Dr. Nathan Pope, clinical assistant professor of health outcomes and pharmacy practice, has been named to receive the Professor of the Semester Award by The University of Texas at Austin’s Senate of College Councils.
Pope, who also leads the college’s HEB/UT Community Pharmacy Residency Program, will be officially recognized and receive the award from the Senate’s Faculty Affairs Committee on Thursday, December 1 at the Council’s General Assembly. He also serves as faculty advisor for the university’s student chapter of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA).
Pope’s teaching and research interests focus on business development and sustainability of community pharmacy-based services including medication therapy management services, complementary and alternative medications, non-sterile compounding services, proper medication disposal, geriatric pharmacy, immunizations, and pharmacy quality measures.
Under Pope’s leadership, a UT NCPA team beat out teams from throughout the country to win the national business plan competition in October.
“I am absolutely honored and humbled to be named Professor of the Semester,” said Pope. “I can’t think of anything else I would rather be doing than mentoring and educating students at The University of Texas at Austin. I never expect to be given an award or recognized for something that I love to do; however, it is wholeheartedly appreciated.”
Sarah Nguyen, a second year student pharmacist who is a member of NCPA nominated Pope for the honor.
“I wholeheartedly believe that Dr. Nathan Pope deserves the award of professor of the semester,” she wrote. “He has his feet in just about everything, whether it be in serving the College of Pharmacy as a wonderful professor, leading our student NCPA chapter to victory at national competitions, or simply being an encouraging mentor to me as I set out to implement various public health projects.”
“I send him idea after idea for feedback, but he has never once discouraged me, even when my ideas have fallen short of expectations,” she said, adding, “I still do not know the secret to his success, but I will always be grateful that despite all of his other obligations, he makes time to guide students like me.”
The Professor of the Semester Award is designed to honor outstanding UT faculty through college council nominations. Once a semester, instructors are chosen by the Faculty Affairs Committee. The recipient should be someone who demonstrates outstanding teaching ability and a commitment to their students and the university.
Instructors are chosen based on the quality of student responses in the nomination form. Careful consideration will be given to the character and professionalism of the nominee as well as in-class interactions between student and instructor.