Dr. Robin Moorman Li named 2022-23 Teacher of the Year

Clinical Associate Professor Robin Moorman Li’s students describe her in many ways — an incredible mentor, a great coach and someone who radiates positivity. They appreciate her steadfast support of student growth, both professionally and personally, and refer to her as a role model pharmacist and professor.

Robin Moorman LiThe praise and admiration shared by her students make it easy to see why Moorman Li was selected as the 2022-23 University of Florida College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year. The annual award recognizes excellence, innovation and effectiveness in teaching, and it is the second time Moorman Li has received the honor — having also won in 2014.

“Knowing that my students and colleagues recognize I’m giving 100 percent, and I’m trying to be part of the team creating the best Gator pharmacists, means the world to me,” said Moorman Li, Pharm.D., who also serves as assistant director of the college’s Jacksonville campus. “I am honored to win the Teacher of the Year Award and appreciate all those who nominated me this year.”

Moorman Li’s teaching style centers on inspiring students to always “dig deeper,” with a focus on developing clinical reasoning skills and being committed to patient safety. She is best known for her teaching excellence in pain management, as she contributes to Patient Care 1, Patient Care 6, Principals of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology II, and Thinking Skills courses.

Moorman Li’s passion for teaching pairs well with her avid interest in health and wellness coaching. She completed the Take Courage Coaching Program and has obtained board certification as a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach. She applies her coaching techniques with students to help them build confidence in conquering difficult subjects.

“My classes are directed at creating activities that incorporate scenarios commonly seen in the clinical setting,” Moorman Li said. “The goal is to prepare students to effectively deal with these situations as they approach rotations and move forward into their professional career.”

As a clinical pharmacist, Moorman Li practices in the field of chronic pain management. She supports patients in multiple UF Health primary care clinics in Jacksonville and is a member of the Pain Assessment and Management Initiative team which focuses on advancing innovation and safety in pain education, patient care and research. The main areas of focus include education on multimodal pain management, opioid stewardship, expanding the pain management coach model and researching pain-related health disparities. She draws upon these experiences to help her students become better pharmacists and caregivers.

“I encourage my students to show the patient you are there for them and are focused on their needs,” Moorman-Li said. “If we mentor students that way in pharmacy school, then those are the skills they will carry with them throughout their careers.”

As the recipient of the UF College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year Award, Moorman Li will be recognized at the UF Teacher of the Year events and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Annual Meeting. She will also be provided discretionary funds from the Paul Doering Excellence in Teaching endowment and an honorarium. In addition, she will use the title “Paul Doering Teaching Excellence Professor,” during the upcoming academic year.

Exemplary Teacher Awards

Three faculty members won the Exemplary Teacher Award. These winners are Teacher of the Year finalists who were judged by the curriculum committee to have exemplary teaching as evidenced by a superior teaching portfolio.

  • Bradley Phillips – In his short time with the college, Bradley Phillips, Pharm.D., a clinical assistant professor, has made significant contributions to teaching in Patient Care 3, skills lab and the ambulatory care elective. Nominators praise him for his passion for teaching and for serving as a role model of excellence for ambulatory care practice. In the classroom, Phillips creates a high level of engagement by using simulation-based education or unique active learning strategies, such as a card-sorting game he developed to help students understand heart failure. During the ambulatory care elective, Phillips created a diabetes immersive simulation experience where students followed a complex medical regimen and were responsible for self-monitoring blood glucose using glucose meters or continuous glucose monitors. In addition, he piloted innovative content dedicated to digital health and its role in addressing diversity and health care inequities in ambulatory care.
  • Joshua PulloJoshua Pullo’s experience as a community pharmacy manager allows him to bring real-world principles of practice and management into the Patient Care 1, Practice Management and first-year skills lab courses. His teaching in each of these courses is grounded in design principles and a commitment to transparency in learning. To promote transparency in learning, he outlines the teaching and learning methods used during each active learning session, and after lectures, he highlights activities students can perform to help retain information and elevate their learning. Students describe Pullo, Pharm.D., an instructional assistant professor, as an “amazing and inspiring instructor.” They particularly note the impact of Motivational Monday in his skills lab each week, an exercise that allows students “to reflect on our current life and the path we are taking for us to become the best pharmacists we can be.”
  • Lihui Yuan – As an instructional assistant professor and the course director for Pathophysiology and Patient Assessment, or PPA, I and II, Lihui Yuan, Pharm.D., Ph.D., R.Ph., is well recognized by students for her positivity and encouragement and her focus on keeping students at the center of her teaching approach. This approach was aptly summarized by one of her nominators: “Dr. Yuan has had a lasting impact on me as a student. Her positive attitude and upbeat spirit made coming to class exciting, and helped motivate me at times I felt pharmacy school was impossible. Her passion for teaching and desire to support students in their learning journey is undeniable.” In her commitment to supporting student learning, Yuan was instrumental in initiating a supplemental instruction program for the PPA courses. This successful program has been positively impacting first-year learners for more than five years. During the last year, she worked diligently to redesign and realign the content in the PPA course series to better balance the difficulty and cognitive load for learners.