With TEACH Prize win, Katie Barber reaches ‘pinnacle’ of profession
Published on Monday, May 12, 2025
By: Gary Pettus, gpettus@umc.edu
Photos By: Joe Ellis/ UMMC Communications
Dr. Katie Barber’s first taste of the pharmacy business melted in her mouth, not in her hand.
Especially sweet was the fact that her boss at the time was her father, Bob Barber, now retired, a pharmacist in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“When I was growing up, I went to work with him on days when I was out of school,” she said. “He gave me some pill bottles to work with, but instead of pills, I counted out M&Ms.
“So, in a way, I got to do what he did.” In a way, she still does.
Barber is not only an associate professor of pharmacy practice, she is also an accomplished researcher and a teacher of such skill that she has been awarded one of the most prestigious faculty honors presented by the University of Mississippi Medical Center: the Regions Bank TEACH Prize.
Barber, a member of the School of Pharmacy faculty at the University of Mississippi in Oxford who also teaches pharmacy students at UMMC, found the news to be “truly shocking” when her name was announced during Tuesday’s Medical Center ceremony.
“It was so unbelievable, I didn’t even stand up at first,” she said.
Each year, in conjunction with the annual induction ceremony for the Nelson Order, UMMC and Regions present the Toward Educational Advancement in Care and Health Prize to a faculty member who has “reached the pinnacle of the art and science of teaching,” in the words of Dr. Scott Rodgers, UMMC associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
As the winner, Barber was one of seven TEACH Prize finalists from each of UMMC’s schools. Her rewards include the knowledge that she is the first-ever School of Pharmacy faculty member to claim the prize since its inception in 2013.
She is also the recipient of a $10,000 check from Regions, which was represented by bank officers and leaders Regina Fowler, Myer Mack, LoRose Moore and Gary Morgan.
Barber, too, became one of 21 faculty members inducted into the Nelson Order, reserved for the institution’s top teachers. The organization is named for master educator and former Medical Center leader, the late Dr. Norman C. Nelson, also the namesake of the Student Union where the observance was held.
Nelson’s most recent successor, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, and Dr. Natalie Gaughf, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, along with Rodgers, presented the inductees. They were selected by students and their peers and recommended by each school’s dean.
Among this year’s inductees is Dr. William P. Daley, the 2017 TEACH Prize winner and now a 10-time Nelson Order honoree. Several more faculty members recognized Tuesday have earned multiple Nelson Order honors, including this year’s. They are Dr. Michael D. Fast (two), Dr. Eva M. Bengten (two), Dr. Susana M. Salazar Marocho (three); Dr. Angelia D. Garner (three); and Dr. Zeb K. Henson (five).
This year’s School of Pharmacy choice is especially proud of the profession she planned to pursue at least since she was old enough to spell it.
“There may be this misconception that pharmacists just count pills,” Barber said. “But we work with all members of the interdisciplinary health care team to provide the best patient care all around.”
Barber grew up in a patient care world. Her mom, Pat Barber is a retired registered nurse and currently serves as a Standardized Patient, or “patient actor” at UMMC, helping prepare students from a variety of campus schools for their careers.
“My original path in pharmacy was to be a retail pharmacist,” Katie Barber said, “but in my fourth year of pharmacy school I did clinical rounds in infectious diseases. I knew then that I also wanted to work in a clinical setting.”
She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of South Carolina-Columbia in 2010 and completed her first post-graduate year at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Her second year of post-graduate study was in infectious diseases at Detroit Medical Center in Michigan, followed by Infectious Diseases Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Fellowship at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Later, she was a clinical pharmacist at UMMC, sharing rounding duties on the Adult Infectious Diseases Consult team. She joined the Ole Miss faculty in August 2014. Two years later, Barber, who now has more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications and numerous research grants to her credit, won the School of Pharmacy New Investigator Award.
Her TEACH Prize win was not, by a long shot, the first recognition of her teaching ability. Barber is a multiple winner of the Teacher of the Year Award for the School of Pharmacy and received UMMC’s Faculty Instructional Innovation Award in 2019.
Beyond UMMC and Ole Miss, she has also taught pharmacy trainees from St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, Wayne State University and Detroit Medical Center.
Attending the Nelson Order ceremony with Barber was Dr. Donna Strum, dean of the School of Pharmacy. “We’re thrilled for Katie,” Strum said.
“She’s certainly an outstanding teacher and researcher. And we’re really honored to have on our faculty our first TEACH Prize winner.”
2025 Regions Nelson Order Inductees
*Indicates TEACH Prize finalist
School of Dentistry
Dr. Michael D. Fast, chair of comprehensive general dentistry
*Dr. Angelia D. Garner, professor of dental hygiene
Dr. Alicia A. Rose Hathorn, associate professor of advanced general dentistry
Dr. Susana M. Salazar Marocho, associate professor of biomedical materials science
School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences
*Dr. Eva M. Bengten, professor of cell and molecular biology
School of Health Related Professions
Dr. Felix Adah, professor of physical therapy
*Dr. Kathryn “Katie” E. Cassady, assistant professor of occupational therapy
Dr. Shuying Lin, associate professor of physical therapy
Dr. Kendria D. Lyles, assistant professor, Doctor of Health Administration Program
School of Medicine
Dr. William P. Daley, professor of pathology
Dr. Charles E. Grogan II, assistant professor of allergy and immunology
Dr. Zeb K. Henson, professor of medicine
Dr. Felicitas L. Koller, associate professor of surgery-transplant
Dr. Jarrett R. Morgan, associate professor of medicine
*Dr. Erin W. Norcross, professor of advanced biomedical education
School of Nursing
Lisa K. Hosey, instructor of nursing
*Dr. Kathleen “Kathy” A. Rhodes, associate professor of nursing
Stephanie B. Tullos, instructor of nursing
Dr. Linda A. Upchurch, associate professor of nursing
University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy
*Dr. Katie E. Barber, associate professor of pharmacy practice
John D. Bower School of Population Health
*Dr. Benjamin H. Walker, assistant professor of population health science