Greetings Longhorn Pharmacy Alumni and Friends,
Well, here we are.
It’s October 14, and it’s my last day as dean of the College of Pharmacy. And what a wild ride it has been! I started as your dean in 2007, and in 2008 we were hit with the worst recession in over 60 years. And here I’m going out during the worst pandemic in over a century. However, in spite of these challenges, we’ve made great progress within the college, and I would like to share that with you.
We transformed our doctor of pharmacy program so that we prepare the leaders of pharmacy and healthcare for the future. We’ve enhanced their problem-solving skills. We’ve enhanced their team-based learning. We’ve enhanced their communication skills. And we offer students opportunities to participate in leadership programs, and entrepreneurial and innovation programs, so they can develop themselves as future leaders in our profession.
We’ve adopted a dual pharmacy Ph.D. program in collaboration with the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health. I am confident that our Pharm.D. graduates now and in the future will be the change agents for our profession—and for healthcare—in order to benefit our society.
We’ve also improved and advanced graduate education and research. We created the infrastructure for an Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, which has helped advance our programs. Through the efforts of our faculty, we have increased NIH funding by 266%, and we’ve increased total one year extramural funding by 393%. We’ve recruited outstanding faculty who have been developed and mentored by our senior faculty. I’m so proud of our faculty and staff in the way they’ve advanced the mission of our college.
I want to thank each and every one of you for the support that you’ve given me and the College of Pharmacy over the last nearly 14 years. You’ve supported the college by serving on college committees that advance the college’s mission. Many of you have served as preceptors for our student pharmacists, helping them develop their practice skills so they’ll enter the profession as highly competent pharmacists. Many have helped mentor graduate students. And many of you supported the college through your financial support, through cash gifts that support our students, endowments that support our students and faculty, or planned gifts which help assure that the future of the College of Pharmacy is bright.
Tomorrow, Dr. Sam Poloyac officially becomes the dean of the College of Pharmacy. I hope you will support Sam the same way you supported me. I am confident he is going to be an outstanding dean for our college.
Sam is a pharmacist. And his wife is a pharmacist. Sam earned his B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, and both his Pharm.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kentucky. He has advanced through the academic ranks at the University of Pittsburgh. He’s won teaching awards. He has had an outstanding research career. He’s been NIH funded. He’s been a center director, where his research program has focused on the role of P450 enzymes in the post-stroke and post-cardiac period. Most recently, he’s served as the associate dean for graduate education and research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy.
Please join me in welcoming Sam as he begins his journey tomorrow, and I assure you that the future of our college is bright, and I look forward to seeing all of you in person, hopefully in the near future.
Hook ‘em Horns!
M. Lynn Crismon, Pharm.D.
Dean
James T. Doluisio Regents Chair and Behrens Centennial Professor