{"id":242779,"date":"2026-03-22T11:59:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=242779"},"modified":"2026-03-22T11:59:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:59:45","slug":"william-baker-named-2026-school-of-pharmacy-and-pharmaceutical-sciences-teacher-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/03\/william-baker-named-2026-school-of-pharmacy-and-pharmaceutical-sciences-teacher-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"William Baker named 2026 School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Teacher of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Baker graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in May 2002 with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. After working as a Pharmacy Practice Resident at St. Francis Hospital, he was a pharmacist at Bayhealth Medical Center in Milford, DE form 2003-2006. Baker then completed a Cardiovascular Pharmacology & Outcomes Research Fellowship at Hartford Hospital from 2006-2008.<\/p>\n

\"William
William Baker on Feb. 20, 2024. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2009, Baker joined the faculty at UConn as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice. Eighteen years later, Baker is now a Professor of Pharmacy Practice with Tenure.<\/p>\n

During his nearly 20 years at UConn, Baker has earned many of awards. He is now a three-time Teacher of the Year recipient, winning the award in 2014, 2022 and 2026, joining C. Michael White and Gerald Gianutsos as the only faculty with three Teacher of the Year awards.<\/p>\n

Baker also won the Dean Robert L. McCarthy Faculty Service Award in 2022 for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.<\/p>\n

When students look back on Bakers classes in 10 years, he wants them to remember a few things.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I want them to remember that] one, I treated them like adults and didn\u2019t talk down to them, almost like peers,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Secondly, he wants them to remember his classes as fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo, that it was entertaining and the discussions were interesting and engaging,\u201d Baker said. \u201cI wanted class to be something that they looked forward to going to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third thing is that he only gives the necessary information to know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThird, that what I told them was important or what I thought was important actually was and that I didn\u2019t force them to memorize things that they didn\u2019t ultimately end up needing in the end,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s favorite thing about teaching is when the a-ha moment arrives when the students understand what he is teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019m kind of walking them through decisions and walking them through their steps and having them answer things, I can see the light hit their eyes and I can see things connect where initially they\u2019ll be confused,\u201d Baker said. \u201cPersonally, that\u2019s really rewarding to me.<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s other favorite thing about teaching is the time right before and after class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually like the moments right before class or right after class because that\u2019s more of when I get to know the students more and they get to know me more,\u201d Baker said. \u201cYou know, that way I\u2019m not just some talking head that\u2019s on a pedestal that comes to class and talks at them for an hour and then walks away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker added some more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s them getting to know me as a human and me getting to know them as a human,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Baker also gave some advice to the current and incoming pharmacy students.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing proactive,\u201d Baker said. Keeping things organized in your notes, in your schedule, in your studying and then in your life can be really beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker also talked about communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, make sure that you\u2019re communicating with your peers and faculty,\u201d Baker said. \u201cTo make sure you are getting the most out of the experience and understanding this is going to take continual effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a program where you can go to class and then ignore the information and then try to sit down the night before an exam and try to study,\u201d Baker said. \u201cThat\u2019s not the key to success in classes and much more importantly, it\u2019s not going to prepare you to be a good practicing pharmacist after graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker will be awarded his Teacher of the Year award during commencment weekend on May 10th<\/sup>, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UConn School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Pharm.D. Class of 2026 has named William Baker as its Teacher of the Year for 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":242780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2715],"class_list":["post-242779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pharm"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 05:34:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242782,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242779\/revisions\/242782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/242780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242779"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=242779"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=242779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}