April 2008

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School     Faculty     Spotlight On     Students     Staff

We ended March on a very high note for the School. 

In U.S. News & World Report’s recent ratings (2009 edition), the School’s doctor of pharmacy program ranked second, up from third in 2006. We must always view these rankings with caution because they tend to rely strongly on subjective measures, such as the opinions of other deans like myself, in addition to objective measures.

All aspects of our School are factored into these rankings. I was asked to consider things like the quality of the faculty and their scholarship, the strength of curriculum, and the success of a program’s graduates. You can all be very proud that the UNC School of Pharmacy is held in such high regard by our peers.

The School

The University recently completed its review of our graduate education program and was effusive in its praise of the work we are doing here. I would like to recognize the members of the Graduate Education Self Study Committee and the Graduate Education Committee—Amber Allen, Sue Blalock, Moo Cho, Stephen Eckel, Tony Hickey, Angela Kashuba, Drew Lee, Herb Patterson, Will Proctor, Betsy Sleath, Phil Smith, and Dhiren Thakker—and congratulate them on their excellent work.

The Third Annual Chapel Hill Drug Conference is coming up and will be held May 16 and 17. This spring’s conference focuses on academic drug discovery. Visit http://fridaycenter.unc.edu/pdep/drugdiscovery for more information, including registration fees and an itinerary, and to register. Early registration ends May 1.

Faculty

K. H. Lee	Tropsha	I am very pleased to announce that the Pharmacy Foundation of North Carolina has established a $500,000 endowed professorship in honor of Dr. K. H. Lee. Alex Tropsha, PhD, chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, has been named the recipient of the professorship. I feel that this professorship is a fitting way to honor the extremely distinguished career of Dr. Lee, who has enjoyed more than thirty-five years of continuous NIH funding, and to recognize Alex’s accomplishments.
		Leaf Huang has received two grants from the National Cancer Institute, each worth approximately $300,000 a year and renewable for up to five years. His projects are titled “LPD Nanoparticles in Anti-Cancer Therapy” and “Interaction of Cationic Lipids with Dendritic Cells.”
Drew Lee	Singleton	Drew Lee and Scott Singleton also received a grant from the National Institutes of Health worth more than $1 million over five years. The project’s title is “Intra- and Intermolecular Dynamics of Dihydrofolate Reductase.” Scott also is the new secretary of the faculty here at the School. Congratulations to him.

Spotlight on: Huyla Coker

As the UNC/ECSU PharmD Partnership Program wraps up its third year, I would like to call attention to Huyla Coker, PharmD, who is the director of the program on the Elizabeth City campus. Huyla hails from Elizabeth City, did her undergraduate work at ECSU, and then earned her BS in pharmacy from UNC in 1994.

She was director of pharmacotherapy at Roanoke Amaranth Community Health Group/Rural Health Group Inc. in Jackson before joining our faculty. Huyla was one of our Area L AHEC faculty members before taking her current position and was named AHEC Preceptor of the Year in 2004. In addition to precepting our students, she has also served as a preceptor for community pharmacy residents.

Her background, education, and talents have made her uniquely suited for this extremely challenging position, and I would like to recognize the outstanding contribution she has made to this ground-breaking program.

Students

The Student Political Information Committee of CAPS, cochaired by Emily Heil and Kelly Ennis, was responsible for bringing Representative David Price (right) to the School on March 27 for an enlightening and well-attended discussion of national health-care policy reform.

The weekend of March 29 brought the relatives and friends of our students to the School for Family Day and the White Coat Ceremony, which were absolutely wonderful events. I cannot tell you how many positive comments and e-mails I received from parents and other attendees. Katie Baliss and the Family Day Committee did an exceptional job, as did Emily Graham, Chrissy Teeter, and the White Coat Committee.

Faculty members Lisa Dinkins, Anthony Emekalan, Adam Persky, Ralph Raasch, Jo Ellen Rogers, and Dennis Williams all took time to deliver presentations to our guests, and I appreciate their efforts very much.

I’d like to single out Dama Keck, our registrar, for the outstanding work she did in coordinating these events and making them truly special for everyone involved. I’d like to thank Wendy Cox and Pam Joyner as well.

Congratulations to all the newly inducted members of Rho Chi, the pharmacy honor society. Gary Pollack was their invited speaker this year. The new initiates of Xi Chapter are Christopher Franklin Abernethy, Kimberly M. Argudin, Carrie Berkley, Allison M. Billock, Susanna L. Bowling, Brandy Leigh Brensinger, Rochelle Hiawatha Carlton, Kimberly Susan Fordham, Robin Emily Gerding, Courtenay Read Gilmore, Jacob E. Hampton, Kimberley Anne Harris, Michael L. Hurtik, Rebecca L. Jenkins, Larissa Lynn Johnson, Jamie Lin Jurkiewicz, Rebecca Michelle Karner, Daniel Ho Kim, Amber Nicole Kinard, Brian Patrick Murray, Neha Patel, Sara Renee Peters, Elizabeth Hinsdale Poole, Laura Virginia Salley, Savanna Steele, Tara Verville, Constance Elliott Weld, Ian R. Willoughby, Tsu-Hsuan Yang, and graduate students Stacie Burton Dusetzina and Katherine Nicole Theken.

Finally, don’t forget that graduation weekend is May 10 and 11. The University's hooding ceremony for PhD candidates will be held Saturday the 10th at 10:00 a.m. in Memorial Hall. The ceremony for our PharmD graduates will be held there at 2:00 p.m. University Commencement will be held Sunday the 11th at 9:30 a.m. in Kenan Stadium.

Staff

I have met with the Staff Council and asked them to work with Mike Patil to revamp the Pride in Excellence Awards program. Mike is submitting a revamped proposal to the University, which requires two people to nominate a staffer for the award and includes a nomination form that requires greater input from the nominator. Staff Council will provide you with more information as this process progresses.

The University will complete its first career-banding assignments of staff positions in the School by the end of this month. Remember that these assignments are provisional and are only being done to allow the University to maintain its timetable. Final career-banding assignments will not be made until we have completed our staff-mapping project.

We have selected a consultant, Drake & Associates, to begin the mapping process. A committee comprising Gary Pollack, Mike Patil, Angela Lyght, Scott Singleton, and myself is overseeing the process. The consultants are currently interviewing focus groups made up of division chairs, center directors, and other administrators. They will also survey the faculty and staff. Please assist them in any way that you can as they evaluate our support-staff needs.