College of Pharmacy celebrates inaugural award winners

The UNMC College of Pharmacy recently celebrated its inaugural Scholars of the Year and College Impact Award winner as part of a new initiative undertaken by the college’s faculty development committee.

College leadership, including dean Keith Olsen, PharmD, charged the committee with recognizing the full range of excellence exhibited by its faculty.

"The UNMC College of Pharmacy faculty are an elite group of educators, scholars and clinicians," Dr. Olsen said. "Faculty members are regularly recognized and receive awards at the campus, university, national and international level."

Until now, the college’s internal faculty awards only related to education.

David Oupicky, PhD, Scholar of the Year honoree.

David Oupicky, PhD, professor and Parke-Davis Chair in Pharmaceutics, and Kim Scarsi, PharmD, professor of pharmacy practice and science, are the College of Pharmacy’s first Scholars of the Year in pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy practice and science, respectively.

Kristen Cook, PharmD, is the first College Impact Award honoree. That honor goes to a faculty member who has excelled at advancing the college’s mission, specifically for improving programs related to the education, research, patient care, service and community outreach goals of the college.

Kristen Cook, PharmD, College Impact Award honoree.

Dr. Cook, a practicing pharmacist, is heavily involved in the SHARING Clinics and is always looking for new and better ways to prepare her students. She went above and beyond in ensuring continuity and rigor was not lost in the pharmacotherapy lab during the pandemic. Dr. Cook also chairs the college’s curriculum committee.

Dr. Oupicky is a prodigious researcher, who once had a hand in landing three National Institutes of Health R01 grants in one year. He works in nanomedicine and novel drug design and combinations, in order to better treat metastatic cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and acute kidney injury.

Dr. Scarsi is a leader in working to optimize the pharmacologic treatment of people living with HIV, with an emphasis on improving the lives of women with HIV. She also works for patients who have both HIV and tuberculosis. Her work has both local and international impact.