A belated Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a very pleasant holiday season with family and friends, although I think we could have done without record-breaking snowfall and low temperatures. And how can it be 2009 anyway!?
Items on the “save the date” list include:
- New: The next meeting of the Executive Committee is set for Tuesday, February 3 at noon in room 1128. 12 members and 9 advisory members are required for a quorum.
- New: The UW Community Pharmacy Residency Program, directed by Marty Kieser (PPD/Exp Ed) will be holding interviews on February 3 and 4 for new residents to begin on July 1. A record 8 students have applied.
- New: The fifth annual Global Health Symposium will be held on February 4 from 5-9pm in 1306 HSLC.
- New: The Student Winter Bash is scheduled for February 7 from 7-9pm at Johnny O’s. All faculty and staff are welcome to stop by. If I understand it correctly, it’s sort of a "black and white" affair, indicating semi-formal dress.
- New: The annual breakfast with the academic staff, organized by CASI, will be held on February 18 at 8:30am in the Commons. All academic staff are welcome.
- New: Jon Thorson (PharmSci) has been invited to speak at the Biochemistry Colloquium on February 23 at 3:30 in the Ebling Symposium Center, Microbial Sciences Building.
- New: Call for nominations for the 2010 Rennebohm Lecturer: Please provide a small amount of background and information about potential researchers, educators, and scientists from across the disciplines of pharmacy to your division chair that you’d like to be considered for this prestigious lectureship. I’d like the Dean’s Advisory Council to discuss the nominees and make a selection at the March 13 meeting, so get things into your chair in time for division discussion and ranking before then.
- Don’t forget to get your new WISCARD to simplify and ensure access to all electronic systems in the building. Final conversion and repair of the security system is slated for the end of February or the beginning of March.
- New: The process to develop the School’s Strategic Plan 2010-2015 is getting underway. Academic Planning Council (APC) representatives, division chairs, and unit supervisors will be soliciting feedback on the current plan over the next couple of months, looking for input about gaps, overlaps, redirections, and even wording changes to our mission, vision, and values statements. I’m also working with the BOV, the PAA Executive Committee, and the Student Senate. Everyone’s contributions to the process are encouraged and welcome.
- New: Mark you calendars now for the Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA) Golf Tournament scheduled for June 19. All proceeds benefit the PAA scholarship fund.
I know the state and university budgets are on everybody’s minds. We still have little clarity on the impact of the on-going deficit in the state budget for this fiscal year, let alone the gloomy picture for the 2009-11 biennium. The Governor’s budget proposal will be released on February 10, which will be the first indication of what we’re facing. Thanks to faculty and staff for working with me to identify creative solutions to ensure that we maintain our preeminence and continue to enhance all we do even in difficult financial times.
FYI...The process has just begun to conduct a 5-year review of my performance as dean. A review committee will be appointed and everyone will have the opportunity to be interviewed or provide input along the way. Stay tuned for additional information.
Many, many “thank yous” are in order... Thanks to you all who made the School’s 125th anniversary celebration so fun and rewarding. What a blast! It still amazes me to contemplate what the School will look and feel like when the time capsule is opened in 2033. I see no reason not to continue to use the anniversary letterhead and other give-away items, so feel free! Sadly, Babcock Hall will no longer be making our special Chocolate ApotheCherry ice cream...
Thanks to everyone who engaged with the Curriculum Committee to finalize the framework for our revised PharmD curriculum. The Committee members will continue to work with divisions and specific faculty toward implementation over the coming months. In the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) domain, which stimulated much of the revision, the new first year courses (425/426) received approval at the campus level and were rolled out this year to rave reviews. Thanks to Beth Martin (PPD) for shouldering the lion’s share of the work and to Andrea Duchac (PPD) for jumping right in to assist. Casey Gallimore and Susie Barnett (PPD) are working furiously to design the new second year courses (525/526), which will be coming forward for faculty approval soon. Thanks to Marty Kieser (PPD/Exp Ed) for leading the charge and to the many faculty involved in one way or another. Audrey Fish (Exp Ed) has also been a champ in all aspects of IPPEs and APPEs. The logistics of moving Microbiology and Statistics to the pre-pharmacy years has gone fairly smoothly with our campus partners. The next step there is to redesign the appropriate PharmD courses where advanced, pharmacy-relevant content will reside. Good work!
Thanks also to everyone for taking the time to meet individually with me last year to provide opinions and feedback about all aspects of the School. Extremely enlightening and helpful as we chart the future together.
Thanks to those who participated in the state’s Partners in Giving Campaign to benefit many charitable organizations in the Madison community. Special thanks to Tim Gossens (Business Office) for chairing the effort for the School again this year. And congratulations to the winners of the prizes from the Athletics Department that accompany this campaign...Amy Childs and Anna Legreid Dopp (both ESP) who each won tickets to a UW women’s hockey game and Eva Vivian (PPD) who won the Bo Ryan autographed basketball.
Thanks to Jeremy Altshafl (Admissions/Student and Academic Affairs) and other SAA staff and Student Ambassadors for beautifully orchestrating the interviews for some 225 prospective PharmD students. Thanks also to the many faculty, alums, and practitioners who served as interviewers...couldn’t do it without you! The PharmD Admissions Committee will be in full gear soon to review files and select the Class of 2013.
Thanks from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) to Ed Elder (ZPES) and Mel de Villiers (PharmSci) for serving as screeners on the 2008 AAPS Annual Meeting Abstract Screening Committee.
Thanks to Bill Mellon (PharmSci/Grad School) and others who worked so hard on the successful campus level accreditation for human research protection programs.
The Adam Nickel Memorial Scholarship Fund has exceeded the $10,000 mark, which means it is now an endowed fund and will provide support in Adam’s memory each and every year. Thanks to all of you who helped make that a reality.
Thanks to Linda Frei (Graduate Programs), Ken Niemeyer (PharmSci), and many PharmSci faculty and current graduate students for the doing such a stellar job on the PharmSci graduate student recruitment weekend. Numbers and quality of applicants are clearly up, thanks in large part to the leadership of Chuck Lauhon (PharmSci/Grad Studies) and the enhanced focus on graduate student recruitment.
Some recent faculty highlights to mention:
- Michelle Chui (SAS) successfully obtained support from the Graduate School Research Committee in last fall’s competition.
- The on-going projects of both Dick Peterson and Warren Heideman (PharmSci) were highlighted in the 2008-10 UW Sea Grant Institute report.
- Glen Kwon (PharmSci) received support for his research program from Astellas Pharma in Japan.
- Jeanine Mount (SAS/Academic Affairs), Mara Kieser and Beth Martin (both PPD) participated in the very productive meeting of their counterparts across the Big 10 pharmacy schools to work together on assessment and experiential education issues critical for accreditation.
- Congratulations to Jon Thorson (PharmSci) and Dick Hutchinson (PharmSci emeritus) for the selection of Centrose as a 3rd place winner in the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer’s national competition for university start-up companies from a slate of over 400 choices.
- Jeff Johnson’s (PharmSci) continuing work with the SMART science mentoring program at Edgewood will be highlighted on NBC 15. A film crew will be visiting his lab on February 21.
- In addition, Jeff Johnson’s work in ALS, along with postdoctoral fellow Marcelo Vargas, was highlighted in the news recently (See www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/317971 )
In terms of staff news:
- Congratulations to Amy Childs (ESP) who was recently promoted to Information Processing Consultant.
- Long-time ESP assistant, Dorothy Kitchen, passed away recently.
- Ed Elder and Mark Sacchetti (ZPES) are the proud recipients of an almost new scanning electron microscope. Now if we could just find a place to put it...
Relating to students and trainees:
- Unfortunately, three PharmD students were recently recommended for dismissal from the program by the Student Promotion Committee (SPC). As you’ll recall, all serious cases like this are referred automatically to me for review. I upheld the decision of the SPC in two cases and referred the third case back to the Committee for further review. There remains the possibility of an appeal of my decisions to the faculty as a whole.
- Congratulations to graduate student Grace Welham (SAS, Mott group) on the birth of a beautiful 6 lb 13 oz daughter, Anne Hadley Welham, on January 21.
- Recent graduate Joe Su (PharmSci, Burnette group) was nominated again for the Campus-wide Teaching Assistant Award, which he won last year. While Joe was not a repeat winner, it’s quite an honor to be nominated, especially more than once.
- Congratulations to Amber Leavitt (DPH-3) for being the first pharmacy student admitted to the dual PharmD/MPH degree program.
- Postdoc Chad Vezina (PharmSci, Peterson group) was recently notified that he will be receiving a very competitive K01 award from the NIH. He will be transitioning soon to a faculty position in the School of Veterinary Medicine. Congrats, Chad!
In the alumni, donor, and friend category:
- The People & Programs Campaign continues to gain momentum and will be running at full speed until the end of 2009. As of December 1, 2008, we have gifts, pledges, and planned gifts exceeding an amazing $19M with only more progress to come!
- In conjunction with an annual meeting of the pharmacy deans of research-intensive universities in Tucson…one of the most productive meetings I attend…Linda Halsey (Development) and I had the pleasure of visiting with Leona Sonderegger, Jim and Phyllis Tingstad, Win and Marianne Durant, Dave Sanders, Wally Simons, and Earl and Betty Sallander.
- Linda and I were snowed out of our scheduled 125th Anniversary/P&P alumni event in LaCrosse in December, but managed to work it in in January…sort of a 125.1 anniversary celebration. The final major gathering of this kind is likely to be in Chicago in March.
- Linda and I had the pleasure of hosting Bonna Robinson, widow of our late alum and faculty member Joe Robinson, and several family members in the Chancellor’s suite at the men’s hockey game versus Minnesota-Duluth.
- We recently received a sizeable bequest from the estate of alum Art Mlodozeniec who died very suddenly a couple years ago.
- We received another sizeable bequest from the estate of our late faculty member Eunice Bonow Bardell.
- We are very pleased to establish the Lynn M. Knute Scholarship with a recent gift to the School. Since it was set up to be based on financial need, the fund qualifies for the 50 cents to the dollar match from the UW Foundation.
- Congratulations to alum Bill Zellmer, who was granted honorary membership status with the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP) for his life-long achievements with that organization and the profession.
I hope the semester has gotten off to a great start for everyone. Spring will be here before you know it! ...Jeanette