Class of 2023 Teacher of the Year
Morgan Herring
 

Clinical Associate Professor Morgan Herring, PharmD, '09 R, BCPS, FAPhA, practices at the Iowa Lutheran Family Medicine Residency in Des Moines, Iowa. At her practice site, Herring does inpatient and outpatient practice, but her focus is ambulatory care and transitions of care. At the UI College of Pharmacy, she is heavily involved in teaching dermatology, diabetes, and self-care throughout the curriculum. In other teaching endeavors, she is also the director of the Pharmacy Educators Preparation Program for Residents and Fellows (PEPPR) which provides a teaching and learning curriculum for residents throughout the state. 

Herring is extremely passionate about teaching and precepting, which has been the focus of her scholarship and service over the past several years including being the APhA-APPM preceptor special interest group coordinator in 2020-2021. She also recently became a fellow of the American Pharmacists Association.  

"She cares deeply for our learning. In active learning, she would walk around and check in on students to make sure they were understanding everything," commented one student nominator.

Another student said that Herring, "Went above and beyond to answer questions and very much facilitated my learning with the way she taught."

Class of 2024 Teacher of the Year
John Swegle
 

John Swegle, '96 PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, is a clinical associate professor at the UI College of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacy faculty member of the MercyOne North Iowa Family Medicine Residency in Mason City, Iowa. He provides education and clinical services in acute, ambulatory, and long-term care settings. Swegle is also a clinical pharmacist for Hospice of North Iowa and serves as a preceptor for the MercyOne North Iowa Pharmacy Residency in Mason City.

A student commented about Swegle, "Dr. Swegle is perhaps one of the smartest teachers I have ever had in class. His knowledge and breadth of expertise go well beyond the subjects he is teaching that day. I always enjoy his teaching style as it is directly attributable to clinical practice and never leaves anything out. The way he explains concepts facilitates students and me learning the material..."

Another student nominated him because "...he truly cares about students and makes learning fun!"

Class of 2025 Teacher of the Year
Laura Knockel
 

Laura Knockel, '05 PharmD, '06 R, BCACP, is a clinical assistant professor at the UI College of Pharmacy and an ambulatory care clinical pharmacist at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. Her main teaching responsibilities are in the pharmacy practice skills laboratory, focusing on community pharmacy skills, including coordinating immunization and self-care topics. Knockel's research focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning and innovative teaching methods. 

She is actively involved in multiple pharmacy organizations, including the American Pharmacists Association, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the Iowa Pharmacy Association. Knockel was selected for the 2020-2021 National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation Faculty Scholars Program and was recently elected as coordinator-elect for the APhA–APPM Immunizing Pharmacists Special Interest Group. 

One student who nominated Knockel commented that she is a "wonderful professor in all senses of the term; she really cares about each student not only in but also outside of the classroom. She takes extra time out of her day to create refresher material and videos for us to use, such as COVID-19 updates and example videos for in-class material."

Another student said, "Dr. Knockel is such an amazing teacher and cares so much about her students. She...is so easy to talk to. I loved learning from her this semester!"