The University of Florida College of Pharmacy welcomed five new faculty to the college in July and August. Included in the group are UF Preeminence scholars, Chengguo (Chris) Xing, Ph.D., and Chenglong Li, Ph.D. The new faculty additions bring the total number of new faculty hires in the college to 28 since summer 2013.
Chengguo (Chris) Xing, Ph.D.
Accomplished researcher Chengguo (Chris) Xing, Ph.D., has been appointed a professor of medicinal chemistry and the Frank A. Duckworth Eminent Scholar Chair in Drug Research and Development at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. Xing joined the college in August following 13 years at the University of Minnesota. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and broadly covers the isolation, design and synthesis and identification of biologically active small molecules to help manage diseases and understand biology. As the Frank A. Duckworth Eminent Scholar Chair, his research at UF will focus on translational development with several indications, including novel therapies selective against multi-drug resistant malignancies, chemopreventive agents against primary carcinogenesis, and a natural dietary supplement on neurological disorders with the goal to extend them in the clinical setting. Xing obtained his Ph.D. degree from Arizona State University and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University.
Chenglong Li, Ph.D.
Medicinal chemist Chenglong Li, Ph.D., joined the University of Florida College of Pharmacy in August as the Nicholas Bodor Professor in Drug Discovery. He will also serve as the graduate coordinator in the department of medicinal chemistry. With wide ranging interests in chemistry, Li focuses his research on molecular recognition, with a strong application to structure-based computer-aided drug design. He uses computational and experimental approaches to explore the connection among molecular structure, dynamics and function. Prior to joining UF, Li was a professor at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy for 11 years. He also worked as a research associate in computational chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. He graduated with a Ph.D. in biophysics and a minor in organic chemistry from Cornell University in 2000, and earned his masters and bachelor’s degrees from Beijing University in China.
Bethany Shoulders, Pharm.D.
Bethany Shoulders, Pharm.D., has joined the College of Pharmacy as a clinical assistant professor in the department of pharmacotherapy and translational research. She maintains a clinical practice site at the trauma ICU at UF Health Shands Hospital. A graduate of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 2014, she completed a pharmacy practice residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and a PGY2 critical care pharmacy practice residency with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her research endeavors during residency included evaluating intraoperative continuous infusion cefazolin in a cardiac surgery population and characterizing the guideline evidence behind off-label medication use in the intensive care unit.
Christopher Campbell, Pharm.D.
The University of Florida College of Pharmacy welcomed Christopher Campbell, Pharm.D., as a clinical assistant professor in the department of pharmacotherapy and translational research in August. He joined the college following completion of a PGY1 pharmacy residency and a PGY2 pediatric pharmacy residency at Georgia Regents Medical Center and the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy in Augusta, Ga. A native of Long Island, N.Y., he received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Northeastern University in 2014. Campbell will maintain a clinical practice site at UF Health Shands Hospital in the pediatric intensive care unit and the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit. A member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group, he has presented at state and national meetings and currently serves on the University HealthSystem Consortium Pediatric Pharmacy Committee. His research interests include pediatric critical care, anticoagulation and patient safety.
Michelle Zeigler, Pharm.D., Ph.D.
One of the newest members of the College of Pharmacy faculty is a familiar face to the University of Florida Medication Therapy Management Communication and Care Center, or UF MTMCCC, in Lake Nona. Michelle Zeigler, Pharm.D., Ph.D., joined the department of pharmacotherapy and translational research as a clinical assistant professor in July. She previously served as a clinical pharmacist on the UF MTMCCC team since the campus opened in August 2012, and she will continue to work with UF MTMCCC in her new faculty role. Her clinical interests include health care communication, motivational interviewing and quality measures. Zeigler is a 2011 graduate of the UF College of Pharmacy. She completed a PGY-1 pharmacy residency at the Sarasota VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic with a focus on ambulatory care in areas such as anticoagulation, diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. As a clinical pharmacist at UF MTMCCC, she worked on various prescriber outreach projects in addition to completing comprehensive medication reviews and providing adherence services. She also precepts third- and fourth-year pharmacy students. Prior to her pharmacy career, she earned a Ph.D. in plant molecular and cellular biology at UF.