Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Dr. Barnes’ research interests include implementation science focused on expanding the role of pharmacists in ambulatory settings, the use of population health management to improve the quality and cost of care provided in primary care settings, the sustainability of pharmacist-provided care in primary care settings, and methods to develop and support pharmacy practice preceptors. Dr. Barnes’ passion lies with mentoring the next generation of the profession to achieve their own personal goals and dreams.

Dr. Casper’s areas of focus include teaching nonprescription medications and foundational patient care concepts, post-graduate mentoring to prepare trainees for future teaching experiences, and faculty development with an emphasis on recognizing and rewarding teaching innovation and excellence. Her scholarly contributions and interests align with these areas of focus and are enhanced by her earlier work related to advancing patient care pharmacy services in community-based settings.

Dr. Cline’s areas of focus include wellness, integrated course design, instructor development, and curricular operations. She has a passion for teaching and learning and strives to create meaningful learning experiences using evidence-based teaching practices and individualized student support for PharmD students, graduate students, and post-graduate trainees. Her scholarship also focus on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning related to wellness, integrated course design, and curricular operations.

Dr. Coyle is a board-certified ambulatory care pharmacist and pharmacotherapy specialist, focused in the area of cardiac risk reduction and chronic disease prevention. In the College’s Doctor of Pharmacy program, she leads a course in the Concepts in Patient Care (CiPC) sequence and also teaches relevant topics in the Pharmacotherapy (IP) course sequence. She also precepts students in introductory and advanced experiential rotations for both clinical care and academic practice. Dr. Coyle has a passion for teaching and learning and strives to create excellent instructional outcomes by bringing together pedagogical expertise, innovative classroom practices, and student support for application of learning. Dr. Coyle’s scholarly interests align with these priorities: new faculty mentoring, postgraduate training for teaching, and professional learning strategies; also, advancing pharmacy services in specialty cardiovascular and primary care.

Dr. Denton's teaching includes various pharmaceutical science laboratory and research survey-based courses along with previous experience in writing courses. His teaching philosophy is that advancing inclusive and inquiry-based teaching is required to train the innovative and diverse research teams needed to solve wicked problems in pharmacy practice. Dr. Denton's research group investigations include professional identity formation, teamwork development, inquiry-based learning, metacognitive coaching, healthcare disparity elucidation, course-based undergraduate research experiences, community-based teaching, information/research literacy, social annotation, education technology practices, and various projects advancing discipline-based education research and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Dr. Denton’s primary service efforts include promoting undergraduate research, professional development in education research, and maintaining an inclusive environment through various committees and affiliation with the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Downing’s professional interests include designing meaningful learning experiences that enhance a learner’s health and well-being. In the classroom, she evaluates the impact of using evidence-based instructional strategies during the course design process on college student well-being measures, such as safe medication practice behaviors and healthcare self-efficacy. Outside the classroom, Dr. Downing supports the design and development of prevention education resources that help teach safe medication practices across the lifespan.

Dr. Kelley leads the Office of Educational Innovation and Scholarship whose strategic areas of focus include program development, assessment, and helping faculty disseminate scholarly work related to their teaching (e.g. the scholarship of teaching and learning). Her areas of research interest include educational assessment, program evaluation, student learning, and pharmacy education.

Dr. Matthews is passionate about developing innovative and effective teaching methods and measuring the impact of educational interventions through scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). His specific areas of interest within SoTL include interventions that promote metacognition and retention.

Dr. Casey Combs May, an Associate Professor – Clinical at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, is a multifaceted professional excelling in practice, teaching, research, and professional leadership. Practicing as a neurocritical care pharmacist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, she delivers innovative patient-centered care, specializing in neurologic injuries. Dr. May actively contributes to the academic realm by co-coordinating a key pharmacotherapy course, leading a Critical Care Elective, and engaging in scholarship related to teaching clinicians. Additionally, she holds leadership roles in professional organizations, advocating for pharmacist integration and contributing to committees shaping critical care guidelines. Her research pursuits focus on anticoagulation reversal, optimizing pharmacotherapy, and evaluating pharmacokinetic variations in neurocritically ill patients.

Dr. Mefford is interested in the use of active learning to promote student engagement with science and to foster deeper understanding of often controversial topics associated with drug use and addiction. She strives to instill good research techniques to help engrain learning as a lifelong process.

Dr. Mehta's areas of focus include development and implementation of innovative pharmacy practices in community-based settings, self-care/integrative medicines and training student pharmacists and post-graduate trainees to be the future change agents in pharmacy practice. Her scholarship centers on practice advancement, scholarship of teaching and learning and well-being and resiliency in the workplace. Dr. Mehta's leadership focuses on supporting faculty, staff and trainees, encouraging them to achieve their personal and professional goals that are moving the profession forward and lead the collective effort that envisions OSU as the model leader in pharmacy practice.

Dr. Michel directs the College of Pharmacy Learning Lab at COSI. A molecular genetics researcher by training, his career subsequently branched into science education and outreach. His current research interest is how the public understand and interact with the healthcare system, especially their pharmacy care. His lab also offers inquiry-driven, interactive outreach for COSI guests focused on using pharmacology to teach foundational STEM concepts, including science literacy. Lastly, his public-facing lab provides an ideal setting to train his undergraduate students to be the next generation of great science communicators.

Dr. Newman is a pharmacologist with expertise in the neurobiology of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and Pharmacogenomics. In addition to developing courses and teaching in her areas of specialty in both the College’s Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSPS) and the Doctor of Pharmacy programs, Dr. Newman also teaches in and is a Science Course Coordinator for the Integrated Pharmacotherapy (IP) course sequence. Dr. Newman has focused her career on teaching and learning and is passionate about creatively enhancing the student experience to facilitate more student engagement and deeper learning. Additionally, Dr. Newman strives to help students evaluate how they learn in order to establish a solid foundation and tools to support lifelong learning. Dr. Newman’s scholarly research efforts focus on evaluating how SUD is taught at the undergraduate and professional levels and on how understanding the neurobiology of SUD affects the stigma associated with SUD.

Professor Jennifer (Jen) Plahovinsak is the Director of the Master of Science in Translational Pharmacology program. Jen’ s research focuses on the design and development of technology-enhanced learning environments for science education, graphic and instructional design to support learning, key learner characteristics for graduate students, curricular development for online toxicology courses, and quality strategies for online program success. Additionally, her interests include the development of relevant preclinical models to support medical countermeasure research programs. Jen has been certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology since 2015.

Dr. Rodis' areas of focus include advancing pharmacy practice through empowering current and future pharmacists to develop and sustain patient care services, advocacy and partnership engagement to influence patient access to pharmacist-provided care, and leadership of the college’s outreach and engagement efforts aligned with the Land Grant mission of The Ohio State University.

Dr. Schmuhl’s primary professional interest is caring for patients with substance use disorders (SUD) and implementing harm reduction strategies both on and off campus. She actively works to educate healthcare professional students across Ohio to care for patients with SUD in a collaborative and effective way. Her research focuses on medication use for SUD, SUD education, harm reduction, and innovative pharmacy practice. Dr. Schmuhl is also passionate about mentoring undergraduates, professional students, and pharmacy residents and serving as a resource for students during their educational and professional journeys.

Katie Summers is interested in improving science education by utilizing active learning techniques in the classroom to help students develop critical thinking skills and apply what they learn to real world situations. At Ohio State, she has taught pharmacology, drug discovery and development and related courses to undergraduates in the Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences program. She also teaches courses in the General Education program related to pharmacology and vaccinology. In addition to her teaching, Dr. Summers also directs two summer science and career exploration programs for high school students interested in the pharmaceutical sciences. She is the former Assistant Director of the Generation Rx Lab at the Center of Science and Industry, where she assisted with assessing the experiential impact of teaching the general public medication safety through conducting hands-on science experiments.

Dr. Valentino's areas of focus include developing, implementing, and demonstrating impact of innovative pharmacist services in federally qualified health centers. She has a passion for preparing student pharmacists and pharmacists to provide care within interprofessional teams that advances health equity for culturally and socioeconomically diverse patient populations. Her scholarship also focuses on interprofessional practice and education.

Dr. Winhoven’s professional interests include community pharmacy, innovative teaching and wellbeing. She strives to find creative ways to engage students in meaningful learning and support them in achieving their personal and professional goals.