Seton Hall Ph.D. Program Advances Pfizer Executive’s Work

With the familiar refrain of the Seton Hall Bagpipers guiding their march into a packed Walsh Gym, 200 graduates from the School of Health and Medical Sciences received graduate degrees at Seton Hall on May 15. Among them was Amanda Radola, an executive director at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, who successfully balanced a full-time job and the Covid-19 pandemic while pursuing a Ph.D. in Health Sciences. 

She now adds a doctoral degree to her 30-year career at Pfizer — a milestone made possible, she says, by the program’s flexible online format, academic rigor and faculty support. 

“Flexibility was a strong reason I was able to complete my Ph.D. in Health Sciences at Seton Hall,” said Radola, who was encouraged to pursue the degree by colleagues at Pfizer. She began the program from home during the pandemic and grew to appreciate its synchronous online format even more as she balanced her studies with a return to in-office work.

“Seton Hall’s Ph.D. in Health Sciences program allowed me to continue working a full-time job and, post-pandemic, continue to attend classes remotely,” she added, avoiding an additional commute to New Jersey from her home in New York, where she lives with her husband and three children.

How Patients Respond to Pharmaceutical Advertising
Radola, whose official title is Executive Director, Infectious Disease and Global Brands Category Lead, oversees a multidisciplinary team responsible for the full life cycle of hundreds of pharmaceutical products. With a career focused on global pharmaceutical regulations, it’s no surprise her dissertation explores a timely, in-depth issue at the heart of her industry’s success.

Radola’s research investigates how patients respond to direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising (DTCPA), addressing a critical gap in the literature by assessing how consumers' attitudes, perceptions and beliefs influence their intention to take advertised medications.

Titled "Adults’ Intention to Take an Arthritis Prescription Drug Based on Drug Advertisements," the study used a well-established public health framework known as the Integrated Behavior Model to explore how adults respond to pharmaceutical advertising. Radola created a new national survey for the project — one she personally designed, tested and validated — which examined whether consumers’ beliefs and attitudes influenced their willingness to take an advertised arthritis medication. The Arthritis Foundation, a leading nonprofit advocacy group, promoted the survey on its social media channels, helping to increase participation and visibility.

“Conducting meaningful research while continuing my role at Pfizer gave me the chance to merge theory and practice,” she said. “My goal now is to publish this work and continue contributing to patient-centered strategies in pharmaceutical communications.”

A Legacy of Faculty Mentorship
Radola credits her academic growth in large part to the mentorship she received from Seton Hall faculty. As part of her doctoral journey, she served as a teaching assistant in biostatistics courses, further deepening her expertise in data analysis — a skill central to both her dissertation and professional work.

She especially acknowledged the mentorship of her dissertation chair and advisor, Assistant Professor Deborah DeLuca, M.S., J.D., and Genevieve Pinto Zipp, PT, Ed.D., FNAP, program chair of Seton Hall’s Ph.D. in Health Sciences program.

“Amanda brought a unique perspective to the program, blending her pharmaceutical expertise with a sincere desire to produce meaningful research,” said DeLuca. “Her work demonstrates the analytical rigor and real-world impact we encourage in our Ph.D. students. Guiding her through the research process — from instrument design to statistical analysis — was an absolute pleasure.”

Radola said DeLuca inspired her to approach statistics as a powerful tool to illuminate data, while Zipp’s guidance helped sharpen her scientific writing skills — a strength Radola continues to draw on as she prepares her dissertation for journal publication.

“As an executive from the pharmaceutical industry myself, I knew the challenges Amanda would be facing in her data collection due to the proprietariness of the information,” DeLuca added. “And despite those concerns, Amanda rose to the challenge and met it head-on, adapting and pivoting to a different population as the collection became more difficult. Many times, students don’t want to hear that type of delay — but it served Amanda’s goals well.”

A Ph.D. Program Built for Working Professionals
Designed for clinicians, educators, researchers and healthcare leaders, Seton Hall’s Ph.D. in Health Sciences program offers specializations in health professions leadership, movement science and speech-language pathology. Courses are delivered once a week in the evening using a synchronous online format — allowing students to continue working while pursuing advanced research.

With customizable research pathways, small class sizes and expert faculty mentors, the program supports professionals in advancing their careers and contributing to innovation in healthcare.

For Radola, that meant joining a community of mid-career and senior professionals from a variety of scientific backgrounds — something she found both intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding.

“Returning to school as an adult gave me a whole new perspective,” she said. “I loved learning alongside students from other disciplines and sharing ideas that spanned clinical and research settings.”

Now, with her Ph.D. in hand and publication plans underway, Radola continues to lead at the intersection of science, communication and healthcare.

Categories: Education, Health and Medicine