Assistant dean nominated for Professor of the Year: 2/1

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Assistant dean nominated for Professor of the Year

For a few hours on March 7, the campus room of the Capstone Building in Columbia will house the 10 people recognized as this year’s finest educators in the state of South Carolina.

Kelly Ragucci, PharmD, assistant dean of curriculum at the South Carolina College of Pharmacy (SCCP), is among the finalists for the 2013 SC Governor’s Professor of the Year program, jointly sponsored by the governor’s office and the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (SCCHE). The two winners of the 2013 award will be officially announced at a press conference that morning, though they have already been informed.

“I would have liked to win, of course,” Ragucci said. “But I’m very honored to have been nominated and was thrilled to be considered as a finalist. The program highlights some of the passion and creativity faculty members commit to the classroom in this state. The whole experience was very rewarding and inspiring.”

Ragucci, the only pharmacist among the finalists, was nominated as the distinguished professor representative of MUSC, where last year she won the universitywide Teaching Excellence Award as an educator-lecturer. The professor of clinical pharmacy and outcomes sciences has also drawn praise for her work with patients, as she was named MUSC’s clinician of the year the previous year.

“Those of us in the college are not at all surprised by the accolades she receives,” said Joseph T. DiPiro, PharmD, SCCP executive dean. “She earns them because she is an outstanding teacher, clinician and administrator, and that is reflected in both the university’s nomination of her and the program’s selection of her as a finalist.”

The SCCHE Governor’s Professor of the Year award was established in 1988. Since then, 26 faculty members from four-year institutions have been chosen for the award, which recognizes “exceptional teaching performance.” An additional 16 from two-year institutions have been recognized. The program began awarding separate honors for four-year and two-year institutions in 1996.

Each institution in the state is allowed to nominate one distinguished professor as a candidate each year, creating a large pool for the judges to narrow to 10. As one of the 10, Ragucci was interviewed in November by a panel that included two state senators, two SCCHE representatives, a representative from the governor’s office and a previous award winner, among others.

Only one pharmacist has ever been selected as the winner of the award. Jim Wynn, Ph.D., was selected in 1994 while he was an MUSC professor of pharmaceutical sciences. MUSC produced one other winner when Nancy Duffy, Ph.D., R.N., assistant professor in the College of Nursing, won in 2007.

Through 2012, the University of South Carolina (USC), which is SCCP’s other founding institution, has had two winners from the Columbia campus where pharmacy is based. Statistics professor John Spurrier won in 2002 and dance program director Susan Anderson received the honor in 2009. The USC system has produced six other winners from satellite campuses.

Friday, Feb. 1, 2013

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