Jamie Kellar appointed for second term as Associate Dean, Academic

Jamie Kellar, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, has been appointed for a second term as Associate Dean, Academic at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, effective July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2030.

“We are in a period of exciting and immense change in delivery of higher education,” said Lisa Dolovich, Professor and Dean, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. “I am so pleased that Associate Professor Kellar will continue in this important leadership role at our Faculty as we collectively transform our programs to ensure we continue to train outstanding pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists and leaders. I know our graduates will be ready to take on the opportunities and challenges the future will bring.”

Kellar is a former advanced practice pharmacist with clinical expertise in mental health and addictions. She has taught students in the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program for more than 10 years and has been named Professor of the Year on three occasions. She has received numerous prestigious awards for excellence in teaching and education, including the National Award for Excellence in Education from the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada (AFPC). In 2021, she received the President’s Teaching Award, the highest honour for teaching at the University of Toronto.

“I look forward to working with faculty and staff to advance our educational mission and to enhance our role as leaders in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences education.”

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve a second term as Associate Dean Academic” said Kellar. “I am excited about the educational projects that are underway and others that will get started soon. I look forward to working with faculty and staff to advance our educational mission and to enhance our role as leaders in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences education.”

Associate Professor Kellar holds a PhD from the School of Health Professions Education from Maastricht University, Netherlands. Her research focuses on health professions education, with emphasis on professional identity formation. Her current work focuses on the dominant identity discourses in pharmacy education and how these institutionalized ways of “being” are then embodied by practicing pharmacists around the globe. Her work explores how professional identity formation impacts the desired practice change the profession has been seeking for decades. In 2021, she received the Rufus A. Lyman Award for Best Paper in Pharmacy Education from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

Associate Professor Kellar joined the Faculty in 2011 as a Clinician Educator, a joint position with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), before transitioning to the Teaching Stream in 2015. She has served as the academic lead of various local, national, and international projects, including the academic lead for neuropsychiatry content in the first entry-to-practice PharmD curriculum development project, the Optimizing Patient Care Program, and the Task Force to Revise AFPC Educational Outcomes for the First Professional Degree in Canada.

In her first term as Associate Dean, Academic, Kellar advanced several strategic and academic initiatives laid out in the Faculty’s Academic Plan, Emerge, Thrive and Lead. Recognizing Ontario’s health work force shortages, and challenges related to cost-of-living in Toronto, Kellar collaborated closely with faculty, staff, and students to advance the transition of the four-year PharmD program to a three-year structure. Integrating post-COVID learnings, advances in technology, and innovative teaching methods, the new three-year curriculum will prepare pharmacy students to meet the changing needs of society. She looks forward to continuing to move PharmD program curriculum changes forward together with Natalie Crown, Director of the PharmD Program, and many others leading portfolios of work supporting curriculum renewal.

To support continuous improvement across education programs, Associate Professor Kellar worked closely with the Faculty’s Education Office, faculty members, and the Vice Provost’s Office to draft the Faculty’s comprehensive self-study for the 2025 UTQAP review – the University of Toronto’s approach to create, reflect, assess and develop plans to change and improve academic programs aligned with institutional and divisional commitments.

“By fostering the conditions necessary for growth, we will support our students and educators to emerge as leaders prepared to navigate and shape an increasingly complex health care system.”

She has contributed to enhancing faculty member experience and success through supporting formalized education programs, professional development opportunities, and grants in support of teaching skills and research development.

“In a leading research institution like ours, education must not only be practiced—it must be studied, refined, and advanced,” said Kellar. “By fostering the conditions necessary for growth, we will support our students and educators to emerge as leaders prepared to navigate and shape an increasingly complex health care system,” said Kellar.