Betsy Sleath has been contributing to research at Carolina for 30 years.
Betsy Sleath has worked for UNC-Chapel Hill in a variety of roles, most recently as the George H. Cocolas Distinguished Professor and Regional Associate Dean for Eastern North Carolina at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She is also an adjunct professor of health policy and management and epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
What brought you to Carolina?
My first academic job was at the University of New Mexico’s College of Pharmacy, and I enjoyed it a lot. But I really wanted to build a strong research program, so Carolina was my dream job. Bill Campbell and Joe Norwood, who were dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the time, were the main reasons I came to UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. Bill is still my mentor after 30 years, and I do not make any career decisions without talking to him.
How has your role here changed over the years?
I was hired at Eshelman as an assistant professor and was tasked with building a research program and creating an ethics class for our PharmD program. Initially, the ethics curriculum was added to the existing pharmacy law course, which I loved, because I got to co-teach with the executive directors of the Board of Pharmacy, David Work and Jay Campbell, and Tom Thutt, one of our alumni who taught law for several years.
When my chair suddenly left in 2010, I was asked to be interim chair. I kept saying “no” because my daughter was young at the time. I finally caved in and actually loved it, so I became permanent chair and did the job for 10 years.
In 2021, I was asked to serve as the first regional associate dean for Eastern North Carolina. This new role was created to expand partnerships, recruitment, and research in that part of the state. I had always worked with Eastern N.C. partners on my grants, so it was a great fit. Now I spend about half the time on the road working with partners in the East and with many different offices within our school.
In this role, I also collaborate with other UNC System schools, community colleges, high schools, health systems, pharmacies, and our alumni. Part of my job is to convince students to consider Carolina’s doctor of pharmacy program so they can return home and serve their communities. Our school now has nine early assurance programs in the state and three of them are in Eastern North Carolina: East Carolina University, UNC Wilmington, and UNC Pembroke. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see so many local students in our program at Chapel Hill doing fantastic things.
In addition to my work as regional associate dean, I teach ethics, communication, and research lectures in PharmD courses, and grant writing to PhD students. I also serve as director of the Child and Adolescent Research Group at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.
Impact Report
Within the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Betsy Sleath helps recruit students from Eastern North Carolina, encouraging them to serve their communities after they graduate. On average, more than 70% of Carolina’s pharmacy graduates stay and work in N.C.
UNC-Chapel Hill is a place where people can grow their careers. Betsy Sleath began at Carolina 30 years ago as an assistant professor, has since served as chair, and is now a regional associate dean.
What’s kept you at Carolina?
My colleagues within Eshelman and across campus, as well as our partners and alumni in the community. My work focuses on provider-patient communication about medications and optimizing communication to improve patient outcomes. I have been fortunate to have had many physician practices and community pharmacies as my research partners. I also work closely with Alexor, LLC in Durham. They help us develop and produce our interventions and most recently a website for youth called Information for the Evolving Teenager to help young people have successful conversations with their doctors.
What contribution are you most proud of?
I am most proud of my former students and postdoctoral fellows. Three of them are now Carolina faculty members, and others are doing important research at universities, pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, and contract research organizations.
In terms of research, I am most proud of the project we did for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute focused on empowering youth with asthma to be more involved during their medical visits. We worked with two youth advisory boards and had two young people with asthma and their parents on our research team. Our pre-visit asthma questions and video intervention successfully improved youth question-asking, which increased provider education about asthma. If youth in the intervention group asked a question, they had better quality-of-life and asthma control 12 months later.
I am also proud that I won the American Pharmacists Association Research Achievement award in 2018 and that my mentee, professor Delesha Carpenter, is receiving it in 2025.
What is a uniquely Carolina experience you’ve had?
Watching my daughter do push-ups at a Carolina football game when we scored. She was a student and in Air Force ROTC at the time. I could not have been prouder of her and to be a faculty member here. She is now a U.S. Air Force pilot, which to me is also the uniqueness of Carolina. You can study or work here, dream big, and fulfill your dreams. I did.
Rooted recognizes long-standing members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community who have aided in the advancement of research by staying at Carolina. They are crucial to the UNC Research enterprise, experts in their fields, and loyal Tar Heels. Know someone we should feature? Nominate a researcher.