Academic Scholar - 2015

Michael Klepser

The Academic Scholar Award recognizes a member of the academic community that has demonstrated excellence in research, inquiry, or scholarship. Michael Klepser, Professor in the College of Pharmacy, has been chosen as the recipient of the 2015 Academic Scholar Award.

“Dr. Klepser has an impressive record of scholarship over his twenty year career in higher education,” writes the Academic Scholar Award committee. “He collaborates on research with colleagues at multiple institutions including our own, and has published a wealth of articles, book chapters, reviews, commentaries and editorials, while attracting 1.36 million dollars in grant funding as either principal or co-principal investigator. He has promoted the value of scholarly activity and inquiry by actively involving his students and junior faculty colleagues, thus allowing them to grow and mature in scholarly inquiry as well.”

One colleague, Allison M. Dering-Anderson, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska College of Pharmacy, has this to say in her letter of recommendation. “In addition to being a wonderful research partner and an encouraging teammate, Mike has the ability to make learning an enjoyable experience. He is a high quality educator who offers advice for
improvement to junior faculty, such as me.  I have learned a great deal about teaching and education style from him."

The committee goes on to explain that Klepser and his collaborators “…have developed a portfolio of community-based pharmacy disease management and training programs as well as a certificate program to train pharmacists in the use of "point-of-care" testing. These contributions have the potential to fundamentally change pharmacy practice and improve patient access to care. A national organization is now making plans to sponsor and deliver these training programs to over 20,000 pharmacists in the next 3-5 years.”

Klepser summarizes his philosophy on scholarship by three words: collaboration, mentors, and flexibility. He writes that, “If an individual is hard working and has strong mentors, is open to collaboration, and remains flexible with respect to what they are willing to work on there is no doubt in my mind that this individual can be successful with respect to scholarship.”