Forgive my propensity for exaggeration and hyperbole, but yesterday’s all-School retreat was the best retreat in the history of higher education. Okay, perhaps just in the SOP’s history. Well, I don’t really know that either. But, still… Thanks to Laurie Leininger (Dean’s Office) for all the arrangements and to Mike Pitterle (PPD/IIT) for managing all the IT/computer issues on the fly. In addition, John DeMuth (IIT) returned to the SOP midstream to fix server issues that were preventing remote access to important documents. What a wonderful expression of brainstorming, strategic thinking, and building community by faculty, staff, and students as we worked through items of business and planning for the future of the school. Thanks to all who presented and who participated in the wonderful discussions and decision making. Quite amazing from my point of view!
Items on the “save the date” list include:
- New: Don’t forget to switch over today to your new parking permits for 2009-10.
- New: The first Executive Committee meeting will be held today Tuesday, September 1 at 12 noon in room 1128. Please note: 11 members and 9 advisory members must be present to constitute a quorum for general business.
- The Graduate Student Mixer has been scheduled for Friday, September 4 from 5:30-7:30 in the Commons. Come and meet new and existing grad students and hear about wonderful fellowships and awards for the year.
- New: The National Rural Health Association, in partnership with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) will be held September 9-11 in Kansas City, MO.
- 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. A great article about Bill, “Father of Clinical Pharmacogenomics,” was recently published in Pharmacy Today and can be accessed at http://apha.imirus.com/Mpowered/imirusApp.jsp?volume=pt15&issue=6&page=44, along with a podcast interview.
- New: The lectures have been accredited by ESP for pharmacy continuing education credit. For more information, contact Anna Legreid Dopp (ESP;email Anna).
- New: The deadline for application to the Graduate School 2009 Fall Research Competition is Friday, September 11. See http://www.grad.wisc.edu/research/researchfunding/fc/ announcement.html .
- New: On September 23 at noon in room 1325 HSLC, the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) will be sponsoring a presentation by Vicki Bier (Departments of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Physics) on “Pandemic Preparedness.”
- New: MedDrop, a free service for properly disposing of unwanted medications, will be held on Saturday, October 3. Several students, staff, and faculty are involved in this activity, but volunteers are still needed to distribute promotional materials before the event and to help on-site during the event. Locations are the City Transfer Site at 121 E. Olin Ave. and the Middleton High School at 2100 Bristol St. More information is available at http://www.MedDropDane.org.
- New: The external site visit for our BS/MS/PhD program review will occur on Monday and Tuesday, October 12 and 13. The site visit team is composed of Ron Borchardt (Kansas), Carl Buckner (Oklahoma-Team Coordinator), Phil Schneider (Arizona), and Bernard Sorofman (Iowa), with Rob Kalil serving as the Graduate School representative. The schedule was presented at the retreat and will be firming up soon with interactions as committees, faculty/staff/student groups and individual meetings all part of the process.
- The second named lectures of the fall will be the Busse Lectures, scheduled for October 22 and 23. We are pleased to have Valentino Stella, Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas, visit us as the 2009 Busse Lecturer.
- The third named lecture of the fall will be the Hutchinson Lecture, honoring PharmSci professor emeritus C. Richard “Hutch” Hutchinson. The 2009 Hutchinson Lecturer will be Bill Fenical, Professor and Director of the Marine Research Division at UCSD and Director of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A great article about Bill and natural products chemistry was recently published in Chemical & Engineering News and can be found at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/87//8732sci1.html. Mark your calendars for November 13.
- Make plans now to attend the 2009 Pharmacy Alumni Association Reunion Weekend on November 13 and 14. Similar to past years, SOP faculty and staff are welcome and encouraged to attend the Friday event as my guests. Dean’s Club members (donors at or above $500 for the year) will also be invited as my guests. Those faculty and staff that are also Dean’s Club members will get twice the thanks! See http://www.pharmacy.wisc.edu/alumni/reunion2009_reg.pdf or contact Pam French (Alumni Relations; email Pam) for registration forms and information.
The 2009 Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW) Annual Meeting was held on August 27-29 at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells with considerable participation by SOP faculty and students in many presentations, workshops, and round tables. Speaking of students, I understand that 88 of our students attended the meeting…a new record! The 2009 PSW award recipients were recognized…all our alums. Pharmacist of the Year—Susan Kleppin; Distinguished Service Award—Susan Sutter; Young Pharmacist of the Year—Nicholas Olson; and Innovative Pharmacy Practice Award—Char Smith. Recent alum, Megan Sheahan was also present to be recognized as the 2009 PSW Student Achievement Award winner…well done! Alum Lynne Dittman was installed as the next President as well. The Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA) luncheon also drew a record 145 attendees. The program was highlighted by the farewell speech of current president Karen Smith and remarks (in absentia) by incoming president Donna Larson. Bob Breslow (PPD) continues as Treasurer, and Andrea Duchac (PPD) was selected as the Young Practitioner member of the Board.
By my count, we just completed the orientation of 176 new BS, PharmD, MS, PhD students, and residents! What a herculean effort by staff in the Student and Academic Affairs Office, the Graduate Program Office, and the Community Pharmacy Residency Program. Thanks to all of you, as well as to many faculty and staff participants throughout the divisions. Wow!
Some faculty highlights that have crossed my desk recently:
- A warm welcome to Eric Buxton who joined the ESP faculty on August 26. You can find Eric in room 1228. Stop by and say hello!
- Efforts to finalize the PharmSci faculty position for Robert Thorne continue.
- Congratulations to Orly Vardeny (PPD) and Oliver Ni who were recently married in Hawaii!
- Weiping Tang (PharmSci) did, in fact, receive his first R01 plus a hefty supplement on a separate collaborative project…way to go!
- Recent SAS PhD graduate, Abhijit Gadkari, along with co-authors Dave Mott, Josh Thorpe, and Dave Kreling (all SAS) received the Best Paper Award from the Economic, Social and Administrative Section at the recent meeting of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA).
- Former PPD faculty member and current clinical instructor Trisha Seys Ranola has accepted the invitation from the SOP Office of Global Health to represent pharmacy in the Ecuador experience. Thank you for expanding the capacity of our Office of Global Health!
- We are pleased to be temporary home to four visiting faculty members from Thailand. Alum Piyarat “Oh” Nimpitakpong (SAS, Svastad group) lectured on her work in tobacco cessation work in Thailand; Tavipen “Pan” Suttarkul is working with Paul Hutson (PPD) for several weeks; and Thitima Pengsuparp and Rataya Leuchapudiporn from Chulalongkorn University will be with us through the end of the year teaching in the Pharmacotherapy Lab and learning much to take back as they gear up for the entry-level PharmD. Welcome, all!
- Eva Vivian’s (PPD) growing work in diabetes and obesity continues to garner great publicity. See http://www.capitalcityhues.com/080609DrEvaVivian.html and www.estacadanews.com/features/print_story.php?story_id=124892721505148200. Eva has also set up a webpage, HipHop2Health, on our website. See http://www.pharmacy.wisc.edu/unity.
- Richard Hsung (PharmSci) is being nominated for the Kellett Mid-Career Award, and Lingjun Li (PharmSci) for the H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship from the Graduate School. Best wishes!
- Michelle Chui (SAS) has applied for a KL2 Scholar Award through ICTR. Good luck!
- Many thanks to Lara Collier (PharmSci), Mary Hayney (PPD), Warren Heideman (PharmSci), and Weiping Tang (PharmSci) who mentored undergraduate students in their labs this summer. The projects culminated with the 11th Annual Undergraduate Symposium last April. I don’t know about you, but this is where I got my start in research and represents a wonderful opportunity for future interactions and recruitment.
Notable notes from the staff include:
- Congratulations to Delinda Johnson (PharmSci, Johnson group) for passing her prelim exam toward a PhD in Molecular and Environmental Toxicology.
- Coordinated by Becky Beebe (SAA/Diversity), the School hosted 10 minority/low income high school students from Racine and Kenosha as part of a summer program through UW-Parkside, building our recruitment pipeline. Also involved were Henry Young (SAS), Cameron Scarlett (AIC), Nichole Rockich (PharmSci PhD/DPH-2) and Nathan Sippel (DPH-3). Thanks very much!
- A fond farewell to Jason Ellenkamp (Stockroom) who is leaving the SOP to return to school full time, studying respiratory therapy.
- Likewise to Pam Palmer, who has served in many roles in the School for decades, as she transitions to retirement.
From our students, residents, and postdocs:
- Congratulations to Nirca Nieves (PharmSci, Clagett-Dame group) for defending her PhD dissertation recently.
- Operation Airways, one of the many community outreach activities of our WI Society of Pharmacy Students (WSPS), was highlighted in the July/August edition of Student Pharmacist by a great article by Megan Kultgen (DPH-4), Erica Rodriguez and Joshua Welch (both DPH-2s).
- The Grand Council for pharmacy fraternity Phi Delta Chi held this summer resulted in the UW chapter (Delta) placing 3rd in the Leadership Award, tied for 2nd in the Window Display, and 2nd for the Service Project Award. These results meant UW placed 6th for the Thurston Award. Delta also placed in the top 15 for the Chapter Publication and the Brotherhood Awards. Well done!
The recent violation of NIH biosafety guidelines for research with rDNA and potentially infectious organisms has led to a number of new requirements, including mandated training and incident reporting for all PIs and research staff and students involved in any biosafety protocol. This is not optional. NIH funding to specific PIs or to UW-Madison as a whole is at risk. Please take this seriously. An NIH audit was conducted in July, which went reasonably well, but we will be fined and subject to special scrutiny in the future. Contact Bill Mellon (PharmSci/Grad School) or visit the Biosafety Training Curriculum at www.fpm.wisc.edu/biosafety/. Again, this is not optional.
In the alumni, donor, and friend category:
- Due to the efforts of alum Grace Lee, Governor Jim Doyle has proclaimed October to be American Pharmacist Month in Wisconsin.
- Linda Halsey (Development) and I had the pleasure of attending the annual picnic of the Milwaukee Veteran Pharmacists Association (MVPA) in August. We’re so honored by their on-going support for the SOP scholarship program.
- 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! And don’t forget to add Tom Thielke, 2009 Alumni of the Year, to the list. They will all be recognized at the Friday Dean’s Reception during the PAA Reunion Weekend on November 13. Please plan to attend as my guests.
- Alum Wally Simons has recently established the Wally and Vivian Simons/Women’s International Pharmacy Scholarship Fund. Thank you!
- Alum Jerry Spector and his PBGA Board has also recently established a new scholarship fund. Thanks as well!
- We are saddened by the recent deaths of alums Bob Dempski (retired from Merck), Bill Tillman (retired from SmithKlineFrench and McNeil), and Bob Mason (retired from the faculty at the University of Utah). Linda Halsey was able to attend the special service for Bill in Lodi, and I had the honor of meeting Bill’s wife, Marilyn, and daughter, Patti Giambuzzi, later in the day.
I wish you all a productive and enjoyable fall semester! Take care…Jeanette