Brookie Best, PharmD, MAS

Dean of Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science
Associate Dean for Pharmacy Education, UC San Diego School of Medicine, Pediatrics Department – Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego
Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Pediatrics

Brookie M. Best, PharmD, MAS is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Pediatrics and the Dean of UC San Diego’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SSPPS), and the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine (SOM)-Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree at UC San Diego in Chemistry with an Emphasis in Chemical Education. She received her PharmD degree from UC San Francisco, and completed residency training in Pharmacy Practice at the UC San Diego Medical Center. Dr. Best was an NICHD/NIH Fellowship recipient in Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology Research, and completed a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Clinical Research at UC San Diego.

Dr. Best specializes in pharmacokinetics – the processes by which a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized and eliminated by the body – and maternal/fetal and pediatric clinical pharmacology research. Her research efforts have focused on studying anti-HIV drugs in pregnant women, children and non-pregnant adults. She also studies drugs used to treat Kawasaki disease, the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children. She has specific interests and expertise in maternal-fetal clinical pharmacology, therapeutic drug monitoring of antiretrovirals, and penetration of antiretrovirals into the central nervous system. Dr. Best’s research program encompasses projects with key state-wide, national and international HIV/AIDS and pediatric pharmacology collaborative research networks.