Marion Pearson, BSc (Pharm), MA, PhD

Scholar

Dr. Marion Pearson is a Professor of Teaching in the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She graduated from UBC with a B.Sc.(Pharm.) in 1982 and completed a residency in community pharmacy practice in 1983. She joined the Faculty that year as coordinator of the Year 1 pharmacy skills lab in the BSc(Pharm) program. She has had various other teaching responsibilities, but continued to coordinate the 1st year lab for 27 years. In this role, she taught thousands of future pharmacists and was an innovator in the use of portfolio assessment, peer teaching, and narrative pedagogy. Dr. Pearson has received several teaching awards, including the Killam Teaching Prize.

In 1998/99, Dr. Pearson was part of the first cohort to undertake the UBC Certificate on Teaching in Higher Education, now the International Program for the Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL). She subsequently completed an M.A. in Higher Education in 2008 and a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies in 2014 at UBC.

In 2010, Dr. Pearson was appointed as Director of the BSc(Pharm) program and from 2012 to 2015 she also served as Director of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science’s Office of Educational Support and Development. From 2015 to 2017, she served as Interim Director of Entry-to-Practice Programs, responsible for both the BSc(Pharm) program and its replacement, the Entry-to-Practice PharmD program. In 2017, she was again appointed as Director, BSc(Pharm) Program, responsible for the remaining students in the program. She is also currently serving as Faculty Advisor to the Office of Student Services.

Dr. Pearson’s current educational leadership responsibilities include serving as a member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences Academic Committee, Entry-to-Practice (E2P) Programs Committee, E2P PharmD Admissions Committee, and the E2P Student Progress Committee. She also oversees the directed study courses in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She serves as a member of the Advisory Board and as a peer reviewer for UBC’s International SoEL program and served for 5 years on UBC’s Senior Appointments Committee. She is an active member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Pharmacy Education Research and Leadership research stream, and one of her aims is to support the SoTL efforts of her colleagues. This interest was an important factor in her decision to accept the invitation extended in 2015 to join CHES as a Scholar and part-time Associate Director, Innovation and Scholarship.

Research Interests

  • Evidence-based admissions standards; curriculum design; health humanities curricula; student workload

Publication Highlights

O’Flynn-Magee, K., Rodney, P., Pearson, M., Afonso Burnay, M., & Daly, Z. (2020). Interrupting the cycle of bullying witnessed or experienced by nursing students: An ethical and relational action framework. Nurse Education Today, 91, Article 104458.

Eva, K. W., Brady, C., Pearson, M, & Seto, K. (2018). The pedagogical value of testing: How far does it extend? Advances in Health Sciences Advances Education: Theory and Practice, 23(4):803-816.

Hubball, H. T., Clarke, A., & Pearson, M. L. (2017). Strategic leadership development in research-intensive higher education contexts: The scholarship of educational leadership. In S. Mukerji, & P. Tripathi (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Administration, Policy, and Leadership in Higher Education (pp. 1-19). Hershey, PA:IGI Global.

Pearson, M. L., Albon, S. P., & Hubball, H. (2015). Case study methodology: Flexibility, rigour, and ethical considerations for the scholarship of teaching and learning. Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(3), Article 12.

Pearson, M. L., & Hubball, H. T. (2012). Curricular integration in pharmacy education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 76(10), Article 204.

Awards

  • Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada Educational Scholarship Poster Award (2022)
  • The University of British Columbia Award Alumni Builder Award (2017)
  • The University of British Columbia Killam Teaching Prize (1995)