return to her alma mater in 2018. Dr. Parbuoni is a Board Certified Pediatric Pharmacy Specialist. She has a clinical practice site at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital. She is also the Residency Program Director of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy PGY2 Pediatric Residency. Dr. Parbuoni has been actively involved in professional organizations throughout her career. She served as president of the Maryland Society of Health-System Pharmacy from 2012 to 2013, and is currently on its Board of Directors. She was a delegate for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), on ASHP’s Council on Education and Workforce Development, and the SCSS’s Preceptor Development SAG and Pediatrics SAG. Dr. Parbuoni served as chair of the Research Committee of the Pediatric Pharmacy Association from 2019 to 2020. Since becoming faculty, she has been a member of the American Academy of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), has served as a delegate to its House of Delegates, and is chair-elect of the AACP Pediatric Special Interest Group. Dr. Parbuoni’s research interests include clinical outcomes in pediatrics (infectious diseases, critical care), pediatric pharmacokinetics, educational methods and outcomes in simulation, and post-graduate training.

Ryan M. Pearson, PhD

Nanotechnology

Immune Engineering

Dr. Pearson is an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences and molecular microbiology & immunology at the University of Maryland. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy and was a postdoc at the University of Michigan prior to starting his independent career in 2018. Dr. Pearson’s laboratory focuses on developing nanotechnology-based strategies for treating dysregulated immune responses specifically focusing on infectious disease, autoimmunity, and cancer. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed articles on his research in top journals including Biomaterials, Journal of Controlled Release, ACS Nano, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Advanced Functional Materials. Dr. Pearson’s significant scientific contributions relate to his development of nanoparticle-based inverse vaccines to induce antigen-specific immune tolerance and his studies evaluating the inherent immunomodulatory properties of polymeric nanomaterials. Dr. Pearson been recognized with several awards and recently received the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy New Investigator Award, American Association of Immunologists Early Career Travel Award, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education Rising Star Award, and the Shock Society Faculty Research Award. Dr. Pearson is an active member of the Bio- and Nano-technology center and the Computer-Aided Drug Design Center at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, and a member of the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Pearson serves on the editorial board of Pharmaceutical Research, as faculty advisor for the AAPS UMB Student Chapter, and as the Chair of the Immuno Delivery Focus Group for the Controlled Release Society.

Eleanor Perfetto, PhD, MS

Comparative Effectiveness Research

Health Care Quality Performance Measurement

Patient-Focused Drug Development and Reimbursement

Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Perfetto was with Pfizer for more than seven years, most recently as senior director of federal government relations. A pharmacist and health services researcher, she holds BS and MS degrees in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island, and a PhD from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, concentrating in health policy and epidemiology. Currently, she serves as a Pharmacy Quality Alliance and Health Industry Forum board member. In recent years, she has served on boards and committees for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Quality Forum, and the Center for Medical Technology Policy, among others. Early in her career, Dr. Perfetto served in the U.S. Public Health Service, initially as an Indian Health Service pharmacist and later as senior pharmacoepidemiologist, Agency for Health Care Policy & Research (now AHRQ). Dr. Perfetto is an advocate for patients with head trauma-related dementias, receiving wide recognition for her advocacy efforts. She is president of the Board of Directors for the Sports Legacy Institute. Dr. Perfetto’s research interests include comparative effectiveness research, patient-centered outcomes research, patient-focused drug development, quality performance measurement, and measurement of patient-reported outcomes, especially as part of clinical development plans.

Kathleen Pincus, PharmD, BCPS

Family Medicine

Transitions of Care

Kathleen Pincus, PharmD, BCPS, is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist and an associate professor in the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She is the Residency Program Director for the PGY2 Ambulatory Care Residency Program. An alumna of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (’09), Dr. Pincus completed her Pharmacy Practice Residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center and her Pharmacotherapy Specialty Residency at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Dr. Pincus is an ambulatory care specialist at the University of Maryland Family and Community Medicine practice and a clinical pharmacy consultant with the Governor’s Wellmobile Program. Dr. Pincus’ research interests include transitions of care, integrating clinical pharmacy services in primary care practices, patient motivators for medication adherence and chronic disease state management, including asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hepatitis C.

James E. Polli, PhD

Regulatory Affairs

Bioequivalence of Brand and Generic Drugs

Dr. Polli’s research focus is oral drug absorption. His two main research interests are 1) maximizing oral bioavailability through formulation and chemical approaches and 2) developing public quality standards for oral dosage forms. He has served as advisor to 24 Ph.D. graduates. He is co-Director of the University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (M-CERSI) and the Center for Research on Complex Generics (CRCG), each an FDA-funded collaborative agreement with the Agency. He is Director of the online MS in Regulatory Science program. He is a fellow of the American Association for Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and served as an editor of its flagship journal Pharmaceutical Research for 12 years. He was the recipient of the 2022 AAPS Global Leadership Award and 2021 TOPRA Education Award.

Danya Qato, PhD, PharmD, MPH

High-Risk Medications in Vulnerable Populations

Health Disparities

Pharmacovigilance

Dr. Danya M. Qato is a practicing pharmacist, epidemiologist, and health services researcher. She holds a PhD in health and pharmaceutical services research from the Brown University School of Public Health, a PharmD from the University of Illinois, and a MPH with a concentration in international health and humanitarian studies from Harvard University. In 2020, she was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader. Her research is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. At Brown, Dr. Qato was funded as an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and National Institutes of Health doctoral and postdoctoral research fellow in comparative effectiveness research. Dr. Qato’s substantive areas of research pertain to improving regulatory and policy tools to reduce use of high risk medications in vulnerable populations, substance use and women’s health, risk management and post-marketing surveillance, drug pricing and access to essential medicines, environmental and global health systems development, pharmacovigilance, and global health equity. She was previously a Schweitzer Fellow, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow (for support of her MPH at Harvard), and a U.S. research fellow of the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences funded by the Swedish International Development Agency. In the 2015-2016 academic year, Dr. Qato was based at the Institute for Community and Public Health at Birzeit University in Palestine, where she was a Fulbright Scholar and served as an expert consultant to the World Health Organization. In addition to her role as an associate professor at the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Qato holds a secondary appointment in the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, is a faculty affiliate at the University of Maryland Institute for Global Health, and a faculty member of the joint UMB/UMBC PhD Program in Gerontology. She is former chair of the Drug Policy and Pharmaceutical Services Committee of the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association and is a member of the Public Health subcommittee of the Maryland State Taskforce on Reconciliation and Equity.

CS Raman, PhD

Chemical and Biological Discovery

CS Raman is an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. His research interests include multifaceted structural and biological studies that combine high-resolution X-ray crystallography with biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, and evolutionary and phylogenetic analyses.

Scott J. Riley, PhD

Drug Discovery

Machine Learning

Dr. Riley serves as an instructor and MS internship coordinator in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He earned his PhD in bioinspired materials engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and completed his postdoc with the APHL-CDC Ronald H. Laessig Newborn Screening Fellowship. His research interests include development of machine learning algorithms focused on predictive models for drug discovery/delivery and microelectronic control of drug delivery using biocompatible platforms.

Charmaine Rochester-Eyeguokan, PharmD, CDE, BCACP

Diabetes Management

Dr. Rochester-Eyeguokan graduated from Howard University College of Pharmacy in 1996 and subsequently received her Pharmacy Practice Residency (PGY1) training at the Medical University of South Carolina in 1997 and her Post graduate Year 2 (PGY2) Primary Care Residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1998. She is associate director of clinical services at the School of Pharmacy's P3 eHealth Services. She also serves as an ambulatory care preceptor for the Ambulatory Care Residency Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She is a board certified ambulatory care pharmacist and a certified diabetes educator.

Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, FAPhA

Chronic Disease Management

Diabetes

Cultural Competency

In addition to serving as the Felix Gyi Endowed Memorial Professor in Pharmapreneurship and associate dean for clinical services and practice transformation at the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Rodriguez de Bittner is the director of the Maryland P3 Program — a patient-centered comprehensive medication therapy and chronic disease management program provided by pharmacists throughout the Mid-Atlantic region — and executive director of the School’s Center for Innovative Pharmacy Solutions (CIPS). She engages in legislative advocacy and state and national leadership to expand the role of pharmacists in chronic disease management. She is an innovator who has implemented many new health care delivery models particularly in community pharmacies and received many grants and contracts to develop innovative programs. She is a member of the Maryland Health Care Reform Council Health Care Delivery Reform Subcommittee, subcommittee of the Maryland Patient-Centered Medical Home pilot, a past-president of the Maryland Pharmacists Association (MPhA), past board member and president of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation, and member of the Pan-American Commission for Pharmaceutical Education. She has provided presentations and authored/co-authored many publications. She has received numerous awards including: the APhA Pinnacle Award and its Community Pharmacy Residency Excellence in Precepting Award; the Distinguished Achievement in Pharmacotherapeutic Practice Award; the LKS/Merck Vanguard Leadership Award; the MPhA Bowl of Hygeia Award; the APhA Merit Award; MPhA's Innovative Pharmacy Practice Award; Baltimore’s Magazine Best of Baltimore Pharmacist of the Year, and the APPM Merit Award. Her research interests include chronic disease management; clinical outcomes in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases; medication therapy management and practice-based research; vulnerable populations; collaborative practice; cultural competence

Leah Sera, PharmD, MA, BCPS

Palliative Care

Medical Cannabis

Dr. Sera received her PharmD from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in 2010. She completed a pharmacy practice residency at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., and a specialty residency in pain management and palliative care at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist. She earned a master’s in instructional systems development at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2017. Dr. Sera's clinical specialties are pain management and palliative care. Dr. Sera is co-director for the nation’s first MS in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics (MCST) program at the School of Pharmacy. She teaches in several courses in the MCST program, including an introduction to medical cannabis history, culture, and policy; a course introducing students to patient care and the clinical uses of medical cannabis; she also mentors students in their capstone projects. In the Doctor of Pharmacy program, Dr. Sera teaches a variety of topics in required and elective courses. Additionally, she holds an associate faculty position at the University of Maryland Graduate School. Dr. Sera maintains an active clinical practice in the Transitional Care Center at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md. Dr. Sera has been invited to speak on pain management, palliative medicine, and cannabis therapeutics topics at professional pharmacy conferences and at medical centers such as the National Institutes of Health. She received a Leader in Healthcare Award in the category of medical cannabis from the Baltimore Business Journal in 2020.

Jana Shen, PhD

Chemical and Biological Discovery

Data Science

Dr. Shen earned her PhD from the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities before completing her postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute. Her current research areas include the development of molecular simulation and data science tools; molecular mechanisms of kinases, proteases, proton-coupled transmembrane channels/transporters, GPCRs; and pH-responsive materials based on polysaccharides. Among her honors and awards are a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 2011.

Yan Shu, MD, PhD

Drug Transport and Metabolism

Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics

Dr. Yan Shu is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He received his medical degrees (MB/MD) from Hunan Medical University (now Xiang Yia Medical School, Central South University) in China. He then completed a clinical pharmacology fellowship between 2000 and 2002 in the University of California San Francisco, where he later received his PhD degree in pharmaceutical sciences & pharmacogenomics in 2006. He worked at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at Los Angeles as a faculty scientist in 2007. He joined the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in 2008. Research in Dr. Shu’s group is to understand the genetic mechanisms of drug response and the roles of membrane transporters in pharmacokinetics and clinical drug response. In particular, research is focused on genetics and epigenetics of drug effects on body metabolic homeostasis. Research is also specifically directed to explore the regulatory mechanisms of drug transporters and their clinical implication. The key aspect of the group’s effort is to translate laboratory findings to clinical outcomes by integrating research approaches of molecular, cellular, animal, and human studies.

Julia Slejko, PhD

Medication Adherence and Decision-Analytic Modeling

Cost Effectiveness and Comparative Effectiveness Research

Dr. Slejko’s research is focused on innovative approaches for decision-analytic modeling for economic and health outcomes assessments. She has applied these methods to modeling medication adherence and translating pharmacometric findings to cost-effectiveness analyses. She holds a BA in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her PhD training at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy Center for Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research was focused on pharmacoeconomics. Her postdoctoral training was completed at the Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program in the University of Washington School of Pharmacy. Prior to her PhD training, she had a seven-year career in drug discovery at Array BioPharma. Dr. Slejko is very active in the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and maintains close connections with industry and academic partners. Her research focuses on assessing economic and comparative value of medications and health care. Current efforts include informing decision-analytic models with real-world evidence on effectiveness, in particular patients’ adherence to medications as a determinant of value, how adherence affects economic evaluations and how predicting and improving adherence may increase value. As co-director of the School of Pharmacy's Patient-Driven Values in Healthcare Evaluation (PAVE) Center, she leads research on incorporating patient-driven value elements into cost-effectiveness analyses and other components of value assessments.

Audra Stinchcomb, PhD

Drug Delivery

Translational Research

Dr. Audra Stinchcomb’s research is focused on transdermal prodrugs, microneedle-enhanced delivery, and translational research models for public-private partnerships. She has developed a research program in transdermal drug delivery in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy that revolves around the examination of the mechanisms and optimization of prodrug skin permeation and microneedle-enhanced skin permeation. This research has studied the influence of prodrug physicochemical properties on skin flux, distribution, and metabolism. The results of this prodrug knowledge fueled the genesis of F6 Pharma, LLC, a transdermal specialty pharmaceutical company. Transdermal prodrugs are in development for treatment of cancer chemotherapy nausea and vomiting, alcoholism, drug addiction, and pain. Transdermal cannabinoid delivery has also been a major research focus, with new prodrugs developed to improve aqueous solubility, chemical stability, as well as skin permeation. The microneedle research focus has been on formulations for improved permeation rate and micropore lifetime, utilizing animal studies translated to human subject studies.

Marc Taraban, PhD

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Chemical and Biological Discovery

Dr. Taraban received his MS in physical chemistry from Novosibirsk State University and PhD in chemical physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chemical Kinetics & Combustion. His pioneering research in the Laboratory of Magnetic Phenomena used methods of Chemically Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (CIDNP) to observe organometallic intermediate species and magnetic field effects on enzymatic reactions for the first time. As a visiting assistant professor at the University of Utah, Dr. Taraban continued his research of mechanisms of enzymatic processes using spin chemistry techniques, and expanded his focus to structural determination of biomacromolecules and polymers using Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS). At the University of Maryland, College Park, he created new force-sensitive nano-networks (FSNNs) from soft and wet viscoelastic materials assembled from peptides and other biopolymers in order to construct injectable and biodegradable mechanosensors and drug release matrices to aid the repair and rehabilitation of damaged musculoskeletal tissues. Dr. Taraban holds an issued patent for noninvasive analytical technologies.

Deanna Tran, PharmD, BCACP

Family Medicine

Community Pharmacy

Immunizations

Deanna Tran, PharmD, BCACP, received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and subsequently completed a PGY-1 community pharmacy residency at Virginia Commonwealth University and Martin’s Pharmacy. She is co-director of the School's Pharmacy Practice Laboratories and co-advisor of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) student chapter. She practices as an ambulatory care specialist at the University of Maryland Family and Community medicine practice. From 2017 to 2019, she was a clinical pharmacist at the University of Maryland Capital Region Health – Family Health and Wellness at Cheverly’s Inter-professional Care Transition Clinic. Prior to that, she was a clinical pharmacist for the University of Maryland Anticoagulation Clinic and the Clinical Programs Consultant for the Landover division of Giant Pharmacy, serving 158 pharmacies in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. She assisted in the development and implementation of Giant Pharmacy’s patient care services, including medication therapy management, travel health clinics, and outreach programs such as chronic disease management classes. She was also a faculty clinical specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Anti-thrombosis Center. Dr. Tran's focuses are the scholarship of teaching, point-of-care testing, travel-health, and immunizations. She is active in a number of professional pharmacy organizations, including the American Pharmacists Association, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the Maryland Pharmacists Association.

James Trovato, PharmD, MBA, FASHP

Hematology and Oncology

James A. Trovato, PharmD, MBA, FASHP, is a professor and co-vice chair of academic affairs at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore. He completed a BS in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, a PharmD degree from Purdue University, and an American Society of Health System Pharmacists-accredited oncology residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Trovato has a demonstrated history of leadership and management in pharmacy higher education. He is skilled in oncology therapeutics, instructional design, and curricula development and assessment. His research interests include treatment and survival outcomes in cancer patients, instructional design, and student academic success.

Ester Villalonga Olives, PhD, MsC

Patient-Reported Outcomes

Social Epidemiology

Health Inequities

Dr. Villalonga-Olives is a social epidemiologist with a PhD in biomedicine, specializing in epidemiology and public health. She obtained her BsC and MsC in sociology and health from the University of Barcelona, with an international stint at the Università degli Study di Trieste in Italy. Her PhD, with International Doctor Distinction, was from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and she completed stays at the London School of Economics in the UK and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. During her PhD, she conducted public health interventions for non-governmental organizations in India and Cuba. Currently an adjunct professor at New York University, she has also been a teaching and research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, guest lecturer at Yale School of Public Health and the University of Tarapacá, Chile, and a research scientist at the University Medical Center of the Georg-August-University of Goettingen in Germany. Dr. Villalonga-Olives is a member of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center and the International Expert Group on Operationalizing Social Capital Interventions in Forced Displacement Situations led by the United Nations. She was part of the Early Investigators Advancement Program of the NIH, received a GLOBALtimore teaching fellowship, served on the board of the International Epidemiology Association for 10 years, and received an award from the Spanish Society of Epidemiology to train at the European Epidemiology Program in Florence (Italy). Her research focuses on the social determinants of health, emphasizing social capital, health inequalities, structural racism, and health intervention design. She has a background in psychometrics and works with patient-reported outcomes, particularly health-related quality of life, and developed a measure for assessing bridging social capital. She leads various projects, including an NIH R01 grant creating a measure of structural racism. In her research she is exploring social capital's link to health outcomes in underserved populations, adapting cancer knowledge tools for Hispanics/Latinos, studying racial Differential Item Functioning in social indicators, and implementing social capital interventions to boost cancer screening among Hispanic/Latino immigrants. She co-investigates two NIH R01 projects on social connectedness's impact on mental health in Black adults and creating a shared decision-making measure in maternity care. Her research methodologies encompass mixed methods, structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, and Rasch analysis. Dr. Villalonga-Olives has received awards for multiple conference presentations, published in prestigious journals like the American Journal of Epidemiology, Social Science and Medicine, and the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. She serves on the editorial board of Frontiers in Public Health and actively contributes to scientific committees at international events.

Kathryn Walker, PharmD, BCPS, CPE

Pain and Palliative Care

Dr. Walker is an associate professor at the School of Pharmacy and assistant vice president for palliative care at MedStar Health, where she creates palliative care strategy, demonstrates its value within the health system, and leads and collaborates on interdisciplinary research focused on health services related to telehealth and appropriate medication use. She teaches in both the School’s PharmD program and its MS in Palliative Care program. She also serves as site director for the pain/palliative care residency program that is shared between the University of Maryland and MedStar Health. At MedStar, she serves as the clinical co-leader for the health system and oversees inpatient palliative care consultation teams at nine hospitals as well as the community-based Palliative Telehealth Connecting to Home (PATCH) program, which she started in 2015. Dr. Walker completed one of the only specialty residencies at the time in palliative care at University of Maryland after completing her Doctor of Pharmacy degree. She is the past president of the Maryland Pain Initiative (MPI) and served on the Board of Directors for MPI and the Maryland Society of Health System Pharmacists.

Hongbing Wang, PhD

Genomics and Personalized Medicine

Dr. Wang’s research interests focus primarily on the influence of drugs and genetic factors on the expression of metabolizing and detoxifying enzymes and drug transporters in humans as well as the early prediction of metabolism-associated drug interactions. Dr. Wang joined the School of Pharmacy in 2006 after receiving his doctorate in toxicology from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and working at the University of North Carolina’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy. As chair of Experimental and Translational Therapeutics, he leads a program that aims to optimize drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and therapeutic efficacy of drugs through a combined strategy that integrates experimental and translational therapeutic approaches.

Linda Wastila, BSPharm, MSPH, PhD

Health Services Research in Mental Health

Substance Use Disorders in Geriatrics

Dr. Linda Wastila is professor and Parke-Davis Chair in Geriatric Pharmacotherapy in the Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research and director of research for the Peter Lamy Center for Drug Therapy and Aging. For more than two decades, she has conducted research focusing on prescription drug policy, quality, and outcomes. She received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also completed a Master of Science in Public Health. In 1993, she received her doctorate in health policy from Brandeis University, where she served as a Pew Health Policy Fellow. From 1994–2001, she served as senior scientist at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy and was a lecturer at Harvard Medical School. With a focus on older adults and other vulnerable populations, Dr. Wastila examines issues such as: prescription drug use, abuse, and diversion; intended and unintended policy impacts on prescription drug utilization and outcomes; psychopharmacological medication use, quality, and outcomes in community- and residential-residing older adults; innovative methods addressing multi-morbidity and poly-pharmacy; mental health disorders and impact on medication use, adherence, and outcomes; and medication quality and falls prevention. Dr. Wastila’s current research portfolio includes papers on psychopharmacological treatment and quality of treatment in long-term care beneficiaries, substance use disorders epidemiology, and co-morbidity of psychiatric and physical health conditions. She has received grants and contracts from the National Institute of Aging, National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Health Research and Quality, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Research Retirement Foundation, the Maryland Department of Health, and other sources.

Chanel Whittaker, PharmD, BCPS, CGP, FASCP

Geriatrics

Nephrology

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Dr. Chanel Whittaker received her Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from Rutgers University. She completed a managed care pharmacy practice residency with Kaiser Permanente, Mid-Atlantic States and a primary care specialty residency at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center, focused on chronic disease state management. Dr. Whittaker is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist and certified geriatric pharmacist. She is residency program director for the PGY2 – Geriatrics Residency Program. Her practice and teaching specialties include geriatric pharmacotherapy and chronic kidney disease. She has practiced in a number of ambulatory and community settings providing services to older adults in the Baltimore area. Her current practice sites include the Geriatric Education and Medication Management Clinic and the ambulatory nephrology clinic at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Whittaker’s research interests include health literacy, health communication, interprofessional education, and improving medication related outcomes in diverse older adults. She completed an interprofessional faculty development program in ethnogeriatrics with the Stanford Geriatric Education Center to develop educational programs to equip health care professionals to address the health care needs of culturally diverse older adults. She is currently conducting research in the community to evaluate knowledge of medication safety and poison prevention in culturally diverse older adults with low health literacy. In 2022, she was named the School of Pharmacy's inaugural assistant dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). In this role, Dr. Whittaker oversees the development and implementation of the School's EDI strategic plan and initiatives.

Angela Wilks, PhD

Antibiotic Resistance

Metallotherapeutics

Dr. Wilks’ research interests focus on mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens acquire and utilize heme as an iron source. Her research spans disciplines employing bacterial genetics and metabolomics alongside biochemical and biophysical approaches to understand the molecular mechanisms by which pathogenic bacteria acquire heme. These studies have led to the structural characterization of several proteins involved in heme uptake and degradation and to the rational design of potential therapeutic agents that reduce virulence through global effects on iron metabolism. Dr. Wilks received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Lancaster, England. She received her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Leeds, where she worked on the mechanism of heme degradation with Professor Stanley B. Brown. After a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Paul Ortiz de Montellano, she took an appointment as a research assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1998, she joined the faculty at the School of Pharmacy.

Patrick Wintrode, PhD

Chemical and Biological Discovery

Dr. Wintrode's research is focused on protein folding and misfolding, and the role of protein dynamics in function and allosteric regulation. His primary research tools are hydrogen/deuterium exchange, radiolytic footprinting, mass spectrometry, molecular dynamics simulation and small angle x-ray scattering. The biological systems he currently focuses on are 1) serpins: a class of metastable protease inhibitors whose unusual biophysical properties render them susceptible to misfolding and polymerization. Serpin misfolding is implicated in a number of inherited diseases including emphysema, thrombosis and early onset dementia. 2) HIV-1 reverse transcriptase: the role of conformational dynamics in inhibition and drug resistance. 3) AAA+ proteases: mechanisms of action and regulation. Additionally, he is part of a collaboration applying novel advanced computational techniques to simulate large conformational changes in all atom detail.

Fengtian Xue, PhD

Chemical and Biological Discovery

Dr. Xue is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He completed his PhD in chemistry at Brown University before completing his postdoc in medicinal chemistry at Northwestern University. His research interests include pre-clinical development of small molecule therapeutics for bacterial infections, alcohol use disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.

Bruce Yu, PhD

Nanomedicine

Translational Therapeutics

In his independent research career at the University of Utah and the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Yu has worked on developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents and on biomaterials engineering. In the imaging area, the focus was to synthesize dendrimer imaging agents for multicolor F-19 MRI and advanced MRI technology to evaluate the mechanical properties of soft materials and biological tissues. In biomaterials engineering, he has explored the link between molecular chirality and material mechanical properties, exploiting chirality to create biomaterials with novel mechanical properties for cell growth and differentiation. Current research in Dr. Yu’s lab involves regulatory science for biologics and nano-drugs, particularly nondestructive analytical technologies that are being developed for pharmaceutical solutions of drug substances and drug products and for product inspection, using a variety of physicochemical techniques. Dr. Yu received the Kimmel Scholar Award in 2004 for his work on imaging agent development and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists for Engineers in 2005 for his work on biomaterials. He holds several issued patents for dendrimer synthesis, biomaterials engineering, and noninvasive analytical technologies. Dr. Yu received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Peking University and a PhD in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University. His postdoctoral training was in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at the State University of New York-Buffalo and in peptide chemistry at the University of Alberta.

Wenbo Yu, PhD

Drug Design

Dr. Yu is a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. His research interests include computer-aided drug design (CADD) targeting cancer and other diseases; new CADD methods development and coding; force field development; and molecular level simulation for phenomenon of biological and medicinal interests.

Zafar Zafari, MSc, PhD

Mathematical/Statistical Simulation Modeling

Cost-Effectiveness Analyses

Health Policy

Dr. Zafari is a quantitative outcomes researcher with interests in a wide range of applied and theoretical topics in health economics, outcomes research, and health policy, including developing advanced cohort/micro simulation models for cost-effectiveness or comparative effectiveness of health policies or technologies, Bayesian methods of synthesizing and reconciling evidence, statistical methods of longitudinal analyses, prospective, or retrospective studies including multi-level (hierarchical) modeling, age-period-cohort analysis, non- or semi-parametric modeling to address burning epidemiological and health policy questions. From 2016 to 2018, Dr. Zafari was a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. During this time, besides working on a on a variety of projects on cost-effectiveness of social and preventive policies in the US public health system and especially New York City, one main pillar of Dr. Zafari's research activities was to quantify and understand the trends of despair over time and their impact on survival inequalities in the US. From 2012 to 2016, Dr. Zafari was a PhD student at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, where he obtained his PhD in health economics/outcomes research. During his PhD, Dr. Zafari worked as a mathematical modeler and data scientist affiliated with the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation (2014-2016) and as a health economist/epidemiologist for the Center of Collaborations for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Vancouver, Canada (2012-2014). He received a MSc in mathematics from the University of British Columbia in 2012 and a BSc in electrical engineering from Tehran Polytechnic University in 2010.

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