Amy Pittenger completed her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 1992 and her Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 1993 at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. After graduation, she continued her training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in the Clinical Scientist Program, where she received a Master of Science degree in Clinical Science. Following the completion of this training, Dr. Pittenger joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Dr. Pittenger returned to Minnesota to accept a position in the Scientific and Medical Affairs Division of Parke-Davis as a Medical Liaison. In 2000, Dr. Pittenger joined DaVita Clinical Research as a Clinical Scientist. In this position, she was involved in the development and coordination of Phase I-IV clinical trials. Dr. Pittenger then took a position with Upsher-Smith Laboratories, a local Minnesota pharmaceutical company that was interested in changing the technical training program for its sales representatives. In this new role, Dr. Pittenger was able to combine her previous academic, industry and research experience to developing new strategies for training sales representatives on topics such as physiology and disease state, pharmacology and clinical research evaluation.

Dr. Pittenger joined the University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy in April 2005. In her position as Associate Director, she was responsible for developing and implementing new online courses for undergraduate, graduate, and health professional students. In this role, she was successful in developing innovative educational strategies that have been presented at international educational meetings and published in top tier educational journals. She also holds a faculty appointment of Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems.

In 2011, Dr. Pittenger earned a PhD from the College of Education and Human Development, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Learning Technologies Program. Her dissertation title was “Exploring the use of a Social Network to Facilitate and Integrate Long-Term Interprofessional Educational Experiences”. Her research interests include educational research, specifically evaluating the use of language via digital and collaborative virtual spaces as a teaching and assessment tool and interprofessional education.

Dr. Pittenger’s pharmacy career has included many diverse settings, including basic and clinical research, practice in the critical care setting and with underserved populations, pharmaceutical industry, and academia – specifically distance education/online teaching and now interprofessional education.