UC San Diego Pharmacy School Names Inaugural Chair of New Department

Under Awdishu’s leadership, the Division of Clinical Pharmacy achieved remarkable outcomes, including securing $4.9 million in research grants (2022-2024); establishing five new clinical practices at UC San Diego Health and one new clinical practice at UC Health; and doubling the division’s number of annual publications (2015-2023). Additionally, Awdishu championed faculty recruitment, advancement, professional development and mentorship, resulting in multiple successful faculty recruitments and nearly all division faculty members participating in either mentorship or leadership training. These efforts were recognized by the division’s receipt of the UC San Diego Inclusive Excellence Award and the UC San Diego Health Sciences Department/Division Excellence in Mentoring Award.

“As department chair, I look forward to continuing to work with our outstanding faculty and staff to elevate the impact of our clinical work,” said Awdishu. “I am particularly eager to advance several priority initiatives, including continuing to leverage innovative technology such as AI to improve patient care, expanding our interdisciplinary collaborations and transforming pharmacy education through partnerships with schools and institutes across our country, state and UC San Diego campus.”

A renowned clinical leader specializing in the treatment and prevention of kidney disease, Awdishu currently serves on the National Kidney Foundation scientific advisory board and has served as an expert grant reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), served on the American Society of Nephrology Education Committee and Publications Committee and served on the board of the American Board of Internal Medicine Nephrology. She is currently a co-investigator at the University of Alabama at Birmingham – UC San Diego O’Brien Center for Acute Kidney Injury Research, one of only seven National Institutes of Health-funded National Resource Centers, where she has created large registries of patient data with the goal of preventing kidney injuries before they occur. Awdishu also holds a clinical practice at UC San Diego Health, where she established the first nationally Joint Commission-certified Chronic Kidney Disease Program at the hospital and expanded clinical pharmacy services in solid organ transplantation and dialysis.

Additionally, Awdishu is a leader in pharmacy education who continues to advance innovative approaches to teaching and curriculum development. She has received numerous awards for teaching excellence, including the UC San Diego Barbara & Paul Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award for Non-Senate Members and multiple Teacher of the Year honors from Skaggs School of Pharmacy. She has helped develop state-of-the-art curriculum, including patient case simulations for students—which frequently involve medical students from UC San Diego School of Medicine and nursing students from San Diego State University or University of San Diego—and co-developed the Advanced Professional Practice course series. She taught the pharmacy school’s therapeutics course series for a decade and continues to lecture in many courses.

Awdishu joined UC San Diego Health's Department of Pharmacy in 2003 and was hired as full-time faculty at Skaggs School of Pharmacy in 2009. She holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Toronto, a Doctor of Pharmacy from University of Colorado and a Master of Advanced Studies in clinical research from UC San Diego.

Newly Formed Department of Pharmacy Practice and Sciences

The Department of Pharmacy Practice and Sciences is one of two new departments within Skaggs School of Pharmacy that were approved in May 2024. The department is home to 29 faculty members and aims to deliver excellence in clinical pharmacy practice, teaching and research with an emphasis on collaborative care and innovative practice models. The department’s faculty members advance scientific discovery involving clinical research and health outcomes, pharmacy informatics, policy, pharmacoeconomics, access to care, and scholarship of teaching and learning; help shape policy through service on national, international and government committees or advisory boards; teach clinical courses in the school’s Pharm.D. and master’s program curriculum; and hold practices at UC San Diego Health, the UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic Project and Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System as well as other locations.