Jordan Ballou, Pharm.D., is joining the COP as faculty member with the Kennedy Pharmacy Innovation Center and the Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences departments. In addition to teaching, research and service responsibilities, Ballou will focus on assisting KPIC to achieve its goals and implement its strategic plan.

Ballou comes to the UofSC College of Pharmacy from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy where she served as coordinator of skills-based development. She earned her pharmacy degree from Campbell University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Buies Creek, North Carolina and completed a community pharmacy residency at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. 

Jennifer Clements, Pharm.D., has been named director of Pharmacy Education for the UofSC College of Pharmacy, School of Medicine-Greenville Campus. She will have responsibilities in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service in the Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences department as well as key responsibilities in providing coordination and support for students on the School of Medicine-Greenville campus. 

Clements received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Campbell University and completed a primary care pharmacy practice residency at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Charleston, South Carolina.

T. Chase Francis, Ph.D., joins the Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences department as an assistant professor. He has a longtime interest in how brain stimulation and pharmacotherapies can be used to alter brain activity, reduce stress and anxiety, and treat depression. 

Francis earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.

Alessandra Porcu, Pharm.D., Ph.D., will also join the Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences department as an assistant professor of pharmacology. Her research focuses on the role of neuroplasticity and circadian rhythm in regulating brain functions and behaviors. 

Porcu earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Cagliari, Italy and her Ph.D. from the University of Cagliari and the University of Basel, Switzerland. She conducted her postdoctoral research at the University of California San Diego.