The School of Pharmacy’s new Distinguished Teaching Scholars are (from left) Erin Holmes, Daniel Riche and Kristine Willett.
OXFORD, Miss. – Three faculty members in the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy have been honored by its Distinguished Teaching Scholars Program, which recognizes excellence in teaching and dedication to student achievement.
Erin Holmes, assistant professor of pharmacy administration; Daniel Riche, associate professor of pharmacy practice and medicine; and Kristine Willett, professor of pharmacology, have been named the school’s new Distinguished Teaching Scholars.
“We are so pleased to honor these outstanding faculty members for their contributions to teaching excellence,” said David D. Allen, the school’s dean. “They are innovative and passionate in the classroom, and truly care about the success of our students. Our students are our top priority, so it is important that we honor those who go above and beyond to provide superb learning experiences for them.”
Established in 2005, the Distinguished Teaching Scholars Program is partially funded through proceeds from the estate of Thelma H. Cernigilia and members of the Galen Order. Recipients are nominated for the awards, and a committee evaluates the nominees and makes a recommendation to the dean.
Recipients of the awards serve a three-year term and receive an annual stipend.
Holmes teaches pharmacy law, management and personal finance for second-year professional, or PY2, pharmacy students and pharmaceutical and health care policy for graduate students. She is a member of the university’s Council on Community Engagement, which fosters community engagement among university stakeholders, and chairs the pharmacy school’s curriculum committee.
She also serves on the editorial advisory boards for the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association and Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. She received the School of Pharmacy’s 2013 Faculty Service Award and was twice selected by PY2 students as their Teacher of the Year.
Riche teaches pharmacotherapy for PY3 and PY4 professional students on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus, where he serves as clinical coordinator of the Cardiometabolic Clinic. He was named a UM Faculty Research Program Fellow in 2008 and the New Clinical Practitioner of the Year by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy in 2011.
He served as co-editor of the 11th edition of Clinical Drug Data and received the School of Pharmacy’s Faculty Instructional Innovation in Teaching Award in 2011. In 2009, Riche and his mentee, Joshua Swan (PharmD 09), received the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Foundation Student Research Award, and UM’s graduating Doctor of Pharmacy class selected Riche as its Clinical Science Teacher of the Year.
Willett teaches introductory toxicology for undergraduate pharmacy students and honors courses for freshmen in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. She also teaches graduate-level general principles of pharmacology and toxicology courses.
Her research includes National Institutes of Health-funded studies on the toxic effects of environmental chemicals in developing and adult organisms. She is on the editorial boards of Toxicological Sciences and Aquatic Toxicology and is a member of the Society of Toxicology. She is vice president of the society’s Molecular and Systems Biology Specialty Section and serves on the society’s undergraduate education subcommittee. She is also a member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.