As mentioned in my email yesterday, the WHO has elevated their alert status to level 5 around the world, and the US Department of Homeland Security has declared a public health emergency in the United States in response to recent Swine Influenza A (H1N1) outbreaks. At the moment, there are no confirmed cases in Wisconsin, but yesterday, the Governor issued an executive order declaring a public health emergency for the state. In order to facilitate planning and action, UW-Madison activated the campus Pandemic Emergency Response Plan. We are very fortunate to have national experts in influenza, infectious disease, and public health in-house: Mary Hayney (PPD) will be the School’s main liaison to campus/state level activities with Warren Rose (PPD) serving as a back-up. I’ve pulled together a group of faculty, staff, and administrators that will assume specific roles as we move forward. The top priorities include getting the students through the semester and through graduation and maintaining research activities. Depending on how things develop, we’ll be doing a variety of things at the School level, but please refer to the campus website (www.news.wisc.edu/flu/) for continual updates. Stay tuned, continue simple good health practices, and stay home if you’re sick!
I can’t thank you enough for the outpouring of kind words, wonderful sentiments, gifts, and cards after my rather ungraceful announcement about the dean position at Utah. Your expressions of support and confidence mean so much to me. I’ve been invited for a second interview, but that has not yet been scheduled. I’ll keep everyone posted.
About the budget… The state has been very efficient at removing the required 1% of our base budget…~$82,000 for us. My second round of budget discussions with the Chancellor, Provost, and Vice Chancellor for Administration is scheduled for May 11, which should pretty much be the final word. At least until something else changes... Thanks again 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.
And definitely in the nagging mode… For those coordinating classes/teaching this semester... please encourage your students to complete course/instructor evaluations. These are key components to improvement in teaching and are vital for meeting accreditation standards. The system has been greatly simplified and is totally on-line. Contact Jennie Hazen for assistance.
Items on the “save the date” list include:
- New: The next meeting of the Executive Committee is set for Tuesday, May 5 at noon in room 1128. 12 members and 9 advisory members are required for a quorum for regular business. It’s the last regularly-scheduled meeting of the year with a very full agenda. Please plan on the full 1.5 hours.
- New: Phi Delta Chi will be sponsoring a blood drive in the Commons on Tuesday, May 5 from 9:00-2:30. Give life!
- New: The Governor’s State Employee Recognition Day will be celebrated at UW-Madison by holding an ice cream social on Wednesday, May 6 from 1:00-2:30 on Bascom Hill. Deans and other administrators will be rolling up our sleeves to serve you as a small “thank you” for all you do for the institution.
- New: Friday, May 8 is the deadline for receipt of applications/nominations for the Kremers Chair in Natural Products Chemistry and the Charles Melbourne Johnson Distinguished Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences.
- New: Friday, May 8 is also the deadline for the return of ballots from the tenured/tenure-track faculty for the election of our next representatives to the UW Faculty Senate.
- New: All faculty and staff are invited to participate in an open forum to discuss emerging ideas about our current strategic plan and new priorities as we develop the Strategic Plan 2010-2015 on Friday, May 8 from 12:30-1:30 in room 2336. The session will be facilitated by Maury Cotter (UW Office of Quality Improvement); light refreshments will be served. Academic Planning Council (APC) reps have been working within the divisions, but this is an opportunity to open things up for a wider discussion among faculty and staff. Your feedback and creative thinking are very much desired.
- New: The deadline for nominations of PharmSci graduate students for the variety of travel awards is Friday, May 15.
- It’s almost time for graduation! All are welcome at the Hooding Ceremony for PharmD, MS, and PhD candidates on Friday, May 15 in the Union Theater starting at 1:30. A festive reception follows with hundreds of family members and friends in the Great Hall. The UW Commencement ceremony for PharmD and PhD graduates then follows at the Kohl Center at 5:30. Commencement for our BS and MS graduates is held on Saturday, May 16 at the Kohl Center at 10:00. This is followed by a brunch for the Pharm/Tox graduates and their families at the Gordon Commons.
- The Curriculum Committee is accepting proposals for the 2009 Teaching Innovation Award with a deadline of June 1. The goal is to incentivize and reward faculty who develop new or modify existing coursework such that faculty in at least two divisions of the SOP work together. Award recipients will receive $2,500 each (up to three per course) to support professional activities.
- Mark you calendars now for the Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA) Golf Tournament scheduled for Friday, June 19. All proceeds benefit the PAA scholarship fund. New: To honor Tom Thielke (UWHC/PPD) upon his retirement, I’ve invited him to serve as the honorary captain for the event, and he will be hitting a ceremonial first ball before everyone scatters to their holes for the tournament.
- New: The first of our named lectures to be held in the fall will be the Rennebohm Lectures. Bill Evans, Director and CEO of the St. Jude Children’s Hospital, will be giving two lectures on Thursday, September 10. More information to follow. Thanks to Paul Hutson (PPD) for serving as Bill’s campus host.
The process to conduct a 5-year review of my performance as dean is underway. The review committee is being chaired by Vet Med dean emeritus, Barney Easterday, and is composed of Margaret Clagett-Dame (PharmSci), Curt Johnson (PPD/Global Health), Dick Peterson (PharmSci), and Dale Wilson (Sonderegger Research Center). They will be conducting a variety of interviews of faculty, staff, students, and alumni from both inside and outside the School. Written comments can be submitted directly to Barney at easterdb@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu or to other committee members by May 1. Well, that’s today...
Earlier this week, UW-Madison completed its every-10-year reaccreditation process with a site visit by 16 consultant evaluators from the Higher Learning Commission. The self-study was a wonderful learning and growing experience, as ours are, but the best part is when it’s all over! While the report and recommendations will take a couple months to work through the process, I think I can safely say that UW-Madison’s reaccreditation is not in jeopardy. Thanks especially to Jeanine Mount (SAS/Academic Affairs) for all the work required to represent the SOP on the Reaccreditation Steering Committee.
In the faculty and staff search arena... One offer is still out and another in formation for the two openings in the Drug Delivery Core. Interviews are continuing for the ESP position. Tim Bugni will be joining the Drug Discovery Core around August 1. Everything else is on hold pending budget decisions.
I mentioned last month that the 2009 Teachers of the Year had been named…one of my favorite things of all! It certainly doesn’t hurt to mention them again: DPH-1 Award, Beth Rosen (PharmSci); DPH-2 Award, Oana Martin (PharmSci); DHP-3 Award, Gordon Sacks (former PPD); Student Senate Distinguished Teaching Award, Beth Martin (PPD). Beth will be honored with an all-expense paid trip to the summer American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) meeting in Boston to represent the SOP. I neglected to mention that Steve Oakes (PharmSci) was selected as the Pharm/Tox Teacher of the Year. Congratulations, all!
Thanks to everyone who made this year’s White Coat Ceremony a huge success! Dave Kreling (SAS) gave the keynote address and alum and clinical instructor, Charlie Lee, administered the Oath of a Pharmacist. Both were selected by the students for these honors. It’s such a beautiful ceremony and a way to connect with the DPH-1 students and their families early in their careers as student pharmacists.
Thanks also for the wonderful turn-out at the 4th Annual Staff Recognition Event where we thanked our wonderful staff for their multiple and varied contributions to the School’s academic missions.
Rhonda Sager (Ebling Library) wrote to inform us of the new Ebling Library Pharmacy Portal. Check it out and feel free to forward suggestions to Rhonda.
Some recent faculty highlights that have crossed my desk:
- Congratulations to Arash Bashirullah (PharmSci) on his recent (and rather secretive!) wedding to Danielle who just relocated to Madison from Salt Lake City.
- We’re also pleased to welcome Nicholas Joshua Thorpe to the world whose proud parents are Josh Thorpe (SAS) and his wife Carolyn.
- Due to their exceptional work with the School of Pharmacy and Nursing at Nizwa University in Oman, Connie Kraus (PPD/Global Health), Curt Johnson (PPD/Global Health), and Karen Kopacek (PPD) have been asked to serve as charter members of the Council for Academic Methods for Educational Leadership (CAMEL) in Oman. Among many other features, an advanced rotation for PharmD students in Oman will be in rapid development.
- Tim Heath (PharmSci emeritus) and colleagues were recently featured nationally for their creative work in pain relief for companion animals. See a great short video on their research at www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2009/04/555a.html.
- Beth Elliott (PPD) has accepted a second term as Vice Chair of PPD.
- Dave Kreling has been selected for a second 3-year term as Chair of SAS. These leadership roles are getting more and more important for us...thank you both!
- The SOP was well represented at the recent 2009 Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW) Educational Conference. Speakers included Steve Ebert (Meriter/PPD), Casey Gallimore (PPD), Beth Martin (PPD), and Denise Walbrandt Pigarelli (PPD). Posters were presented by Beth Martin, Dave Kreling, Michelle Chui (SAS), Marty Kieser (PPD/Experiential Ed/Community Residency), and Curt Johnson (PPD/Global Health) along with students and community partners. I hope I didn’t miss anyone…
- Congratulations to Eva Vivian (PPD) for receiving the 2009 Faculty of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Student Pharmacist Society (WSPS).
- Lee Vermeulen (UWHC/PPD) served as the chair of the planning committee and leader of a global summit on hospital pharmacy during the recent International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) meeting in Basel. From the pictures I’ve seen, the meeting could have been in Madison, based on the very strong presence of Wisconsin practitioners and faculty in this organization.
- Lingjun Li (PharmSci) has been awarded an Innovation and Economic Development Research (IEDR) grant from the Graduate School that requires collaboration with industry to bring an invention to patentable status.
- Along similar lines, Lian Yu (PharmSci) received funding from the NSF for a collaborative project involving chemistry, chemical engineering, and Abbott Labs as an industrial partner for a Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award.
- Chris Sorkness (PPD/ICTR) is co-PI on an NIH grant supporting new initiatives and activities in the Collaborative Center for Health Equity within the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) that received a fundable score.
- I don’t often single out specific results, but I thought it was worth celebrating Warren Heideman’s (PharmSci) recent scoring of a 5.2 percentile on his 5-year NIH competing renewal. (For those unfamiliar, lower is better, like golf. 1.0 is the best possible score; 5-ish is very, very good. Nothing much gets funded these days (except maybe with federal stimulus money) above 10 or so, sometimes 8...remember these are percentiles.)
In terms of staff news:
- Kudos to the Research Administration Office staff (Sharon Vetter, Joan Palmer and Danuta Pyzalska)...as well as all the many faculty who submitted proposals...for surviving the first of several federal stimulus fund grant deadlines.
- Thanks to Becky Beebe and Jeremy Altschafl (SAA) for enlarging the Pharmacy Student Ambassadors Program to include the new Student Connections Program. This involves a Facebook page where successful applicants for admission in fall 2009 will “buddy up” with a set of current PharmD students to provide a more welcoming and helpful resource as they transition to the SOP.
- Thanks also to Pam French (Alumni Relations) for representing the SOP and the PAA with a booth at the recent PSW meeting.
- Laurie Leininger (Dean’s Office) was selected to receive a scholarship to attend the 2009 Conference of the Office Professional at the Alliant Energy Center.
- Congratulations to Diane Stojanovich (Communications) for receiving the 2009 Friend of the WSPS Award for her excellent work supporting our major student organization.
Relating to students, residents, and trainees:
- Thanks to Kajua Lor (DPH-4) for her contribution as a speaker at the recent PSW Educational Conference.
- Congratulations to Maria Wopat (DPH-3) for receiving a Meyerhoff Undergraduate Excellence Award for Leadership, Service and Scholarship.
- Thanks to Ted Grabarczyk (DPH-3) for representing the SOP so admirably at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Patient Counseling Competition in San Antonio.
- Congratulations also to Amanda Pitterle (DPH-4) for being selected as a 2009 AACP/Wal-Mart Scholar. This involves a travel award to the Boston meeting this summer where she will be presenting her work on pharmacy student and instructor responses to electronic subjective, objective, assessment, and plan (SOAP) note grading. Many thanks and congratulations also to her faculty mentor, Karen Kopacek (PPD).
In the alumni, donor, and friend category:
- I’m very pleased to announce the people who have been selected as 2009 Citation of Merit recipients from the SOP: alums Jim Wright, Richard Scheife, Ken Kirk, and Lynn Van Campen….what a great group! Thanks to the Awards and Citations Committee for an excellent slate. They will be recognized at the Friday Dean’s Reception during the PAA Reunion Weekend on November 13.
- As usual, we had a terrific reception for UW alumni and friends at the recent APhA meeting in San Antonio. Almost 65 students attended the meeting as well. Thanks also for the terrific “Dinner with the Dean” at the meeting.
- The People & Programs Campaign will be running at full speed until the end of 2009. As of April 15, 2009, we have gifts, pledges, and planned gifts exceeding an amazing $19.9M with only more progress to come!
- Alum and BOV member, Cindy Benning, has been selected as a member of the 2009-10 Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Exam (MPJE) Review Committee.
- Alum and BOV member, Dan Luce, has been promoted to National Director of Pharmacy Affairs with Walgreens. It’s nice to have friends in high places!
Good luck the rest of the way this semester, including additional federal stimulus money deadlines. And stay well! Jeanette