The University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy is pleased to announce the promotion of Diana Sobieraj, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, to Director of Assessment. This is a new position at the School of Pharmacy, recently approved by the UConn Provost’s office.
Sobieraj’s new role will focus on conducting and coordinating research and evaluation on curricular and programmatic assessment including strategic planning for decision making activities to improve educational and programmatic outcomes of the School. Specifically, she will apply best practices to determine or change policies, curricula, and student support services; develop and manage a comprehensive evaluation system, both formative and summative, that evaluates students, faculty, courses and program success.
Additional responsibilities include utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods to propose or expand assessment strategies for course and program outcomes to leadership and faculty; reporting results in order to satisfy Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education (ACPE) requirements and learning objectives/outcomes, and to inform stakeholders on the progress of the School of Pharmacy’s curricular and programmatic assessment.
“The Director of Assessment position follows our recent reaccreditation during which the ACPE placed emphasis on the measurement of our educational programming and the success of our students. We are fortunate to have Dr. Sobieraj take on this new position. Her knowledge of our School as well as long-time experience in informatics as they apply to health care will be instrumental in informing modalities for our School’s growth” says Philip Hritcko, Dean of the School of Pharmacy.
Sobieraj earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Rhode Island and subsequently completed a pharmacy practice residency at Hartford Hospital / UConn School of Pharmacy.
Involved in research both on campus and off, Sobieraj has earned more than $3 million in research funds for her work regarding comparative effectiveness and health outcomes research. Notably, she led the UConn School of Pharmacy’s Evidence Based Practice Center (EPC) in collaboration with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to generate evidence reports about the pharmacologic management of asthma. These reports were foundational for the recently published clinical practice guideline: 2020 Focused Updates to the Management of Asthma. Sobieraj has also won numerous awards; most recently the 2019 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Drug Research Literature Award and the 2020 Preceptor of the Year award where she was nominated by students for her teaching.
Apart from her role at UConn, Sobieraj has provided extensive national service to the American College of Clinical Pharmacy where she served as treasurer/secretary, chair elect and chair of the Health Outcomes Practice and Research Network.
At her practice site, Hartford Hospital, Sobieraj has been an active preceptor of the PGY1 Residency where she served as a research advisor and preceptor for an academic rotation. She also provided a didactic curriculum on biostatistics and journal club preparation for the Hartford HealthCare system residency programs.
