The Pfizer Guide to Careers in - College of Pharmacy

Did you know?
While some
pharmacists
who complete
graduate
school exercise
the option to
teach, there
currently exists
a shortage of
faculty, creating
an array of
excellent
professional
opportunities.
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Dr. Bradberry returned to graduate school and was awarded a Doctor of
Pharmacy degree from the University of Tennessee in 1972. After a yearlong
residency in pharmacy at the University of Texas at Galveston, he was recruited
to join the faculty at the University of Nebraska. Although he was there just
briefly, the experience convinced him that academia offered an opportunity
to be a leader, mentor and educator. “I was delighted to see how much I
enjoyed the student contact, and the gratification it brought,” he says.
After leaving Nebraska, Dr. Bradberry spent time at the University of Texas,
University of Oklahoma and finally transferred to University of Tennessee,
where he is now. Dr. Bradberry quips that his resume suggests “I just can’t
keep a job.” Instead, he feels moving around has provided him with a
broader view to share with student and other academic pharmacists through
his teaching.
Profiling the job
Over 3,000 full-time faculty members work in the nation’s 82 colleges of
pharmacy. Thousands more are involved in mentoring at various levels from
community checkups to research fellows. They are involved with teaching,
research, public service and sometimes, patient care. Others work as consultants
for local, state, national, and international organizations, teaching
and doing research, much of which involves investigational pharmacotherapeutics,
and epidemiological studies.
The University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy enrolls 100 students in
each class in a four-year program. There are 60 faculty members dispersed
“I am trying to be a role
model so students take the
best things I can offer in terms
of professional responsibilities
and ethics and apply it to
their own careers.”
the pfizer guide > academic pharmacist
among pharmacy science, clinical
pharmacy and pharmacy practice.
As head of the pharmacy practice
unit, Dr. Bradberry focuses mainly
on primary and ambulatory care.
The pharmacy curriculum at the
University of Tennessee generally
begins with two and a half years in
didactic work, which includes lectures and conferences. “We typically work
with small groups of students (about 10) in the first year so we can get to
know them,” Dr. Bradberry says, “and it gives them a perspective of pharmacy
from a faculty point of view. We teach a critical thinking course in the