Dr. Lauren Caldas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science at VCU School of Pharmacy.After graduation from VCU School of Pharmacy in 2011, Dr. Caldas pursued a residency with the VCU School of Pharmacy Community Pharmacy Residency PGY1 program at the Kroger Pharmacy site. In 2012, Dr. Caldas opened and managed the first Kroger Marketplace Pharmacy on the east coast. She moved to Academia in June 2016 as a Foundation lab faculty member to co-coordinate the first-year pharmacy students’ Foundations Skill Lab.Dr. Caldas regularly remarks, “The same as we use evidence-based medicine for our patients, we must utilize evidence-based teaching in our instruction. Often, academics simply teach the way they were taught; by implementing and assessing teaching through SoTL, we create evidence of how our teaching impacts our students’ knowledge, confidence, and perception of the content.” Dr. Caldas has had the pleasure to bring her SoTL passion on multiple research teams focused on providing student-focused teaching through engaging activities, technology, and collaboration between disciplines and learner levels. Her current role in the School of Pharmacy allows her to focus her scholarship on improving the education and experience of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy students through SoTL.Dr. Caldas’s clinical research includes expanding the clinical role of pharmacists in community and ambulatory care practice. She has enjoyed working collaboratively in clinics with other healthcare professionals since 2013. Her current practice site is CrossOver Healthcare Ministry, a collaborative practice clinic serving those uninsured in the greater Richmond Metropolitan area. Dr. Caldas is Board Certified in Ambulatory Care Pharmacy. As of July 2020, Dr. Caldas has joined the VCU Center for Compounding Practice and Research as the Assistant Director under Barbara Exum. She will retain her Foundations teaching role in the first-year Skills Laboratory as well as the compounding teaching for the other practical laboratory courses. Dr. Caldas's research interests are in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Compounding, and Community Pharmacy.