UT Tyler Professor Helping to Enhance Pharmacy Education
October 13, 2020
UT Tyler Office of Marketing and Communications
UT Tyler Professor Helping to Enhance Pharmacy Education
Follow @UTTyler TweetOctober 13, 2020
Media Contact: Beverley Golden
Senior Director of Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
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The University of Texas at Tyler announced that Dr. Winter J. Smith has been appointed to a national committee designed to enhance efforts to prepare the pharmacy workforce.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) named Smith to the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Educators Executive Committee. This new section focuses on elevating and further supporting educators in all practice settings as they help to prepare the next generation of practitioners for evolving opportunities and challenges in patient care and pharmacy practice.
“This committee is important for the future development of academic pharmacy educators and is composed of significantly influential pharmacy leaders from very strong institutions,” said Dr. Lane Brunner, Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy founding dean. “I am tremendously proud that Dr. Smith was selected to serve on this executive committee, and it is a strong testament to her exceptional leadership skills.”
The executive committee, composed of five ASHP members recognized as pharmacy leaders with broad and diverse practice expertise, will guide the development of education, resources, strategic initiatives, professional policies and advocacy to support pharmacy educators.
“Pharmacy educators are essential in preparing pharmacists to provide the highest caliber of interprofessional patient care. Maintaining adequate communication between academia and practicing pharmacists will ensure students receive the training necessary to successfully fulfill their roles as healthcare professionals,” said Smith, Fisch College of Pharmacy clinical professor.
Smith will serve with educators representing other prestigious pharmacy programs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, University of Georgia, Auburn University and the Mayo Clinic in Florida.
A pharmacist for 17 years, 15 of those in academia, she holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree with distinction from the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy and completed her postgraduate pharmacy residencies at Parkland Health and Hospital System and Duke University Medical Center.
In 2018, she joined the UT Tyler Fisch College of Pharmacy, where she teaches in the areas of drug information and infectious diseases as well as serves as primary preceptor for advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). Her research areas include infectious diseases and postgraduate pharmacy residency training. In practice, Smith is an inpatient internal medicine clinical pharmacist in Plano.
A member of the prestigious UT System, The University of Texas at Tyler focuses on student success and innovative research in the more than 80 undergraduate and graduate degree programs offered to nearly 10,000 students. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News and World Report as a National University, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.