Gail Galasko, Ph.D.

Gail Galasko, Ph.D., is being recognized by Continental Who’s Who as a Top Pharmacologist in the field of Education in acknowledgment for her roles as a Pharmacologist and Educator at Florida State University College of Medicine.

A prominent educator, Dr. Galasko has garnered over four decades of vast knowledge and pharmacology teaching experience. She is renowned for her research specialties in diabetes and insulin action. A professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Florida State University College of Medicine, she also serves as course director of Foundations of Medicine 2 and is responsible for developing, coordinating, and integrating the curriculum for her courses.

At the start of her career at her alma mater, the University of Witwatersrand from 1972 to 1989, in the first 10 years she rose through the ranks from Assistant Professor to Professor and Associate Chair of the Department. Other appointments she had, while she was at Wits, included visiting professorships at West Virginia University, the University of Virginia (where she met one of the important role models in her life, Dr. Joe Larner), and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. In 1989 she emigrated to the USA where she assumed employment at the University of Virginia as a research associate professor until 1994.

She then moved to Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine in Alton, Illinois; where she went on to contribute as an associate professor of pharmacology at the SIU School of Dental Medicine for 10 years. Here she developed a new Pharmacology curriculum and then moved to Tallahassee as a professor and course director for Pharmacology at Florida State University College of Medicine. She was also year 2 director between 2008 and 2010. Throughout her distinguished career, Dr. Galasko has developed curricula and directed and restructured pharmacology courses for medical, dental, and pharmacy students and nurse practitioners.

She has also participated in major curricular revisions and accreditation self-studies and has improved teaching outcomes. She has acted as an external examiner and as an advisor to pharmacology programs in other schools, been a dissertation and thesis adviser for graduate students, and sat on student thesis committees. Among her professional accomplishments, Dr. Galasko is proud to have worked on a compound which she isolated called human plasma insulin inhibitor, and which she believes has an important role in diabetes mellitus. Also, in collaboration with Dr. Larner, she developed the methodology initially used in the isolation of the compound called human plasma insulin mediator, which also has an important role in diabetes mellitus. A highly respected voice in her field, she has contributed to several professional articles in the field as well.

A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr. Galasko completed her undergraduate studies from the University of Witwatersrand with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a Master of Science in 1963 and 1965, respectively. Soon thereafter, she obtained a Doctor of

Philosophy degree from Queen Mary College, the University of London in 1970. Consequently, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology.

Remaining abreast of the latest advancements in her field, Dr. Galasko is/has been a member of many professional organizations including the Royal Society for Chemistry, International Association of Medical Science Educators, and the New York Academy of Sciences. A philanthropist at heart, and as someone who has worked for women’s rights, and to open doors for women, she has dedicated her time to Zonta, Hadassah, the South African Women’s Bureau (where she chaired the Women and the Sciences Committee) and various animal organizations.

She has tried to be a good role model and a positive influence. She believes that all her life she has been given guidance, and for that, and the many blessings she has received, she is profoundly grateful.

For further information, please visit https://med.fsu.edu/.