Geoffrey M. Curran, Ph.D., Receives Fulbright Specialist Award

By Benjamin Waldrum

The grant is a reflection of Curran’s leadership and contributions to society, according to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board’s congratulatory letter.

“I am very excited about this opportunity to work closely with the University of Limerick to develop and deliver a summer school program in implementation science to their faculty and partners,” Curran said. “After doing a visiting lecture and some consulting with them in 2021, I was so pleased when they asked me to consider applying for the Fulbright Specialist Program with them. And I was even more pleased when our program was selected.”

Curran leaves for Ireland in June and returns in August. While there, he will deliver a didactic and interactive course on implementation science. The course, to be delivered to 40 program applicants, will be directed broadly to researchers, clinicians, and health and policy administrators.

“This is an incredible honor and reflective of the tremendous value and impact of Dr. Curran’s work in the area of implementation science,” said Dean Cindy Stowe, Pharm.D. “We are excited about the opportunities that Dr. Curran will have in his role as a Fulbright Specialist and how this experience translates back to enhance local efforts and collaborations at UAMS.”

After the course, Curran will provide in-depth, project-specific mentoring to a smaller number of researchers who are applying for Irish or European extramural research funding. He will also provide train-the-trainer assistance to University of Limerick faculty who will take over his course in upcoming years, and mentor the directors of their new Implementation Science Cluster in building capacity in implementation science throughout Ireland.

Further, during his stay in Ireland, Curran will consult on national implementation initiatives in health care and pharmacy practice, and explore future student and faculty exchange opportunities with Ireland’s three schools of pharmacy.

Curran, who joined UAMS in 1999, is a professor of pharmacy practice in the College of Pharmacy and director of the UAMS Center for Implementation Research. He has additional faculty appointments in the College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management. He also is a research health scientist at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. He was invested in April as the inaugural holder of the Endowed Chair in Pharmacy Practice Innovation.

Curran is an internationally recognized thought leader in implementation science, which is the study of how best to support adoption of evidence-based practices. His highly cited work on research design and methods has significantly influenced the field.

The Fulbright Program is the world’s largest and most diverse international educational exchange program and is overseen by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Its goal is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Since its inception in 1946, more than 400,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated in the program.

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

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