Dr. Nilanjana Dwibedi, an assistant professor in the WVU School of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmaceutical Sytems and Policy, has been selected as a 2019-2020 Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Applied (IDEA) Faculty Fellow at WVU. Dr. Dwibedi submitted a detailed proposal to develop a two-credit course titled, “Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship in Pharmacy.”

"This will be a much-needed course in our pharmacy curriculum as we look at the current need for pharmacists in our state to develop innovative patient care services in the community and institutional practice settings, and also for a future role of pharmacists as a provider," said Dr. Suresh Madhavan, chair of the School's Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy.

The IDEA Faculty Fellows program is for two years and presents an opportunity for faculty to become involved by directly creating curriculum to enhance student skills in the areas of innovation, design and entrepreneurship. In addition, the Fellows form a cohort and work with the Assistant Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Morgantown and other like-minded faculty members at WVU’s Morgantown campus, WVU Tech and Potomac State College to recommend activities and initiatives and act as cross-campus champions of entrepreneurship education. IDEA Fellows are provided with extensive training and professional development in entrepreneurship. Each Fellow receives a $5000 salary enhancement and a small grant of $500 to pay for a student worker or offset costs of the program.

The course that Dr. Dwibedi will develop “Entrepreneurism and Intrapreneurism in Pharmacy” will be innovative, and she is the perfect person to teach this course given her passion for the topics, her own MBA training, her current research work, and the enthusiasm she has for the proposed activity.