Birtcher Retires

Award-winning, Nationally Recognized Clinical Professor Departs Full-time Position After 18 Years 

September 15 — UH College of Pharmacy Clinical Professor Kimberly K. Birtcher, Pharm.D., M.S., BCPS (AQ Cardiology), CDCES, FNLA, retired Aug. 31 after 18 years of full-time service, teaching and research at the college. 

Birtcher is widely regarded as an expert in the management of cardiovascular disease and its underlying risk factors such as hyperlipidemia, serving as a panel member of the joint American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA) task force on practice guidelines that has released and published numerous patient care updates in the Journal of American College of Cardiology. 

Birtcher's service to the college includes an additional previous 10 years as an adjunct faculty member, a role she has resumed following her retirement from full-time work. Birtcher said she also plans to continue to assist with various college activities, including assessment programs and mentorship. 

"Although I will miss seeing everyone at UH on a daily basis, I am really looking forward to spending more time with my family," Birtcher said. "My dad is 87 years old, and my step-mother is 91 years old. Both of my children are grown and live out of town. My husband and I are planning some road trips. I will spend more time doing hobbies that I have postponed for many years.

"I have lots of craft and sewing supplies that have been collected for 'someday.' Well, 'someday' is here. I will continue volunteering at Theater Under the Stars when things are more normal. I enjoy doing genealogy research, and I am really good at losing track of time while playing with Ancestry. When things are more normal, I hope to start interviewing veterans for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project and volunteering with Honor Flight Houston. It sounds like a lot, but it will be great!"

During Birtcher's tenure at UHCOP, she has been honored with Rho Chi Society's Teaching Excellence Award four times; the UHCOP Faculty Preceptor Award three times; the Phi Lambda Sigma Faculty Leadership Award; the UHCOP Faculty Service Award; the UHCOP Faculty Teaching Award; and the University of Houston 50-in-5 faculty recognition program, a celebration of top 50 faculty members who published in journals with highest impact factors during 2018-19. She also has been recognized as a Distinguished Associate of the ACC; the Pharmacist of the Year by the Gulf Coast Society of Health-System Pharmacists; and recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from AHA. 

Her work with the Secondary Prevention Lipid Clinic at Kelsey Seybold Clinic was instrumental in its being recognized with the Texas Cardiovascular Health Promotion Awards Outstanding Program from the Texas Council on Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke and as a "Program of Excellence in Quality Patient Care" by the American Medical Group Association.