As usual, May marked the major milestone of graduation for our students. The SOP Hooding Ceremony for our graduating PharmD, MS, and PhD students was flawlessly organized by Pam French and Becky Klaus (Student Services) and attended by hundreds of family members and friends. Thanks to Tina Rundle and Chris Bischel (Student Services) and Linda Frei (Graduate Student Services) for their key role in herding all the cats. Thanks to Emily Gilbert (Student Services) for organizing a wonderful brunch for our graduating BS Pharm/Tox students and their families. Thanks also to Diane Stojanovich for the new distinctive and professional look to the invitations and programs for these events. I'm particularly pleased by the growing number of MS and PhD students who participated in the hooding ceremony. Thanks also to Karen Kopacek (PPD) and Joe Bonnarens (SAS) for representing the SOP as marshals at Friday's commencement at the Kohl Center. My appreciation to the faculty and staff who attended one event or another and celebrated with our graduates and their families. I can think of no better representation of why we're here than the graduation of our students. Thanks for being there.
Speaking of graduation, we've had additional dissertation defenses in PharmSci in May: Peter Anderson (Mecozzi), Heather Johnson (Thorson/chemistry student), Jared Mays (Rajski), and Xeujun Zhang (Hsung). Congratulations to all!
More congratulations are in order, this time to celebrate the funding of UW-Madison's Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (CTSA) from the NIH to the tune of $65M+ over 5 years. Our proposal received a score of 139 (lower is better, 100 is best). Chris Sorkness (PPD) played a major role as co-investigator on the proposal and will continue her leadership role as Associate Director of the newly-created Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR). This award will absolutely transform many aspects of research and training across the health sciences and beyond. One key aspect is the initiation of MS/PhD degrees in Clinical Investigation, presenting many new opportunities in graduate education and research that will be of interest and importance to many of our faculty. Thanks to Chris and all of you throughout the School who contributed to the proposal...simply great work! And stay tuned as more activities arise from ICTR.
Technology developed in Jon Thorson's (PharmSci) lab has launched a new start-up company in Madison called Centrose (see www.centrosepharma.com). "Sweet" work indeed...the technology is focused on sugars and their importance in the pharmacological activity of drugs. Centrose offers revolutionary approaches for the attachment of any sugar molecule to any compound...an entirely new array of otherwise unavailable analogs will result. Dick Hutchinson (professor emeritus, PharmSci) is involved as well, with the important roles of President and Chief Scientific Officer. The company got some great press recently in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (May 23) with a photo of Jon and postdoc Byron Griffith.
The June 2007 edition of Madison Magazine summarized the past winners of the Wisconsin's Governor's Business Plan Contest. Two of the three awards given to date have gone to companies based on technology developed by SOP faculty...that's simply amazing. MatriLab and John Kao (PharmSci) received the 2006 award based on "an innovative drug delivery product to help lower wound infection rates", and Mithridon and Jeff Johnson (PharmSci) won the award in 2005 for working toward "a drug for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease". See the write-up and photo of John (but not Jeff?).
I mentioned last month that the Pharmacy Practice Division generates some funds each year through their participation in distance education courses of the Physicians Assistant and Nursing programs. In addition to the previous awards to several PharmD students to engage in international health experiences and summer research opportunities, funds have also been awarded to Michael Strerath and Molly Koll for international experiences in Ecuador and Thailand, respectively, as well as Amy Kennedy to attend and present a poster at the July meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AAPC). Thanks again to PPD for supporting these important educational opportunities for our students.
The TEAM (Team Education and Monitoring) study led by Bonnie Svarstad (professor emerita, SAS) got a nice write-up in the May/June 2007 edition of the Journal of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin. The study is exploring the effectiveness of a new level and type of community pharmacists' intervention in educating, monitoring drug use, and better controlling blood pressure in African-American patients. The study also represents a ground-breaking research collaboration with Walgreens and Aurora. This is not to be confused with the TEAM (Training and Education to Advance Multidisciplinary Clinical Research) Program that Chris Sorkness has played a key role in developing and fostering. John Dopp and Orly Vardeny (both PPD) are current TEAM scholars, enhancing their skills in clinical research.
Our emeritus faculty who have had a home in room 1222 (Paul Bass, Ken Connors, George Zografi) are in the process of moving to room 2501. I remain committed to finding a permanent solution to provide space for the very important emeritus members of the School where they can work and gather and remain connected with the School, their colleagues, and our students. We're just not there yet. Kathy Skibinski (ESP) will soon be found in room 1222.
I have some successes to report with our faculty and staff recruitment efforts. On the staff side, Sharon Vetter, currently with the Department of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine and Public Health will be joining the School as our new Assistant Dean for Research Administration. She plans to arrive on June 18 to overlap with LaVon Flynn for several weeks prior to LaVon's retirement in early July. The search for the new Grants Management position in PharmSci is also underway.
On the faculty side, Warren Rose, currently at Wayne State University, has accepted a position with PPD to start in August or September. Weiping Tang, a new member of the PharmSci Drug Discovery area, started his faculty position with the School at the end of May. Even before arriving, Weiping was selected as UW-Madison's single nominee to the Dreyfus Foundation's New Faculty Award. Thanks to the many faculty and staff in PharmSci for making that happen. You'll find Weiping in room 7125. Please join me in welcoming him to the School! And just to be complete so far...Arash Bashirullah, PharmSci Drug Action, plans to arrive in July, and Casey Gallimore, PPD, in early August.
On the flip side of this coin, I'm very sorry to report that Maureen Barr (PharmSci) will be leaving the School this summer. Please join me in thanking Maureen for all that she brought to the School and wishing her the very best in her career "back home" in New Jersey at Rutgers University. I'm also sorry to report that we're back to the drawing board with respect to the PharmSci Drug Delivery search.
Ron Burnette and Chuck Lauhon were recently selected as co-Vice Chairs of the PharmSci Division, and I'd like to welcome them to their new responsibilities. Many thanks to Jon Thorson who served in this role since its initiation in 2005.
The School hosted this year's Pre-Health Professions Advisors Meeting in May, which involves a number of institutions around the state. Thanks to the entire staff in the Student Services Office for the various roles they played in planning, speaking, hosting, and covering for each other throughout the day. In addition, Tina Rundle and Chris Bischel attended the 17th Annual Conference for the Office Professional--Moving Toward Peak Performance held last month at the Alliant Energy Center...a great opportunity for networking, sharing best practices, and bringing new ideas to their important roles in Student Services.
The School's Academic Planning Council (APC), an elected governance body of the School, has been very busy with a wide-ranging array of important topics. They recently approved the dual PharmD/MPH degree that the Educational Policy and Planning (EPP) Committee developed over the course of the year. I'm pleased to tell you that the Steering Committee for the MPH Program and the School of Medicine and Public Health's APC also endorsed the proposal. Next (and last) is approval by the University's APC, which is scheduled to occur in June. This is a very natural marriage of degrees, considering the growing importance of public health principles in pharmacy education and practice, and complements the other MPH dual degrees with Nursing, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, and the La Follette Institute that have recently been approved. My thanks to both EPP and APC for the great work in shaping the new educational offering for our students. In addition, the experience will pave the way for the re-invigoration of PharmD/PhD degree development that is squarely on EPP's radar screen for the upcoming year. Our APC has also been working to select or craft action items for us to consider working on during 2007/08 in support of the School's strategic priorities. These will be reviewed by the Dean's Advisory Council at our summer retreat and serve as a major item on the agenda for the School's fall faculty/staff retreat the week before the semester starts.
A group called the Academic Work Group, a subcommittee of the rural pharmacy workforce initiative under discussion from several directions, met at the School in May. The group brainstormed about mechanisms to enhance awareness of and promote career opportunities for our graduates in rural communities. Some are easy and can be tackled in the short term and some are much harder and longer term. One mechanism...a bill in the state legislature calling for forgiveness of pharmacy student loans for SOP graduates who choose to practice in underserved areas...has been drafted but not yet slated for a public hearing. Two other subcommittees...the Research/Data Work Group, headed by Dave Mott (SAS), and the Practice Work Group, headed by PSW...are also strategizing about collaborative approaches to address rural workforce issues. Along related workforce lines, this time focused in the Milwaukee area, Randy Lambrecht and Cindy Hasbrook, dean and associate dean, respectively, of the UW-Milwaukee College of Health Sciences, visited the School to further discuss a partnership between the two campuses to educate an increased number of pharmacy practitioners. Concordia University in Mequon remains very much on the radar in terms of their interest in opening a new school of pharmacy, with a decision expected in late summer.
The Board of Directors of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW) met in May, as did the Advisory Board for the Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station. The CIO search has identified three finalists who will be visiting campus in June. I know Mike Pitterle (PPD/IIT) plans to interact with the candidates, and the following public forums have been scheduled in case you're interested:
Ron Kraemer, Deputy CIO, UW-Madison: 9-10:30, June 6, 1106 MechE. Kathy Pletcher, CIO, UW-Green Bay: 9-10:30, June 13, 5120 Grainger Hall. Deanna Raineri, Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign: 9-10:30, June 29, 5120 Grainger Hall.
I was invited to visit with the Brown County Pharmacy Association last month in Green Bay, and Linda Halsey (Director of Development) came too. On the way, we stopped and had lunch with alum Peter Morton in Neenah, then visited one of their family pharmacies to see his son, alum David Morton. We're now working on recruiting Peter's granddaughter! We also had the opportunity to meet alum Mary Price and her husband Rawson from Gillett. They continue to add to a scholarship fund named for Mary dedicated to assisting women pharmacy students with special needs. At the Association meeting, I was asked to provide an update on School activities and fund raising priorities. As usual, the question and answer session went 30 minutes longer than expected with the normal Pharmacy Badger enthusiasm very evident. Linda and I also had lunch in May with alum Don Lindsay to thank him for his gift to the new Faculty Excellence Fund. I recently visited with Joe Robinson's widow, Bonna, and dropped off a photo album of pictures from Joe's retirement symposium and dinner for the family that Linda Frei compiled. Joe's son, Jim, marched at graduation with Joe's PhD students, Adam Alani and Deepa Rao, honoring Joe's memory and his dedication to his students. I was also invited to speak with the student volunteers working with the UW Foundation's Spring Telefund on behalf of the School. They do such a great job for us, with most gifts raised in this way being in the precious unrestricted category. Additional coverage of the Pharmaceutical Experiment Station and Lenor Zeeh's recent gift appeared in an article by Lynn Van Campen (ZPES) in the May/June edition of the Journal of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin.
On the save the date list:
- The Ninth Annual Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA) Scholarship Golf Tournament will be held on Thursday, June 14 at the Meadows at Six Mile Creek in Waunakee. Put those foursomes together to benefit the PAA Scholarship Fund...it's a blast! Contact Pam French for more information.
- The annual meeting of the AACP will be held in Orlando July 15-18. Karen Kopacek (PPD) is the current faculty representative, and I know many others intend to be there as well.
- Orientation for our incoming PharmD and Pharm/Tox students will be held the week before classes start.
- A School-wide faculty/staff retreat will also be held the week before classes start, most likely on Monday, August 27. More details to follow.
The West Campus Utilities Project...ripping up Highland Ave. over the next 18-24 months...is obviously in full swing. Extra patience, please!
I wish you a productive and enjoyable summer! Jeanette