Making Cross-Curricular Connections: Susan Bruce

When Susan Bruce, Pharm.D., joined Northeast Ohio Medical University in 2008, she was inspired by the opportunity to help design the University’s brand new College of Pharmacy.

Coming to NEOMED from more traditional higher education institutions, the College of Pharmacy’s senior associate dean of education was attracted to what she calls NEOMED’s “pioneer spirit, innovative orientation and ‘why not?’ attitude.”

Today, Dr. Bruce is enthusiastically spearheading the College of Pharmacy’s Revitalized Curriculum and Academic Calendar Initiative. She’s excited by the opportunities to expand interprofessional curriculum in ways that encourage budding pharmacists and physicians to take a team approach to providing care.

“The work by the faculty to intentionally connect content across courses will result in a better experience for the students as they’re learning information in courses that are running simultaneously,” says Dr. Bruce.

Curriculum 2.0

In the transition to what Dr. Bruce calls Curriculum 2.0, she’s particularly excited about one innovative addition introduced for the 2019-20 academic year. “We have a whole new course called Immunology and Biotechnology, which is basically explaining how drugs of the future are going to be different than drugs in the past. This course is really going to help set students up with the foundation for drugs that we haven’t even discovered yet,” she says.

Dr. Bruce sees herself as connecting the dots between the College of Pharmacy and the University overall, by helping faculty to deliver interprofessional curriculum. And although she spends less time in the classroom and more time behind the scenes these days, she still enjoys teaching courses on rheumatology and leadership electives.

Making NEOMED her home

Just as Dr. Bruce’s role and NEOMED’s curriculum continue to evolve, so has this upstate New York native’s attitude toward Ohio.

When she used to drive Interstate 90 across Ohio, back and forth from her former home in Chicago, she would think, “Ohio is the most boring place ever. Why would anyone live there?”

But as much as she had appreciated growing up with the architecture and topography of the Northeast, she says, “I really enjoyed the Midwesterners when I lived in Chicago, and Ohio is made up of them, too.

“It didn’t take long for me to realize that Ohio is the best of both worlds for me.”