Jumping right in with the Save the Date items:
- Don't forget to respond to the first round of parking assignments by August 2.
- A "happy retirement" send-off is planned for Lynn Van Campen (ZPES) on Thursday, August 9 from 2:00-3:30 in the Commons.
- August 9 is also the day of the SOP outing to the Madison Mallards. Thanks very much to CASI for setting up this great opportunity to get together outside of the School. Sign up with Katie in the Dean's Office.
- A public hearing on Assembly Bill 440 (copy attached) has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 15. This bill provides pharmacy student loan forgiveness to individuals who choose to practice in underserved areas of the state. I expect a good turnout of students to testify. Everyone is welcome to participate in the process either by providing testimony, by submitting a letter of support to Representative Jeffrey Mursau, Room 18 North State Capitol, P.O. Box 8953, Madison, WI 53708, or by calling his office at (608) 266-3780.
- Our fall School-wide faculty/staff retreat will be held on Monday, August 27 at the InnTowner. All faculty, academic staff, and classified staff are encouraged to attend and participate. More details to follow.
- Orientation for our incoming graduate students will occur on Friday, August 24.
- Orientation for our incoming PharmD and Pharm/Tox students will be held all day on Tuesday, August 28 for PharmD and Pharm/Tox students and half a day on Wednesday, August 29 for PharmD students only. A satellite orientation will be held on Thursday, August 30 for students of color.
- The Annual PSW Meeting will be held September 6-8 in LaCrosse. There are several brochures about the meeting at the reception desk in the Dean's Office if anyone is interested. The Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA) luncheon is scheduled for Saturday, September 8 at noon.
- SOP Executive Committee meetings have been scheduled for the second Tuesday of each month, starting on September 11, at 12:00noon in room 1128.
- The 2007 SOP Scholarships Ceremony will occur on Tuesday, September 11 in HSLC 1306, linking scholarship donors and recipients in a very powerful way. Pre-reception for donors at 5:15; ceremony at 6:00; post-reception around 8:30. Everyone is welcome.
- The Graduate Student Mixer will be held on Friday, September 28 starting at 5:30 in the Commons, celebrating a variety of graduate student awards and honors, and again linking fellowship and award donors and recipients.
- Plan now to join us for the 2007 Alumni Weekend on November 9 and 10. A terrific reception and awards ceremony for SOP Citations and the Alumni of the Year Award is held on Friday evening in the Commons, followed on Saturday by tailgating at Union South and the football game versus Michigan. Among the citation winners this year is our very own Judy Thompson (professor emerita, PharmSci/PPD).
As you've undoubtedly read, the Assembly version of the budget is far from favorable to the UW System, in stark contrast to the Senate version. Significant maneuvering is expected, but some sort of reduction appears likely, I'm afraid. I believe we'll have tuition set in August, but the pay plan, in particular, and the budget, in general, is not expected to be resolved until November. All members of the UW community are encouraged to contact your legislators with strong opposition to the proposed cuts to higher education.
Several items in the "congratulations" domain... DPH-3 student, Shane Resch, was chosen for a 2007 Presidential Scholarship from the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) Foundation. Shane was instrumental in establishing an NCPA student chapter at UW last year under the guidance of Dave Mott (SAS). Amber Ault (Student Services/ Diversity) succeeded at renewing and increasing the support we receive for disadvantaged students from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), part of HHS... $111,374 this year. This is incredible assistance for our most vulnerable students. Amber also received $1,500 from the UW System Institute on Race and Ethnicity to support the second offering of the Health Sciences SEED seminar in fall semester. The seminar is aimed at all health professions students and explores aspects of working with patients and professional colleagues from diverse cultural experiences and backgrounds. Paul Hutson (PPD) was featured in the Summer 2007 edition of Advances from the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center with a Q&A about dietary supplement use during chemo- or radiation therapy. Jill Kolesar's work with colleagues at the UWCCC on optimal sterilization methods was recently published in the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice. It captured the interest of the Wisconsin State Journal and received a mention in the Discoveries section on July 15. Marcelo Vargas (postdoc in Johnson lab, PharmSci)) received a prestigious Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ALS Research with a very nice write-up. Jeff's research was also featured prominently on the website of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins.
Several faculty promotions took effect July 1, at least for those on calendar year appointments. Faculty on academic year appointments don't actually become official until the start of fall semester, but let's keep it simple. Sandro Mecozzi (PharmSci) was promoted to associate professor with tenure, and Betty Chewning (SAS), Jeff Johnson (PharmSci), John Kao (PharmSci), Glen Kwon (PharmSci), and Gordon Sacks (PPD) were all promoted to full professor. Congratulations on these very significant milestones!
Congratulations of a different sort to Karen Jones (ZPES) and Lian Yu (PharmSci), the proud parents of little Patrick!
Several "hellos" to mention... New faculty members Arash Bashirullah (PharmSci), Casey Gallimore (PPD), and Warren Rose (PPD) will all be starting this week. Let's roll out the red carpet for them! Two additional offers are out for positions in PharmSci and one in SAS. The PharmSci Drug Delivery search is underway once again, as is a new search in the PharmSci Drug Discovery area. The Executive Committee also approved the addition of another position to the SAS search.
And several "good-byes" as well... Maureen Barr (PharmSci) is off to her new position at Rutgers, and LaVon Flynn (Research Administration) and Lynn Van Campen (ZPES) headed off to retirement. I also have to report that Noelle Lawton (Research Administration) has taken a new position in Engineering and will not be returning to the School after her maternity leave. In addition, Lynn Maki (Student Services) has accepted the position of admissions director at the Vet School and will be leaving us in late August. This is the hard part...
July marked the time for the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), this year in Orlando. The SOP was represented by Ruth Bruskiewitz (ESP), Mel deVilliers (PharmSci), Greg Higby (AIHP), Amy Kennedy (DPH-4 student), Karen Kopacek (PPD, this year's faculty representative), Anna Legreid Dopp (ESP, next year's faculty representative), Beth Martin (PPD), Jeanine Mount (SAS), Maureen Rollman (PPD), Kathy Skibinski (ESP), Gerri Wanserski (Ebling Library), and me. (I hope I didn't miss anyone...) Several made presentations and otherwise participated in sessions, SIGs, workshops, round tables, seminars, etc. Also honored were Orly Vardeny (PPD, recipient of an AACP New Investigator Award), Scott Rajski (PharmSci, UW Teacher of the Year), and James Dowell (PharmSci grad student, recipient of an AFPE fellowship).
To continue to build personal relationships with state legislators, I met with Representative J.A. "Doc" Hines recently. As I mentioned last month, the main point of the visits is to connect with the Legislature in new and powerful ways for everyone's benefit. Rep. Hines is also a co-sponsor of the pharmacy student loan forgiveness bill.
Ron Kraemer, currently Associate Director of DoIT, was selected as the Chief Information Officer for UW-Madison. Interviews with the five finalists for the position of Vice Provost/ Director of Continuing Studies concluded last week, with a new person to be named soon.
Two old friends from the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) visited the School last week... Roger Williams, Executive VP/CEO, and Angie Long, VP for Volunteer and Organizational Affairs. Interestingly, the entire USP archives are housed here at the WI Historical Society, with other materials in our Kremers Reference File. Greg Higby (AIHP) and his staff are, of course, closely tied in. My conversation with them focused on the growing interest of USP to support students and faculty in new ways, which I was happy to strongly recommend.
Thanks very much to Marty Kieser (PPD/Experiential Ed) for inviting me to give two lectures in the DPH-4 clerkship seminar series in July. I really miss the classroom and the student contact in that domain.
In terms of recent development work... I had the pleasure of visiting Leona Sonderreger in Tucson in July. For those that do not know her, Leona was the long-time assistant of Oscar Rennebohm, SOP alum, WI governor, and owner of a collection of very successful drug stores around Madison. The chain was sold to Walgreen's in the 1970s. She was also married to John Sonderreger, Oscar's second in command. Both during and after her service on the Board of Directors of the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation, Leona has been an incredible friend and benefactor of the School. Among her recent gifts are two endowed Dean's level (full tuition) scholarships for PharmD students, which actually almost stretched to three students this year. During my visit, she indicated her interest in continuing this generosity and has provided a major gift to the Faculty Excellence Fund to support one of our top priority areas...the recruitment and retention of the very best faculty anywhere. Leona will be celebrating her 96th birthday in August. She is simply one of those people who inspire everyone around her...just amazing. I also was very pleased to have lunch with alum Susie Kies Bazzell, daughter of alum Tom Kies. I went from Tucson to San Francisco and met with alums Cynthia Wilcox, Roy Kuromoto, Florence Lo, and Rosalind Chan.
The pharmacy deans in the Big 10 met in Chicago in July, which has become among the most valuable meetings I attend. On the way, I had lunch with alum Dave Sanders who is continuing his scholarship support for students with military backgrounds this year. Also in July, a wonderful gift was received to establish an endowed scholarship: the Jerome and Mary Stieber Family Scholarship. Jerry and his son Brian are both alums of the School, to say nothing of his daughter, our very own Beth Martin (PPD). The scholarship will be dedicated to students with unmet financial need with an incredibly positive and immediate impact. Alum Ruth Havemeyer made a generous gift to the Pharmacy Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, and alum Wayne Kuhr made a sizeable unrestricted gift, which I intend to add to the Faculty Excellence Fund. In addition, alum Tony Sinkula provided the first year's full tuition for an incoming student of American Indian descent. I continue to be amazed at the dedication and commitment of the School's incredible alumni.
I hope your summers have been enjoyable and productive...fall semester is right around the corner!
Jeanette