Alumna named director of Ohio State's Center for Clinical and Translational Science
The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy alumna Dr. Julie Johnson '85 was appointed as director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) and associate dean for clinical and translational research for the Ohio State College of Medicine and associate vice president of research for Ohio State, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.
"Julie will be the first PharmD to lead a CCTS in the country and is coming back to her alma mater after a highly successful career in academic pharmacy, most recently as the dean of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy,” said Dr. Deanna Kroetz, dean of the College of Pharmacy. “I look forward to partnering with Julie to expand clinical and translational science in our own college. While her primary appointment will be in the College of Medicine, she will also hold an appointment within the Division of Outcomes and Translational Science."
A native Ohioan, Dr. Johnson earned her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Ohio State, followed by her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She returned to Ohio State to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacokinetics/cardiovascular pharmacology before embarking on an exceptional career as a talented leader, educator and translational clinician-scientist.
Since 1998, Dr. Johnson has served on the faculty of the University of Florida (UF), where she is a Distinguished Professor in the colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine. Last year, she completed a nine-year term as the first woman to serve as dean of the College of Pharmacy at UF. Under her leadership, the college experienced tremendous growth, rising from No. 14 in 2013 to No. 5 in 2020 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best pharmacy colleges in the nation. During her tenure, the college’s annual research funding also increased from approximately No. 20 to No. 3 in research funding among the nation’s colleges of pharmacy.
An internationally recognized leader in clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenomics and genomic medicine, Dr. Johnson has an extensive record of clinical and translational research, focusing on cardiovascular pharmacogenomics and the implementation of precision medicine approaches into clinical practice. She has led numerous interventional healthy volunteer studies as well as single- and multi-center clinical trials, including randomized controlled trials and pragmatic trials and implementation research. She has a long record of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including as principal investigator (PI) of multiple large NIH grants (U01) and a T32 training grant for postdoctoral fellows. She has written more than 330 peer-reviewed original research articles and secured approximately $55 million in research funding as a PI.
Dr. Johnson has received many notable awards and honors for her work. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, along with receiving top research awards from a variety of organizations. She has also held numerous service positions, including roles with the NIH, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association.
As director of the CCTS, Dr. Johnson will serve as the PI of a seven-year $37.9 million Clinical and Translation Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.