Biography
Dr. Mary Ensom (formerly Chandler) is Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Distinguished University Scholar, University of British Columbia (UBC) and Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Children’s & Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia. Dr. Ensom earned her B.S. (Pharm.) degree in 1977 and Pharm.D. in 1985, both from the University of Kentucky. In between degrees, she was a hospital pharmacist and developed clinical services in South Carolina, Washington, and Kentucky. She completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Pharmacokinetics at the University of Kentucky in 1987, served on the faculty at the UK College of Pharmacy and also as Director of the Clinical Pharmacokinetics Service at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center for 10 years (1987-97) before joining the Faculty at UBC in 1997 where she served as Director of the UBC PharmD Program for 10 years (2002-12). Dr. Ensom’s long-term research interests have been in clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics with more recent interests in pharmacogenetics and pharmaceutical outcomes evaluations. Her research and publications have focused on the effects of various pathophysiologic states on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, novel approaches to therapeutic drug monitoring, and hormonal influences and drug disposition and action in women. As an integrator who bridges the gap between the basic and clinical sciences, Dr. Ensom uses her clinical practice experiences to identify relevant issues, study them through her laboratory-based research program, and then directly and immediately translate them into improved patient care. Dr. Ensom has >450 publications (including 202 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 214 research abstracts, 2 books/monographs, 12 book chapters, and >20 other works) to her credit. Aside from Pharm.D. students, she has supervised or co-supervised more than 100 hospital pharmacy residents, M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral fellows. In addition to 9 outstanding teacher awards [including the 2011 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Education Award], Dr. Ensom has received ~60 other awards for scholarship, research, and service. She is one of only 34 Distinguished University Scholars at UBC. Recognition for her research has taken the form of numerous national and international awards from ACCP, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (CSHP), and Canadian College of Clinical Pharmacy (CCCP) as well as the 1990 Astra Clinical Pharmacy Research Award. She was the recipient of the 2006 ACCP Russell R Miller Publication Award in recognition of “substantial contributions to the literature of clinical pharmacy.” In March 2008, she was one of only 5 campus-wide faculty members to receive the 2007 UBC Killam Research Prize in Science. Notably, Dr. Ensom is the only Canada-based recipient of the Education or Publication Award from ACCP, a 12,000+member US-based international organization. In December 2012, Dr. Ensom will be the first Canada-based individual to receive the 2012 Award for Sustained Contributions to the Literature from ASHP, a 40,000+member US-based international organization. Dr. Ensom is Editor for the Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy and serves on the Editorial Boards of 5 other international journals. She is a fellow of ASHP, ACCP, and CSHP, and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS).
