Chasity Shelton knows the benefits of attending the UTHSC College of Pharmacy. She began her journey as a student in the college in 2001 and is now charged with ensuring the success of others who attend the college.
Promoted to assistant dean for student success earlier this year, Dr. Shelton, who holds PharmD, FCCP, BCPS, and BCPPS degrees and certifications, aims to ensure excellence in the classroom and make certain that pharmacy students maintain a proper school/life balance.
“My vision is to equip students to handle the rigors of the curriculum and maintain their personal lives while in school,” she said. “I want to see students achieve their personal pharmacy professional goals and to be successful in obtaining job placement or postgraduate training.”
An East Tennessee native, Dr. Shelton completed her pharmacy degree at UTHSC in 2005 and became an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Translational Science in 2007, after working at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. In addition to her academic duties, Dr. Shelton also serves as the chair of the Honors, Awards, and Scholarship Committee and is vice chair of the Admissions Committee for the college.
She is already hard at work implementing new initiatives that began this fall. These initiatives focus on career preparation, career exploration, and personal well-being. Dr. Shelton and other College of Pharmacy faculty attended the 2019 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Spring Institute on promoting a culture of well-being among students, faculty and staff. She served as a team leader and obtained a certification in Mental Health First Aid.
“This training was essential in helping us to develop programming, materials, and resources for the students to handle the rigors of our curriculum and maintain school/life integration,” she said. “This institute presented data highlighting the need for well-being to be incorporated into our daily workflow that will benefit not only students, but faculty and staff as well. Our team was able to spend time brainstorming and creating the framework for incorporation into the pharmacy curriculum and implementation of activities beneficial for faculty and staff.”
Dr. Shelton pointed out that the current pharmacy workforce is very competitive. The college is committed to providing students with many tools and resources to help them be successful.
“With Dr. Shelton leading the Office of Student Success, we will continue to make the college one that ensures our culture is student focused,” Dean Chisholm-Burns said.
This story appeared in the latest issue of Pharmacy magazine.