Additional clarity has been reached about the state budget and its effect on UW-Madison and the SOP. The Joint Committee on Employment Relations voted unanimously to rescind the anticipated 2% pay raise that was to have taken effect on June 1, 2009, and state employees will not see a routine salary increase until July 2011. You’ll be receiving an official letter about the salary rescission, but that’s the basic idea. We can all expect to pay more for our health insurance premiums (amount not specified) and to be required to take 8 furlough days per year for the next 2 years (details also not specified). Sorry for the downer, but in difficulty, there is always opportunity.
Items on the “save the date” list include:
- New: A second call for nominations went out to all academic staff for election to the SOP’s Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI). Only one nominee was identified in the Instructional/Administrative District. Additional nominations in that district are welcome, and at least one is required from the Research District. The nomination deadline is Wednesday, June 3.
- New: If you have not yet applied for parking for 2009-10, the application deadline is Sunday, June 14.
- New: A heads-up that we are likely to need a special Executive Committee meeting in June to allow the ESP faculty search to move forward. More details to follow.
- The Curriculum Committee is accepting proposals for the 2009 Teaching Innovation Award with a deadline of today, 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. 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 2nd Annual Get to Know ICTR Day will be held on Wednesday, July 15 from 10:00-4:30 in the HSLC atrium/room 1325. Learn more about the services offered, new features and research resources of the Institute. Not yet a member? See ictr.wisc.edu.
- New: The 2009 Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW) Annual Meeting will be held on August 27-29 at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. See www.pswi.org for more information.
- 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 the 5-year review of my performance as dean is coming to a close. My thanks to the review committee members: Vet Med dean emeritus, Barney Easterday (chair), Margaret Clagett-Dame (PharmSci), Curt Johnson (PPD emeritus/Global Health), Dick Peterson (PharmSci), and Dale Wilson (Sonderegger Research Center) and to all of you who provided feedback and comment. I believe there will be another opportunity for faculty and staff to interact with the Chancellor and Interim Provost after the committee report gets finalized and submitted.
The alert status for the H1N1 influenza virus has been downgraded, but many expect the virus to reemerge in its original or genetically modified form again in the regular flu season. The SOP Pandemic Response Team continues to work on a written Continuity of Operations Plan in the event that a serious outbreak occurs. I’ll make sure and keep everyone updated.
Our hooding ceremony, commencement exercises, and associated social events were just spectacular, as usual. Thanks especially to Becky Beebe, Chris Bischel, Tina Rundle (Student and Academic Affairs Office) and Diane Stojanovich (Communications) for getting every detail right...even down to holding off the rain for an outdoor group photo. Jeanine Mount’s (SAS/Academic Affairs) beautiful flower pots used as center pieces and gifts at the Pharm/Tox brunch were the usual big hit with the families. Thanks to Diane, Laurie Leininger (Dean’s Office), and Dave Kreling (SAS) for serving as marshals for the main ceremonies at the Kohl Center. And congratulations again to all BS, PharmD, MS, and PhD members of the School of Pharmacy Class of 2009!
Some special faculty happenings this past month:
- Welcome to May Xiong, a new faculty member in the Drug Delivery core of PharmSci, who started with us today! And remember that Tim Bugni in the Drug Discovery core of PharmSci will be starting on August 1.
- Efforts to finalize the position for the second candidate in Drug Delivery, Robert Thorne, continue. Speaking of Robert, the opinion article he was asked to write for the Michael J. Fox Foundation on nasal pathways for CNS drug delivery should have gone live today at www.pdonlineresearch.org/research-questions/nasal-delivery-viable-option-trophic-factor-delivery-brain. Fascinating stuff.
- Sorry to miss mentioning Susie Barnett and Andrea Duchac (both PPD) who served as station leaders during Denise Walbrandt Pigarelli’s (PPD) diabetes workshop at PSW’s recent Educational Conference.
- Congratulations to Mary Hayney (PPD) who is the co-investigator on an R01 grant that was funded recently through NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to explore the impact of specific alternative therapies on immune response to influenza vaccine...rather timely.
- Also great work by the team led by Mike Pitterle (PPD/IIT) who have garnered additional funding from the Technology-Enhanced Learning program to expand the development of virtual patient cases used across the health sciences schools to now include the School of Education.
- Beth Elliott (PPD) has been endorsed for a second 3-year term as Vice Chair.
- Dave Kreling (SAS) has been selected for a second 3-year term as Chair. These leadership roles are getting more and more important for us…thank you both!
- Thank you to the people who stepped forward to represent the SOP on the UW Faculty Senate for 2009-12. The new senators (and alternates) are: PharmSci: Paul Marker (Arash Bashirullah) and Ben Shen (Weiping Tang). SAS/ESP: Josh Thorpe (Betty Chewning).
- Karen Kopacek (PPD) was recently appointed to the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination Review Committee for the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) for 2009-10.
- Eva Vivian’s (PPD) work with Access Community Health Centers (ACHC) received special recognition in the May/June edition of the Journal of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (JPSW), especially highlighting the grand opening of their first in-house pharmacy under the direction of alum and clinical instructor Yolanda Tolson. Another excellent article featured the extensive participation of SOP faculty in the Wisconsin Pharmacy Quality Collaborative (WPQC) including Michelle Chui (SAS), Curt Johnson (PPD emeritus/Global Health), Dave Kreling (SAS), Beth Martin (PPD), and then DPH-4 student Betty Fang. I know others are involved as well.
- PSW members...cast your votes in mid-June! Steve Rough (UWHC/PPD) is running for President-Elect of the organization, and Denise Walbrandt Pigarelli (PPD) is running for an At-Large Director seat on the Board of Directors. Good luck!
- On a personal note... The start-up company, Cellgevity, based largely on intellectual property developed during my graduate work, was recently acquired by a Utah-based dietary supplement company called Max International. The plan is for RiboCeine (a prodrug of cysteine that supports glutathione production) to actually hit the market this fall. Kind of neat…
- Susie Barnett, Casey Gallimore, and Karen Kopecek (all PPD) have been selected to participate in this year’s Teaching Academy Summer Institute. Congrats!
In terms of staff news:
- Thanks to Becky Beebe and Jeremy Altschafl (SAA) for creating a Facebook page where successful applicants for admission in fall 2009 are communicating with each other and with current students and staff to provide a welcoming and helpful resource as they transition to the SOP. Becky even got me set up with a Facebook page and the ability to communicate with the group! I’ve actually gotten one friend so far...
Relating to students, residents, and trainees:
- There was a flurry of PhD dissertation defenses in PharmSci last month. Congrats go to Nella Barshteyn (Elfarra group), Amy Chung (Kao group), Gang Li (Hsung group), Ting Lu (Hsung group), and Jin-Haek Yang (Hsung group). Somebody better check up on Richard to see if he survived three dissertations at the same time!
- Congratulations of another sort are in order to PharmSci grad students (Grant Buchanan (Hsung group) and Richard Gantt (Thorson group) for being selected as 2009-10 American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) Pre-doctoral Fellows. Nice work!
- Many students were also involved in Denise Walbrandt Pigarelli’s diabetes workshop at the spring PSW Education Conference including then DPH-3 students Leah Bakovka, Melissa Grams, Jilan Kubusek, Amber Leavitt, Lydia Leung, Yushi Li, Phuong Tran, and Laura Urbaniak, and then DPH-4 students Barrett Crowther and Jorja Masters.
- Congrats also to Amanda Pitterle (PharmD ’09) for being accepted into the Clinical Investigation graduate program.
- Also to Melissa Natzke (PharmD ’09) who will soon be finishing up her MPH, then entering medical school here at UW in the fall. Wow!
- There was a great write-up on our Delta Chapter of Phi Delta Chi in the fraternity’s national publication, The Communicator. And even a great group photo from PDC’s anniversary celebration, including Dave Kreling (SAS), the long-term faculty advisor.
- Great job to all the students who participated in the Health Fair in the Capitol Rotunda during PSW Legislative Day. Nice write-up about it in the May/June edition of the JPSW.
- Many thanks to Yangli Wang (DPH-3) for his participation this summer, under the direction of Becky Beebe (SAA/Diversity) as the SOP intern for the 7 high school students interested in pharmacy through the Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence (PEOPLE) Program.
- Thanks also to Megan Heim (DPH-2) and Lindsay Laustad (DPH-3) for assisting Amy Zwaska (SAA/Pre-pharmacy) with everything involved with the Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR) Program that takes place every summer.
- After all the dust had settled, the Community Pharmacy Residency Program, directed by Marty Kieser (PPD/Experiential Ed)is full for the first time next year with four residents. Great work!
In the alumni, donor, and friend category:
- The SOP’s Board of Visitors convened at the School in May. What an incredible group of alumni, representing all kinds of pharmacy-related backgrounds, employment, and vision. Thanks to all for their wisdom and commitment.
- To remind you about the people who have been selected as 2009 Citation of Merit recipients: alums Jim Wright, Richard Scheife, Ken Kirk, and Lynn Van Campen...what a great group! They will be recognized at the Friday Dean’s Reception during the PAA Reunion Weekend on November 13. Please plan to attend.
- I had a chance to visit a few alums/clinical instructors around town last month, including Ben Brenkman, Susan O’Loughlin, and James Rasch at UW Health; Marty Girdaukas, Cynthia Liebau, and Beata Nowak at Shopko; and James Butcher at Cub Pharmacy West, all on Mineral Point Road.
- The People & Programs Campaign continues to chug along. Some gifts have been deferred, but that’s to be expected. Two new emphasis areas, focused on annual unrestricted giving, as well as on the Pharmacy Alumni Association matching scholarship fund, are blossoming.
I wish you all a productive and enjoyable summer! Jeanette