Well, June was just a bit too interesting around my house. I hope the terrible storms and flooding did not impact you or your families too much. The state and the region will be feeling the effects of high water for months and months to come.
Items on the "Save the date" list include:
- The next major event celebrating our 125th anniversary will be the US-Thai Consortium meeting in mid-July. See www.pharmacy.wisc.edu/usthai/ for registration and program information.
- A retreat of the faculty, focused mostly but not totally on the continuing discussion about PharmD curricular revision, has been scheduled for Monday, August 25…details to follow.
- New: The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP) will be hosting a conference at the School on October 17-18 entitled “Modern Medicines: New Perspectives in Pharmaceutical History.? Additional details and registration information can be found at www.aihp.org.
In an email to the faculty, I described my view of the need to pause and redirect the PharmD curriculum revision process. A recomposed Curriculum Committee will be established soon and a fresh approach initiated. My thanks and appreciation to Jeanine and the past members of the Curriculum Committee who have expended significant time and energy along the way. Stay tuned for more information.
Thanks to everyone who attended the celebration of Gerri Wanserski (Ebling Library) long-time role as liaison to the SOP for years. Thanks again for everything, Gerri! Also, Ebling Library Director Terry Burton has let me know that Rhonda Sager will step into the role of SOP liaison in early July. Rhonda is very familiar with us and intends to jump right in with a high level of expertise and service for our educational and research missions. Feel free to contact her as you would Gerri starting July 7.
As mentioned previously, I’m in the process of sitting down individually with all members of the SOP faculty and staff to listen to your views about whatever aspects, features, areas you feel I need to hear about. Thanks in advance for taking the time to provide feedback to me in this way.
The new School of Pharmacy at Concordia University in Mequon has decided on their new dean. Or I should say deans. Curt Gielow, MHA, PharmB will serve as Executive Dean, responsible for fundraising, relationship building, building construction and administrative/ business issues. Dean Arneson, PhD, PharmD was named Academic Dean, responsible for academic affairs, faculty recruitment and curriculum development. I hope to meet with them soon after they officially begin their positions on Aug. 1.
Some recent faculty highlights to mention:
- Results from the two elections are in…thanks to all who agreed to stand for election for 2008/09 and everyone who participated. For the determinations that are the responsibility of the Executive Committee:
- Paul Hutson (PPD), Lingjun Li (PharmSci), and Dave Mott (SAS) were endorsed for 1-year terms on the Faculty Activities Review Committee.
- All adjunct and affiliate faculty appointments were renewed.
- All clinical instructor appointments in the Experiential Education Program were renewed.
- For the determinations that are the responsibility of the full faculty:
- Warren Rose (PPD) was endorsed as the Alternate Faculty Representative for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). (FYI: Paul Hutson (PPD) was selected as the alternate last year and will now morph into the Faculty Representative.)
- Karen Kopacek (PPD) was approved as Faculty Liaison to the Board of Visitors for 2008-09. o Jill Kolesar (PPD) and Sandro Mecozzi (PharmSci) were endorsed for 3-year terms on the School’s Academic Planning Council (APC).
- Glen Kwon (PharmSci) was recently named to the editorial board of the journal Biopharmaceutics & Drug Disposition.
- The symposium honoring the distinguished career of Professor Emeritus C. Richard “Hutch?Hutchinson (PharmSci) entitled “Natural Product Biosynthesis, Engineering, and Drug Discovery?drew a huge crowd of former students and postdocs, colleagues, and friends. The Hutchinson Lectureship Fund has been established to bring a visiting speaker to campus and continue to honor Hutch’s many contributions over a span of almost 40 years. Ben Shen (PharmSci) championed these ideas, with able assistance from Joni Mitchell (PharmSci), Karen Steinle (Business Office), Linda Frei (Graduate Program Office), and others.
- Ben also was in charge of organizing the ?th US-Japan Seminar on the Biosynthesis of Natural Products? which was held in San Diego. Many thanks to Ken Niemeyer (PharmSci), Karen Steinle, and others for significant time and energy to help plan and conduct the conference. Alum Palmer Taylor, Dean of the UCSD’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, was kind enough to allow the seminar to be held in their beautiful new facilities and popped in on several parts of the conference.
- I’ve mentioned before the participation by several of our faculty in the WI Pharmacy Quality Collaborative project led by the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW). This partnership was recently awarded a demonstration project grant for $140,000 from the Pharmacy Quality Alliance to support and advance the initiative.
- Jeff Johnson’s (PharmSci) research in neurologic diseases was highlighted in Bioscience Wisconsin 2008, a publication of the Wisconsin Association for Biomedical Research and Education (WABRE). In addition, the start-up company based on Jeff’s technology, Mithridion, was featured in the June 5 Wisconsin State Journal as the company merges with Cognitive Pharmaceuticals.
- We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Earlene Lipowski as a visiting professor in SAS for the summer. Earlene is a proud alum of the SOP and an associate professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy.
- Eva Vivian (PPD) spent additional time in Uganda implementing the Diabetes Peer Champion Program in collaboration with Mulago Hospital.
- Curt Johnson (PPD emeritus) provided 2 weeks of instruction in the Ecuador field school.
- I received a special commendation from the Provost for Jeanine Mount’s (SAS) service on the steering committee that is overseeing the reaccreditation of UW-Madison.
- I neglected to let everyone know that Glynis Kinney (PPD) has decided to go back to full-time practice and left her part-time position with the School after spring semester.
- Congratulations to everyone in Extension Services in Pharmacy for the recent 50th anniversary celebration of the June Land O’Lakes conference.
- Congratulations are also in order for Arash Bashirullah (PharmSci) who recently became a US citizen!
Notable notes among the staff include:
- Amber Ault (Diversity) was highlighted in the Capital Times on June 11 in preparation for her participation in the Horribly Hilly Hundreds (i.e., “Sufferfest?, an annual bicycling event in Blue Mounds of 124 miles. I never asked her if she made it??
- Tom Stringfellow (AIC) was elected for another term on the Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI) representing the Research District, as was Chris Spencer (IIT) representing the Instruction/Administrative District. Thanks to all who stood for election.
- Alum Jeremy Johnson (PPD) has joined the School part-time to help organize and teach in the Pharmacotherapy Lab sequence. 75% of Jeremy’s time will be devoted to ICTR-sponsored KL2 (formerly TEAM) clinical research training that Orly Vardeny and John Dopp (both PPD) are involved with as well.
Some student, postdoc, resident happenings:
- Natalie Ammerman (DPH-3) was highlighted in her home town newspaper, the Onalaska Community Life, for her recent participation in the 3-week expedition to Uganda, along with several other UW students and faculty, including Eva Vivian (PPD) who is developing diabetes educational materials and programs for use there.
- Thomas Dietz (Kwon lab, PharmSci) is spending the summer “interning?with the Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station working on salt and crystal form screening methods and capabilities.
- Katie Ruedinger finished up her year with the UW Community Pharmacy Residency Program (CPRP) at Marshland Pharmacy with a presentation entitled “Improving Patient Outcomes: The Effect of Community Pharmacist Involvement with Medication Reconciliation.? We wish her well in the future and welcome alum Kristin Walsh, this year’s community resident.
Speaking of the CPRP…my thanks to Marty Kieser and Audrey Fish (PPD/Exp Ed) for organizing the accreditation site visit for our Community Pharmacy Residency Program. No lack of things to work on, with a more vibrant program to result. Thanks to all who participated in one way or another.
The Academic Working Group, focused on enhancing student contact with and knowledge about practice in underserved areas of the state, met again to talk about progress and discuss future activities. Thanks to Dave Mott (SAS), Marty Kieser (PPD/Exp Ed), and Melanie Schneider (SAA) for their valuable contributions and to the WI Hospital Association for hosting the meeting.
In the alumni, donor, and friend category:
- The Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA) annual golf outing miraculously was held in between our series of storms. Over $18,000 was raised to benefit the PAA Scholarship Fund. Thanks to Pam French (Alumni Relations) and the PAA Executive Committee for another wonderful tournament, full of great prizes, good food, and even better company. Our dedicated alums and sponsors really struggled to get to Madison that day due to road closures from the continuing rain and flooding. Thanks to all for their commitment to this important event.
- We had a bit of a break from125th anniversary/People & Programs (P&P) alumni gatherings in June, but more to come!
- Three new scholarship funds have been established recently:
- Alum Jerry Sveum set up the Sveum Family Scholarship for students with financial need, qualifying for matching funds from the UW Foundation.
- Alum Cindy Benning also set up a new scholarship fund last month.
- Alum Joey Sangor left money in his will to establish the Alpha Zeta Omega Pharmaceutical Fraternity Scholarship at the SOP. Thanks to alum Mel Altman for making that all happen.
All the best! Jeanette