Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 5/1/2025 12:00:00 AM
Julie A. Johnson, PharmD, Professor, Director, and Associate Vice President, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
What does being the 2025 Oscar B. Hunter Award recipient mean to you?
This is, in many ways, the top award at ASCPT. The award is intended to honor one's career, and so it is therefore an incredible honor to be a recipient and to be added to the very distinguished group of other clinical pharmacologists who have received the award. I am humbled but also want to acknowledge that so many other people have been beside me in all the work I have done, and so they too, in my mind, are partially receiving this award.
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the incredible successes of those who entrusted me with mentoring them in the early phases of their research careers. What is amazing about mentoring is its amplifying nature, and it therefore, to me, is the most important part of my legacy. I feel so blessed to have had so many incredibly talented people allow me to serve in that role for them.
What is the most important leadership lesson you have learned the hard way?
Being honest and transparent about why you made a decision (usually data-driven) allows people to understand and respect the decision, even if they do not personally like it.
Who has inspired you in your career?
I was fortunate to have Bill Evans as my first department chair, and thus he became an important mentor to me. I was always inspired by his ability to take on significant leadership roles while also continuing to do incredible science.
What is your favorite Society memory?
The ASCPT meeting in 1993 was in Hawaii. My husband, John Lima, and I were getting married that spring, and we both decided—why not go to Hawaii for our honeymoon? So we got married, honeymooned on several islands in Hawaii, and then headed to the ASCPT Annual Meeting in Honolulu.
When you are not working, how do you spend your free time?
I spend a lot of time with my family (and treasure time with my two daughters, when they are around), reading, walking, and doing yoga.
What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
Most people are surprised to learn that I grew up on a farm (though my father was not a full-time farmer) and I showed cattle at county and state fairs throughout my childhood.
Dr. Johnson has been a member of ASCPT since 1993.
