Reaching Higher in Research 

Hunt, Trivedi Appointed to New Strategic Research Development, Clinical and Translational Research Leadership Positions

Sept. 2 — University of Houston College of Pharmacy Dean F. Lamar Pritchard, Ph.D., R.Ph., professor and Humana Dean's Chair in Pharmacy, announced the appointment of two newly established leadership positions within the Office of Research to help the college achieve its strategic research imperatives and goals.

"While the our faculty investigators have had tremendous success in establishing highly productive collaborations with colleagues in the basic sciences and translational research across the Texas Medical Center and beyond, we know we're capable of doing much more in bringing breakthroughs and life-saving therapies to our patients and communities," Pritchard said. "I'm confident that Drs. Hunt and Trivedi will help create new synergy and focus in our research aspirations through high-impact partnerships and rapid bench-to-bedside drug discovery and development." 

Courtney Hunt, Ph.D., research manager assigned to the UH Drug Discovery Institute, has been appointed director of Strategic Research Development for the college. In this role, Hunt will develop and foster college-driven research initiatives to increase success and visibility of the college.

Among her specific duties will be cultivating relationships and serving as a liaison with funding agencies, potential collaborating partners and faculty to develop and coordinate teams to respond to opportunities and obtain large, multi-disciplinary and other significant research programs. In addition, Hunt will develop and maintain strategic partnerships within and outside of UH and serve as liaison with other colleges, departments, offices, and funding agencies.

Before joining the college in 2018, Hunt served as a research liaison officer in the UH Division of Research for three years and a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Texas-MD Anderson Cancer Center for two years. Hunt earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Meghna Trivedi, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCOP, associate professor with joint appointments in the college's Pharmacy Practice & Translational Research and Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences departments, has been named Director of Clinical and Translational Research Programs (CTRP).

In this role, Trivedi will support the development and implementation of clinical and translational research efforts, including the work of Pharm.D. professional students, graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees as well as serve as liaison for college faculty and their external collaborators. Specific duties include planning and fostering interactions and activities for transdisciplinary, inter-departmental, and inter-institutional collaborations as well as organizing an annual symposium and quarterly seminars to showcase CTRP projects.

A graduate of UHCOP's Pharm.D./Ph.D. in Pharmacology dual degree program, Trivedi joined the college as a faculty member in 2010 after working as a postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Moores Cancer Center. With a primary research focus on cancer drug targets and drug discovery, cellular and circulating biomarkers of cancer, and individualization of therapy, Trivedi has received research grant funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) and, most recently, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

She also holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Baylor College of Medicine and is a pilot project grantee and director of the Cancer Research Education Program (C-REP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-supported Alliance for Drug Discovery-Development and Education between UHCOP and the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor.