Dr. Ashana Puri, associate professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, has earned the 2025 Innovation and Teaching Excellence Award from the Pharmaceutics Section of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).
The award was presented at the AACP Pharmacy Education Conference in Chicago and honors her innovative and student-centered approach to teaching.
Puri was recognized for incorporating Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) and simulated medications into her pharmaceutics curriculum – methods that promote active learning and real-world application of complex pharmaceutical principles.
“Receiving the AACP Innovation and Teaching Excellence Award from the pharmaceutics section is a tremendous honor that I deeply appreciate,” said Puri. “It has been incredibly exciting to incorporate simulated dosage forms and hands-on activities into my classes, making teaching and learning more engaging, practical, and fun for students. I look forward to sharing these strategies with fellow pharmaceutics educators across the country to inspire innovation in pharmacy education.”
This national award adds to a growing list of accolades for Puri since she joined ETSU in 2019. In October 2024, she received the Early Career Scholar Award at ETSU’s Celebration of Research. She was also recently featured on the cover of GattonRx magazine for her teaching innovations, research excellence and impact on student success.
“At Gatton, we value teaching innovation, and Dr. Puri exemplifies this with her creativity in the classroom,” said Dr. Stacy Brown, chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences. “This award is representative of her commitment to her students that shines through every day, semester after semester.”
Since arriving at ETSU, Puri has established a research lab focused on topical and transdermal drug delivery systems. Her projects, such as microneedle-mediated delivery of naloxone for opioid overdose treatment and dissolving microneedles for antifungal therapies, have resulted in over $370,000 in research funding, including the prestigious AACP New Investigator Award.
She has published 29 peer-reviewed papers, 19 of them at ETSU, with more than 500 citations and regular presentations at national conferences. Her research is conducted in collaboration with institutions like Quillen College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Research Institute.
In addition to her academic and research achievements, Puri has mentored 26 Pharm.D. students, two master’s students, and one Ph.D. student, helping shape the next generation of researchers and pharmacy professionals.
