William Prescott appointed Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice

Prescott served as interim chair of the department since 2017 and has played a key role in creating and strengthening relationships with the school's clinical partners, faculty recruitment, and mentoring faculty toward promotion.

Prescott received his PharmD from the University at Buffalo in 2002 and completed two years of pediatric residency training at the University of Michigan. He was first appointed to the faculty in 2004 and promoted to clinical professor in 2018. During his tenure, he served as residency program administrative director and currently serves as the Vice Executive Officer for University Pharmacy Residency Services, Inc.

His educational scholarship focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning. His clinical and research scholarship focuses on pediatric infectious diseases and pulmonary disease—he has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and abstracts.

In 2010, he led a team instituting the school's Scholars Program, an elite program designed to prepare academically excellent students for post-graduate residency training. He also played an instrumental leadership role in the introduction of simulation-based learning and advancing application of objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) into the school’s curriculum.

Prescott is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and has served as chair of the pediatric pharmacy special interest group for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). He is also on the board of directors of the New York State Council of Health-System Pharmacists.

His innovative teaching techniques and integrations of blended-learning earned him a 2017 State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has also been the recipient of the 2013 American College of Apothecaries Albert R. Rosica, Jr. Memorial Award, the 2015 University at Buffalo Teaching Innovation Award, and the 2007 and 2011 University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Teacher of the Year Award. He is currently a fellow in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Academic Leadership Development Program.