Pharm.D., Academic Pharmacy Fellowship Alumna Aayna Shamsi Joins College Faculty

August 31 — University of Houston College of Pharmacy alumna Aayna Shamsi, Pharm.D. ('17), who also served as the 2022-23 Academic Pharmacy Fellow at the college, has been appointed as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research. 

After graduating from the college, Shamsi worked in the community pharmacy setting for five years. Passionate about teaching since a young age, Shamsi pursued several leadership and teaching roles within her company during her community practice.

As a pharmacist, she was recognized for her abilities in coaching and mentorship and oversaw the development of staff pharmacists into pharmacy managers and newly graduated pharmacists joining the company after licensure. She also participated in coaching, training, and mentoring new and established pharmacy teams to ensure every pharmacist and pharmacy technician was practicing at the top of their license.

Eventually, these experiences fostered a desire to grow and teach in a formal capacity and she thus entered a post-doctoral academic fellowship at her alma mater. During her fellowship, Shamsi experienced teaching in didactic, skills-based and experiential capacities, patient care in in-patient and outpatient settings, and research in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

She also developed a strong interest in emotional intelligence as a tool for personal and professional success. Shamsi is certified in the Emotional Quotient inventory 2.0 and is currently conducting research on the role of emotional intelligence on student outcomes. In July, she and her UHCOP colleague Divya Varkey, Pharm.D., M.S., clinical associate professor, presented their emotional intelligence workshop, "Self, Version 2.0," at the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists' Summer Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C.