Members of the college receive 2026 Inspire Teaching Awards for Instructional Excellence

Several members of the college received the 2026 Inspire Teaching Awards for Instructional Excellence in the PharmD category. 

This award is designed to recognize everyday teaching excellence through a creative teaching activity. Each year, the college recognizes up to three educators who excel at pedagogical design, delivery and assessment through reflective practice, evidence-based pedagogy and student-centered teaching. 

The winners of this year's award include:

• Kristy Jackson and Mary Higginbotham - Created and implemented a mastery-based assessment in their lab course that reduced student stress and improved outcomes
• JD Bickel, Anna Gehres and Alexis Badgett - Integrated a medication safety program called GenRx Ambassadors longitudinally across the P1 year, improving medication safety knowledge among students
• Kelsey Schmuhl, Molly Downing, Ruth Emptage, Kristin Casper, Katie Summers, and Junan Li - Redesigned the PLA exam development process, resulting in a more reliable, valid and consistent summative assessment

The winning applications were judged by a panel of external reviewers.

The award winners will present their work at this year's EdiPhy, held from August 11-13 in the Meijer Pharmacy Classroom (112/118 Riffe).