Dr. Jill J. Harp
Winston-Salem State University
Dr. Jill J. Harp is associate professor of Biochemistry at Winston-Salem State University. She has served as a faculty member over the past 14 years in the College of Arts and Sciences, with the first 7 years in the Department of Chemistry and the remaining 7 years in the Department of Life Sciences. Her peers describe her as a teacher-scholar who uses her own classroom action research to improve her teaching and student learning. Dr. Harp also trains and oversees her students' research in her Biochemistry Research Lab throughout each academic year.
Using her own college professors as models, Dr. Harp adopted a teaching style and teaching philosophy from the best practice exhibited by her science professors. She believes in providing students with the tools they need to understand course content and then holding them accountable for their own learning. Dr. Harp requires her students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding of content, and application of skills and knowledge through the writing of papers and making presentations in class and at professional conferences. In her own words, Dr. Harp summarizes her teaching philosophy by saying that she encourages her students "to acquire scientific knowledge so that other professionals will want to collaborate with them."
In addition to teaching and advising students, Dr. Harp serves on departmental and university committees. Over the past three years, she served as co-chair of one the university's QEP committees which developed a QEP on Writing in the Major . The QEP plan was considered a work of distinction by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, our regional accreditation agency. This was due in part to the service and leadership Dr. Harp provided. In her role as co-chair, she conducted workshops and made presentations to faculty and students on writing strategies and the assessment of writing.
Dr. Harp earned a BS degree in Chemistry from York College, City University of New York. She earned the PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Maryland at College Park. Her publications and research focus on cocaine abuse drug treatment. Dr. Harp has received several grant sub-awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health.