Dr Nilushi Karunaratne is a Lecture in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University with a strong teaching and emerging education research profile in the area of teamwork and resilience skill development, and international student engagement. She completed a PhD in neuropharmacology within Drug Discovery Biology in 2017 and is currently an Education-focused academic teaching across the Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science and Bachelor of Pharmacy/Masters of Pharmacy degrees at the Faculty. Her impact on student learning was recognised in 2017 when she was awarded a Faculty Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning and in 2018, received the Vice-Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. In 2021, Nilushi received the ASCEPT Gillian Shenfield Early Educator Award and more recently, she was awarded the IUPHAR Education Section Outstanding Early Career Educator Award in 2023.  Nilushi’s passion for supporting students extends beyond the classroom. In 2020 she co-created and currently co-leads the Parkville International and Exchange Students (PIES) Wellbeing and Engagement Program which in 2021 received a Monash Interfaculty Transformation Grant to expand the program across Monash University in Australia and Malaysia. Nilushi's impact on pharmacy and pharmacology education is captured through her scholarly research, mentoring, presentations, and publications. She work has been published in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and PLoS ONE. Nilushi's influence also extends to the wider Pharmacology education community where she holds key roles including Director as part of the HERDSA Victorian Branch and serves as an IUPHAR Education Section Councillor.

• Innovation in pharmacology education
• Cultivating resilience skills to prepare pharmacy graduates for the workplace
• Generating design principles for an embedded teamwork skill curriculum
• Sense of belonging in first year international students

Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science:

BPS1012 Human Physiology II: Body systems (Teaching and Unit Coordination)

BPS2011 Pharmacology I: Biochemical signalling (Teaching and Unit Coordination)

BPS3011 Disease-focused pharmacology (Teaching and Unit Coordination)

BPS1041 Scientific Inquiry (Teaching)

First Year Skills Coaching Program Lead

Masters of Pharmaceutical Science:

MPS5102 Target identification and validation (Teaching)

Bachelor of Pharmacy/Masters of Pharmacy:

PHR1031 How the Body Works (Teaching) 

PHR5052/PHR5252 Inquiry and innovation communication (Teaching)

Experise in cultivating teamwork in students, strategies for effective teamwork and conflict management is delivered as guest teaching session in undergraduate, masters and intern units.

Academic Orientation Program Co-lead

Faculty Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group member

Early-Mid Career Researcher Committee member and Marking representative

Pharmaceutical Science Dean’s Scholars Lead

Parkville International and Exchange Students (PIES) Wellbeing and Engagement Program Co-Lead

Faculty Menoring Program, Academic mentor