April 26, 2013
Denise Rhoney, PharmD, chair of the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education, is the first recipient of the Ron and Nancy McFarlane Distinguished Professorship in Pharmacy Practice at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
The professorship is a gift of Nancy McFarlane, mayor of Raleigh, and Ron McFarlane. The couple operates MedPro Rx Inc., an accredited specialty infusion pharmacy that provides medications and services to clients with chronic illness. Nancy McFarlane founded the company in 2002 and serves as the company’s president and CEO. Her husband is chief operating officer.
“We are very grateful to the McFarlanes for their support of the School and the profession,” say Bob Blouin, PharmD, dean and the Vaughn and Nancy Bryson Distinguished Professor. “We are especially appreciative of their recognition of how important it is to attract and retain top-notch faculty at Carolina.”
Rhoney came to the School at the start of 2012 from Wayne State University, where she spent sixteen years working with the neurocritical care team at Detroit Receiving Hospital. Her research has focused mainly on traumatic brain injury and acute stroke, and she has expertise in the pharmacokinetics of pharmacologic agents in cerebrospinal fluid and the therapeutic optimization of neurocritical care.
The McFarlanes graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1980 and began their careers in hospital pharmacy. Nancy McFarlane has been a member of the Raleigh City Council since 2007 and was elected mayor in 2012. She is also in her second term as a member of the board of directors of the Pharmacy Foundation of North Carolina, Inc. Ron McFarlane has held positions as sales director, consultant, and executive at several companies in the health-care industry. He has served on the national board of directors for the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation and is a former board member of the local Wake County AIDS Service Agency.
When combined with state matching funds, the McFarlanes’s gift will bring the endowment for this professorship to $500,000. Income generated by the endowment, estimated to be $25,000 annually once fully funded, will be used to provide salary and scholarship support to an outstanding scholar and researcher.
Rhoney received her BS in pharmacy and doctor of pharmacy from the University of Kentucky and completed a general clinical pharmacy residency and critical care specialty residency at UK. She was a clinical research/drug development fellow and clinical instructor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy from 1993 to 1995. She joined the Wayne State University faculty in 1995, first as an adjunct professor while also serving as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, and then as an assistant professor of pharmacy practice in 1997. She was promoted to associate professor in 2003.
Rhoney is the author of more than sixty papers and fifteen book chapters and is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and of the American College of Critical Care Medicine.
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