The Pharmacist - Summer 2021 by UIC Retzky College of Pharmacy

SU M M E R 2021 | VO LU M E 43 | I S SU E 3

THE MAGAZINE OF UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO COLLEGE OF PHARMACY

Where Innovation Shines Crime Seen Answering the Call

CONGR ATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2021

contents 02

Dean’s Letter

03 Events 04

College News

Student News

Drug Discovery

Catching Up with the Class of 2019

Where Innovation Shines

Change Agents

Crime Seen

Answering the Call

Congratulations to the Class of 2021

Alumni Focus

Alumni Profiles

Alumni News

In Memoriam

In September of 1868, our college published the first issue of a trade journal simply named The Pharmacist. The magazine you see before you is named in honor of that historic journal.

EDITORIAL CREDITS PUBLISHER Glen T. Schumock, PharmD, MBA, PhD Professor and Dean EDITORS Robert Hoff UIC Creative and Digital Services Ben Stickan Associate Dean of Advancement PROOFREADERS Deb Fox Chris Gummert Imani Watson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jessica Canlas Jacqueline Carey Sonya Collins Michael Dhar Sharon Parmet Daniel Smith Imani Watson PHOTOGR APHY Barry Donald Jim Young DESIGN Godfrey Carmona UIC Creative and Digital Services

PRINTED WITH SOY INKS AND PAPER CONTAING 10% POST CONSUMER MATERIAL

FROM THE DEAN

Innovation Is Our Past and Our Future BY DEAN GLEN SCHUMOCK Are we back to normal yet? With the COVID-19 pandemic approaching the rearview mirror, life is starting to seem more like it was before. But it won’t be the same. We are changed. The world is changed. And for the Class of 2021, it is a brave new world—full of possibility and promise. The 219 PharmD, PhD, and master’s degree recipients in this class faced enormous challenges—in the classroom, at their clerkship sites, at work, and at home. And they did it while serving in vaccination clinics and helping the community. You can read their stories, hear their voices, and learn their futures in this issue of The Pharmacist. They will inspire you, humble you, and make you proud. The Class of 2021 is making the transition from classroom to career. But they are not doing it alone. They have great role models and a network to support them—role models like their commencement speaker, Dr. Francesca Cunningham (RES ’88, FEL ’89). Dr. Cunningham is one of the top pharmacists in the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, and her message to the Class of 2021 was spirited and powerful (view her speech at go.uic .edu/CommencementSpeaker2021). Dr. Cunningham’s leadership and commitment are what we look for in all our graduates. The Class of 2021 also has role models in this year’s “Golden Graduates”—the Class of 1971, listed within. The Golden Graduates are exemplified by folks like John DeNardo, BS ’71, MS ’74, who have completed successful careers and can share hardearned wisdom with the next generation of leaders.

2019 for inspiration—like Drs. Nada Alsuhebany, John Dicristofano, Megan Rueth, and Alina Varabyeva—each of whom is chronicled in this issue. Or change agents like Drs. Shana Hua, RES ’01, FEL ’03; David Hermann, PharmD ’88; or Dr. Darren Toh, MS ’05. They are part of the network of 10,000+ College of Pharmacy graduates who support the college, our students, and each other. If there is one thing, the Class of 2021 has learned while at the UIC College of Pharmacy, it is the value of innovation. The innovative spirit, key discoveries, and pioneers of our past and present are chronicled in the article “Where Innovation Shines.” I hope you enjoy this look at our history and the innovations made here in drug discovery, patient care, and education and the people who made those possible, including the likes of Drs. Sol Roy, Donald Waller, Debra Tonetti, Irina Gaisina, Rui Xiong, Richard Hutchinson, Herb Carlin, and many more. Innovation is what makes UIC among the best schools in the country, and to ensure that it stays that way, we contiune to plan and build for the future. The Drug Discovery and Cancer Research Pavilion, described in this issue, will be located on our Chicago campus, directly behind the existing building. This transformative facility will accelerate our already significant efforts in drug discovery by bringing together our expert faculty and students/trainees, industry partners, and state-of-the-art labs and equipment. But we need your support to make this landmark effort a reality. We are currently seeking alumni and friends to contribute

Or our new graduates can look to the more recent success of those in the Class of

Online pharmacy.uic.edu go.uic.edu/PharmFBChicago go.uic.edu/PharmFBRockford go.uic.edu/PharmTwitter go.uic.edu/PharmLinkedIn go.uic.edu/PharmInstagram go.uic.edu/PharmYouTube

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Got News? Change jobs? Get a promotion? Publish a paper? Publish a book? Get married? Have a baby? We want to hear about it all! Now you can send your news directly to the magazine editor Ben Stickan (bstickan@uic.edu). We’ll do our best to fit it into our publications and/or social media! If you don’t see it in The Pharmacist, please go to go.uic.edu/PharmNews.

financially to the new building. Dr. Adesh Vora, PharmD ’00, has generously donated funds to establish the Adesh Vora Family Auditorium—a lecture/meeting hall to be located on the bridge connecting the old and new buildings. Thank you, Dr. Vora! If you are interested in a similar opportunity, please contact me. I hope this issue of The Pharmacist reminds you of the many great people that make the UIC College of Pharmacy what it is. Your support for the college is needed now more than ever before. If you have not previously donated, consider if you can do so now. We need more people like Dr. Adesh Vora. People who are dedicated to helping us achieve our mission of education, research, and service. People who recognize the good that can come by investing in success.

FIVE-POINT VISION

Provide unparalleled pharmacy education and training

Advance the profession through leadership and advocacy

EVENTS

6th Annual Chicagoland Critical Care Conference (C4)

Join us for the 6th Annual Chicagoland Critical Care Conference (C4) that will be held on Saturday, August 28, 2021. Critical care practice and related pharmacotherapy encompasses a wide variety of disease states. New developments challenge the practitioner to stay abreast of emerging therapies and novel treatment strategies. Visit c4conference.uic.edu for more information.

Great Lakes Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety Forum

Save the date: Friday, October 1, 2021, for our Great Lakes Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety Forum. Nationally recognized and regional experts from government, industry, and academia will discuss current initiatives to enhance the collection, signal detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects of pharmaceutical and medical

Lead the nation in pharmaceutical research that impacts health

Foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, and inclusiveness

products. Stay tuned for more information about this conference.

The 12th Annual UIC College of Pharmacy Research Day Be the epicenter of innovative pharmacy services

Mark your calendars! The 12th Annual UIC College of Pharmacy

Our Digital Edition issuu.com/uicpharmacy

Research Day will be held on Friday, November 12, 2021. Plan to join us in welcoming keynote speaker Paul Hergenrother, PhD, chemistry professor and Kenneth L. Rinehart Jr. Endowed Chair in Natural Products Chemistry, University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign, in what we hope will be another spectacular day where we honor the rich tradition of research and education at the college. At this time, we would like to put out a call for judges for our annual poster competition. Poster sessions will be held from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. If you are interested in serving as a judge, please contact Lindsey McQuade (lmcquade@uic.edu). For more information, please see researchday.pharmacy.uic.edu.

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COLLEGE NEWS

Dr. Michael Gabay was appointed to the Council on Public Policy for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). The council focuses on federal and state regulations, and they also work to analyze public policy proposals designed to address critical health issues.

Dr. Sandra Cuellar was named a fellow of the Hematology Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) at HOPA’s 17th annual conference. The fellowship recognizes individuals who have demonstrated significant contributions and have impacted the field of oncology pharmacy.

Hitomi Oum, associate director of diversity and inclusion, and her husband, Sam, welcomed their first child; daughter Noami Oum was born May 10, 2021, at 10:45 a.m.

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faculty and preceptor recognition awards

Dr. Brad Bartels

Dr. Michael Gannon

Dr. Scott Benken

Dr. Laura Meyer-Junco

Dr. Matthew Gimbar

Each year, the graduating class votes on three faculty

of the Year recipients (tie) Drs. MICHAEL GANNON,

and preceptor recognition awards: the Golden Apple

SCOTT BENKEN, LAURA MEYER-JUNCO, and

Award, the Internal (UIC) Preceptor of the Year, and the

MATTHEW GIMBAR; and External Preceptor of the

External (non-UIC) Preceptor of the Year. The winners

Year recipient Dr. MARC MCDOWELL, Advocate Christ

of the 2021 Faculty Awards include Golden Apple

Medical Center.

Dr. Marc McDowell

recipient Dr. BRAD BARTELS; Internal Preceptors

congratulations Dr. ANDREW DONNELLY was honored as one of Crain’s Chicago Business 2021 Notable Healthcare Heroes. When COVID-19 surged, Dr. Donnelly sourced medications needed for ventilated ICU patients. He was part of a working group that ensured there were guidelines for medications with FDA emergency use authorization status. Donnelly also made sure that PPE was available for staff and instituted social distancing and cleaning policies. Dr. Donnelly is part of the leadership group that developed the logistics for the vaccination program currently active at UI Health. This group continues to work on expanding vaccination administration.

Dr. Andrew Donnelly at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena vaccination site.

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STUDENT NEWS

P4 Alexia Bauer fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at the University of Illinois Hospital Pharmacy.

student leaders of the month FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

CHICAGO

Alexia Bauer

Peyton Wade

Yara Albair

Vassi Tsolova

ROCKFORD

Emily Tran

Liezl Peterson

ROCKFORD

P1s

Alex Nunez

Celeste Guzman Adnan Patel

P1s

Joyce Yeo Christopher Korfiatis Ryan Clemens

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Siria Arzuaga

P4 student pharmacist CYDNEE HARRIS received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Award from the UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. The MLK Scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and a commitment to the well-being of others through community and campus service. “It is vital that we continue to fight to eliminate health disparities in our community while providing opportunity and resources to our future pharmacy students,” Harris said. Cydnee Harris is also a committee member of the Urban Health Program (UHP) and an extern at UI Health. P4 student pharmacists RACHEL GOLDBERG and ALEXANDRA KANIA’s research paper, “Weight Gain in Incarcerated Individuals Living with HIV after Switching to Integrase Strand Inhibitor–Based Therapy,” was published in the Journal of the International Association of AIDS Care.

P4 student pharmacists DE’LASHAWN FISHER and MARIO BARRIOS were awarded the 2021 UIC Urban Health Program (UHP) Leadership and Achievement Award. This honor is awarded to graduating students from each health-science college at UIC. Student pharmacists MEZHGAN ASLAMY, COURTNEY HOOTEN, LIEZL PETERSON, and MICHAEL DO took first place in the college’s 21st annual #UIC Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Competition. The P&T Competition is an event designed to provide student pharmacists an immersive experience in the skills necessary for effective formulary review and management. The team now have their materials sent to the National Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Foundation to represent UIC in the national competition.

49th annual Albert Ebert lecture Dr. WILLIAM DOUGLAS FIGG, SR., senior investigator, program head, and deputy branch chief at the National Cancer Institute, delivered a noteworthy discussion titled “Don’t Ignore Data That Seems to be an Outlier; It May be the Key to Understanding a Disease,” for our college’s Rho Chi chapter on April 24. Dr. William Douglas Figg, Sr.

About Albert Ebert

In the mid-1800s, Albert Ebert shaped the emerging pharmacy field in the United States. Born in Germany, his parents emigrated to Chicago where Ebert took several apprenticeships before enrolling in the inaugural class at the Chicago College of Pharmacy (the precursor to the UIC College of Pharmacy) in 1859. Ebert was a leader in the early pharmacy associations like the International Pharmaceutical Congress and the American Pharmaceutical Association (now the American Pharmacists Association, or APhA).

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Novel COVID-19 Drug Blocks Viral Replication BY SHARON PARMET

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Pharmacy have identified a potent new antiviral compound that can effectively block viral replication in human cells. The discovery, spearheaded by the UICentre for Drug Discovery, could lead to the development of a new therapy to treat patients infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The researchers say it could be a powerful new weapon in the fight against the disease for which few proven treatments are available. The virus requires several enzymes to produce copies of itself once it has infected a cell. One of these enzymes, known as a protease, is called PLPro. Kiira Ratia, director of the High Throughput Screening Core at the UIC Research Resources Center, studied SARSCoV-1, another coronavirus, in the early 2000s when she was a graduate student at UIC. In her previous research, she discovered a drug, GRL0617, that could bind to PLPro and prevent SARS-CoV-1 from replicating in cells. In March 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 was making its way across the globe, Rui Xiong, UIC research assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and Gregory Thatcher, former director of UICentre for Drug Discovery, invited Ratia to team up to revisit PLPro to identify drugs that could potentially stop SARS-CoV-2 infections. “We used several techniques to discover potent PLPro inhibitors, including high throughput drug screening, rational drug design, and biomimetic-based design of PLPro inhibitors,” Xiong said. Ratia went to work screening a chemical library of 15,000 molecules provided by the UICentre. She identified one candidate and found that GRL0617 also bound to PLpro, but only weakly. Xiong led a team of medicinal chemists at UIC—Zhengnan Shen, Deyu Kong, and Yangfeng Li—to design and synthesize chemical libraries for better PLpro inhibitors. During this process, they discovered a new binding site on the PLPro enzyme they called the BL2 groove. Ratia determined that drugs bound very well to this new site. “Drug molecules binding to this site were slower to detach from the site, meaning

that drugs targeted to the newly discovered binding site would have better antiviral activity than drugs that bound weakly,” Xiong said. “This new binding site became the focus of our attention for developing next-generation PLPro inhibitors.” Laura Cooper, a PhD candidate in the laboratory of UIC’s Lijun Rong, professor of microbiology and immunology at the College of Medicine, tested several newly designed PLPro inhibitors that targeted the new binding site and identified XR8-24 as a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 in infected monkey and human cells. Viral levels in cells treated with the drug were undetectable or exceedingly low. “Remdesivir received approval from the FDA to treat this emerging threat, but there are better antiviral protease inhibitors to be found, and we think that XR8-24, which we have optimized in the lab over the last many months, is one of them that, together with vaccines, can help reduce deaths caused by COVID-19,” Rong said. Michael Flavin, interim director of the UICentre for Drug Discovery, says that XR8-24 might be used as part of a drug cocktail to treat COVID-19 that could include remdesivir, which binds to the viral RNA polymerase. “Together, our drug and other protease inhibitors could have a very powerful effect on stopping SARS-CoV-2 replication in the body and preventing or treating this devastating disease,” Flavin said. “The UICentre for Drug Discovery helped the researchers working on this drug to develop the tests needed to determine its ability to block viral replication and provided the tools to modify the original drug candidate to make it more effective,” he said. “The researchers also used our X-ray crystallography expertise to help create three-dimensional models of the drug that helped in improving the binding properties of the drug.” The findings have been posted to BioRxiv, a free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preliminary reports in the life sciences. Papers posted to BioRxiv have yet not been peer-reviewed or accepted to a journal.

Also contributing to this work, which is support by a grant from the National Institute of Health (UL1TR002003), are UIC’s Hyun Lee, Youngjin Kwon, Saad Alqarni, Fei Huang, and Oleksii Dubrovskyi.

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A Million-Dollar Gift to Support Education at the UIC College of Pharmacy

At the College of Pharmacy, we take pride in reinventing the landscape of pharmacy practice and blazing trails in pharmaceutical research. As such, the college is thrilled to partner with the UI Cancer Center, the State of Illinois, and the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) on a new initiative by the University of Illinois System to construct the Drug Discovery and Cancer Research Pavilion (DDCRP), a state-of-the-art facility to house emerging areas of translational research. The Drug Discovery and Cancer Research Pavilion will bring together industry partners, UIC researchers, and students/trainees to create the collaborative environment necessary to drive innovative therapeutic discovery.

When asked what prompted him to make a gift, Dr. Vora noted, “I have immense gratitude to UIC’s College of Pharmacy for its first-class curriculum and encouraging environment that fosters and celebrates diversity, freethinking, and innovation. I believe I would be remiss not to acknowledge that UIC has played a role in my becoming the passionate clinician and entrepreneur that I am today. May this gift not only serve as a token of my appreciation but as a step towards sustaining UIC’s comprehensive excellence and to support the College of Pharmacy’s mission.”

The new building, slated for groundbreaking by the end of 2022, will also feature a state-of-the-art lecture hall, to be located on the second-story bridge from the DDCRP to the existing College of Pharmacy, thanks to the generosity of Adesh Vora, PharmD ’00, president and CEO, SRx Health Solutions. “The Adesh Vora Family Auditorium will provide much-needed additional teaching and conference space for our Chicago campus and additional momentum for this once-in-a-lifetime project on the Chicago campus,” noted Dean Glen Schumock.

Vora Family

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N DICRISTO

GAN RU ET

INA

VARA

Dr. Nada Alsuhebany Looks to Share Her Passion for Oncology

Dr. John Dicristofano Keeps Learning in Specialty Medication

From New Pharmacist to Manager in a Year, Dr. Megan Rueth Takes Charge

Dr. Alina Varabyeva Will Always Choose the Patient First

Dr. Nada Alsuhebany discovered her passion for oncology thanks to UIC, and she plans to share that enthusiasm with future generations of students as a professor herself.

In specialty pharmacy, Dr. John Dicristofano found a niche where he could keep learning—and use that knowledge to benefit patients and colleagues.

From her first day on the job, Dr. Megan Rueth carried herself like she was responsible for the whole pharmacy. Her bosses and coworkers noticed, and Rueth rose from pharmacist to manager at her CVS Pharmacy in Kansas City, Kansas, within a year.

For Dr. Alina Varabyeva, an externship at UIC proved life-changing.

Now finishing an oncology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina, Alsuhebany decided to dedicate herself to oncology after completing a rotation in that field at UIC. “I saw how important the role of a pharmacist is in oncology,” she said. “I was amazed by how patients appreciate the role of pharmacists, as we’re heavily involved in patient education and giving recommendations to the team. If the pharmacist wasn’t there, they would keep asking for her or him.” After she completes her residency, Alsuhebany will teach oncology in the College of Pharmacy at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in her native Saudi Arabia. UIC also shaped Alsuhebany’s decision to teach, she said. “When I was a student, I saw the effect of teachers . . . faculty who are really passionate about something, it will be easier for me to understand the material,” she said. “And because I’m really passionate about oncology and love teaching . . . I really want to help students find what they’re passionate about.”

H JO

ALSUH

Catching Up with the Class of 2019

Now working with CVS Specialty, Dicristofano discovered that niche while completing his PGY1 residency. Focusing on drug information as the COVID-19 pandemic began, Dicristofano encountered many urgent questions about drug shortages, how to use medications correctly and related issues. Postresidency, he wanted to find an area that would put his developing affinity for and skills in drug information to use. Specialty medication made a great fit. “I really enjoyed the drug information piece where I could research and continue to learn about all these new medications that are being approved . . . and contribute that back to providers and to patients,” he said. In addition to providing eyeopening experiences in drug information, as well as a solid clinical foundation, UIC also helped Dicristofano achieve a major personal and family goal, he said. With the college’s support, he not only became the first in his family to go to college, but also completed his doctorate. “UIC gave me the opportunity to have that accomplishment and get to where I am now in my professional career,” he said.

Rueth said a leadership position was an immediate goal, so she worked to demonstrate her potential. “Even when the other pharmacy managers weren’t in the store, I carried myself like I was the one in charge. I was always trying to initiate ways to make our pharmacy stronger and better,” she said. “And always, all the technicians really respected me. They looked up to me.” Under her management, Rueth said, her team has distinguished itself by taking the initiative to help patients get prescriptions refilled and shine in other aspects of patient service. “Our patient care aspect has been through the roof lately.” Rueth said the “UIC” on her CV has made a big difference in her career, too. “They were very beneficial even with getting retail jobs in the community,” she said. “Just the network is incredible, how many people went to UIC and how many opportunities you can get from that.”

During her oncology externship, Varabyeva worked closely with a patient whose English progressively worsened due to a brain tumor. The patient’s team came to rely on Varabyeva, who grew up in Belarus, to translate. “I really got to know the patient,” she said “The patient really relied on me. I became that integral part of the patient team.” When, unfortunately, the team had to let the patient know his cancer had progressed and there weren’t many options left, Varabyeva made sure to be there, even skipping a study session. “That is definitely one of my proudest moments where I knew that I’m that person. I will always choose the patient first,” she said. “Almost nothing could have made me not make that choice.” Now completing her PGY2 residency in hematology/ oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, Varabyeva knows exactly what she wants to do next. She’s applying for oncology clinical specialist jobs. “I learned early in my externship that everything we do can make a huge impact and actually save patients’ lives.”

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I N E D U C AT I O N , R E S E A R C H , A N D PAT I E N T C A R E , T H E U I C C O L L EG E O F P H A R M A C Y C O N T I N U E S E M B R A C I N G A N I N V E N T I V E , F O R WA R D -T H I N K I N G M I N D S E T

IN 1859, two years before Abraham Lincoln would inhabit the White House and nearly five decades before the establishment of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Chicago College of Pharmacy came into existence. The creation of the Chicago College, the precursor to the modern-day UIC College of Pharmacy, was a dynamic step in the fledgling field of pharmaceutical education. At the time, only a handful of pharmacy schools even operated in the United States, while the American Pharmaceutical Association, with its mission to advance the knowledge of pharmacy practitioners across the country, had only emerged seven years prior in 1852.

1980s: UIC’s Institute for Tuberculosis Research finds Tice BCG vaccine as effective bladder cancer treatment.

We’re looked at as an institution that innovates and pushes boundaries. D E A N G L E N S CH U M O CK

The Chicago College was an undeniable trailblazer and one that would set an innovative pace that the institution —through name changes and physical moves, sweeping changes in healthcare delivery, and rampant scientific discovery—would carry into its research, service, and academic missions. Beginning in the 1940s, Dr. Sol Roy Rosenthal’s pioneering work in tuberculosis sparked the development of the Tice BCG vaccine, a groundbreaking discovery that helped millions of Americans avoid the potentially fatal disease. Forty years later, the FDA approved Tice BCG as a treatment for bladder cancer thanks to the continuous enterprising investigation of UIC researchers. Drug discovery innovations continue in present times. Just last year, in fact, retired faculty member Dr. Donald Waller followed in the late Rosenthal’s footsteps when Phexxi, the nonhormonal vaginal gel he helped develop as a new contraceptive, gained FDA approval. Starting in the late 1960s, meanwhile, UIC pioneered clinical pharmacy education and, particularly, advanced clinical practice. Programs developed at the college now serve as the standard of practice around the world and have expanded the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists in the clinical setting and highlighted their professional expertise. Collaborative relationships with international partners in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Malta, among others, bring UIC’s innovative brand of clinical pharmacy around the world as well. For students at both its Chicago and Rockford campuses, the UIC College of Pharmacy has long delivered spirited learning opportunities in and out of the classroom. In

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“We’re looked at as an institution that innovates and pushes boundaries,” UIC College of Pharmacy dean Dr. Glen Schumock says. “Innovation is really what we’re all about, and it affects all aspects of our mission, whether that’s drug discovery research, developing new approaches to care for patients, or offering novel learning opportunities for our students.” With its problem-solving ethos, a daring spirit to invent, and a commitment to improving human health, even amidst a global health pandemic, the college’s innovative push continues shining today. It creates agents for change, sets an inspired pace for the profession, impacts patient lives, and contributes to more robust healthcare service and education.

Institute for Tuberculosis Research: The pioneering research center battling TB and other bacterial infections Today, nearly 75 years after its founding, the Institute for Tuberculosis Research (ITR) at UIC continues to build on the bold scientific spirit of Dr. Sol Roy Rosenthal, the ITR’s founding director, and his mentor, Dr. Frederick Tice. The ITR pursues ambitious drug discovery programs by mixing medicinal chemistry, natural products chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, structural biology, drug

clinical program

Tice BCG vaccine 1940s: Dr. Sol Roy Rosenthal develops Tice BCG vaccine as a treatment for tuberculosis.

addition to courses taught by leading faculty, experiential education brings students into diverse clinical settings for rich knowledge and skills-building opportunities while partnerships with industry include fellowships and internships in areas like pharmacovigilance, health economics, and therapeutics research.

1960s: Herb Carlin and Dr. Richard Hutchinson develop a clinical program that becomes a U.S. and international model, resulting in pharmacist oversight that prevent serious adverse effects from medications.

metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology with cutting-edge lab work and strategic partnerships. The research facility is currently exploring new tuberculosis (TB) drugs, pursuing rapid tests capable of accelerating drug development, and probing potential new antibiotics. “All the easy things have been done before, so if you want to make a difference in the real world, you definitely have to be forward-thinking and inventive,” says ITR director Dr. Scott Franzblau, the Albert Schatz Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. That is certainly the ITR’s motto. Even after Dr. Rosenthal created an alternative vaccine for TB seven decades ago, the ever-inquisitive nature of ITR researchers sparked research showing Tice BCG as an effective immune system stimulant and anticancer agent. Today, Tice BCG is the principal treatment for bladder cancer, which affects some 550,000 global citizens each year. Through Merck, Tice BCG as an immune-oncology therapy for bladder cancer has returned well over $40 million in royalties to UIC and the ITR. Those funds have fueled additional exploratory research at the ITR, including new vaccines to treat TB, a public health threat that remains among the leading causes of death worldwide. Buoyed by a $28 million grant with the TB Alliance, the ITR is now leading medicationdevelopment efforts to combat drug-resistant TB strains and to eradicate the infection in weeks, not months. Working in its Biosafety Level 3 lab, among the few such laboratories in metro Chicago, ITR researchers are developing rapid tests enabling the screening of tens of

OTM

PharmD 1984: UIC introduces CCO (Continuation Curricular Option) which offers students a path to a Doctor of Pharmacy degree while in professional practice, leading to the establishment of the PharmD, UIC’s exclusive professional degree, in 1988.

2001+: Office of Technology Management shepards innovations through intellectual property protections, to commercialization, to industry license partnering.

thousands of samples simultaneously for the ability to kill TB bacteria. The ITR is also adapting a commercial product to rapidly determine by PCR the number of surviving bacteria in the lungs of mice treated with new drug candidates, a first-of-its-kind endeavor for TB. “With these efforts, we’re accelerating discovery and shortening our time to solutions that can help people in real, tangible ways,” says Franzblau, now in his 21st year with the ITR. The ITR’s latest innovative project includes pulling samples from unique, often-overlooked sources with high bacterial competition to inform the discovery of new antibiotics. Working with the largest water reclamation plant in the world—the nearby Stickney Water Reclamation Plant—and collecting microbes from the surface of birds and birdbaths in conjunction with the Field Museum, the ITR is building its own novel microbial collection to screen for antibiotics active against TB and other bacterial infections. “If we’re not pressing different buttons, especially in the world of antibiotic discovery, then we’re unlikely to discover anything new,” Franzblau says. “Given the great need for antibiotics around the world, innovation and creative thinking are absolutely critical.”

UICentre and the Office of Technology Management: The collaborative, complementary partners fueling drug discovery and development Since 2013, the University of Illinois Collaborative Engagement in Novel Therapeutic Research and Enterprise—or simply, the UICentre—has worked to

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If we’re not pressing different buttons, especially in the world of antibiotic discovery, then we’re unlikely to discover anything new. D R. S C OT T F RA NZ B LAU

The 11-member UICentre team led by Dr. Michael Flavin, PhD ’84, collaborates with biologists, chemists, and other scientists as well as clinical and regulatory professionals around campus to identify, discover, and address needs facing the medical world. UICentre’s work focuses heavily in the areas of oncology as well as neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases. High-risk, high-reward thinking fuels UICentre’s innovative work. As the critical first step in drug discovery, UIC researchers ask profound and imaginative questions while using cutting-edge tools, such as artificial intelligence and gene editing, to enhance drug discovery. “Our researchers come up with potential drug targets to investigate, and it’s that work that puts everything else in motion,” Flavin says. Thereafter, Flavin and his team leverage high-tech aides, such as crystallography, high-throughput screening, computing power, and modeling software, to accelerate discovery and propel translation. The UICentre team also oversees preclinical drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies.

UICentre

By turning basic science projects into multifaceted, team-based drug discovery initiatives, the UICentre accelerates drug discovery, while also bringing valuable

2013+: University of Illinois Collaborative Engagement in Novel Therapeutic Research and Enterprise marshals multiple UIC resources to discover drugs to combat pressing medical needs with focus on oncology and neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases.

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Phexxi

harness the resourceful strength of faculty, including College of Pharmacy researchers, in pursuit of an ambitious aim: to discover drugs capable of combating some of the world’s most pressing and unmet medical needs.

2020: Dr. Donald Waller develops Phexxi, a nonhormonal vaginal gel contraceptive.

efficiencies and cost savings to bear in the laborious world of drug discovery. “The process is to identify a disease target, understand the function of that target, find molecules to address the disease, and evaluate any additional desirable properties the compound might possess,” says Flavin, who succeeded UICentre’s founding director Dr. Greg Thatcher last fall. “We’re using all the cutting-edge tools necessary to move compelling compounds to market that turn off a disease process or turn on a process that ameliorates the disease.” UICentre then collaborates with UIC’s Office of Technology Management (OTM) to protect intellectual property generated through its research program. The 15-year-old OTM is the campus outfit dedicated to commercializing research and technology coming out of UIC. When faculty identify something innovative—often, novel chemical compositions or natural products impacting a therapeutic target in the case of pharmacy researchers—the OTM secures a disclosure form for the pharmacy laboratory team. That move jumpstarts the translational process. The OTM evaluates the invention for protectable intellectual property and commercial potential, including filing patents, before partnering the invention with industry for licensing and further development up to market launch. “Our goal is to identify researchers’ compelling work as quickly as possible so that we are quickening the pace of innovation,” OTM director Suseelan Pookote says. While the OTM works with colleges and departments across UIC, it maintains particularly strong ties to the College of Pharmacy and UICentre. In the OTM’s fiscal year 2020 Impact Report released in January, the office identified 16 disclosed technologies, nine patent filings,

“The College of Pharmacy is a medicinal chemistry powerhouse with aggressive and opportunistic researchers who are nimble and exploring innovation constantly,” says Nelson Grihalde, the OTM’s senior technology transfer coordinator. Over the last 15 years, the OTM helped Dr. Donald Waller’s contraceptive Phexxi gain FDA approval while it has propelled other promising therapeutics developed through UICentre into clinical trials, including two different breast cancer drugs initiated by College of Pharmacy professor Dr. Debra Tonetti and former faculty member Dr. Greg Thatcher as well as a drug for those with advanced refractory brain cancers developed by UICentre scientist and pharmaceutical sciences research professor Dr. Irina Gaisina. In addition, Tonetti, Thatcher, and Dr. Rui Xiong, PhD ’16, recently saw their breast cancer medication to minimize damage to the immune system and bone marrow from chemotherapy begin a phase 3 clinical trial.

brain cancer drug

five successfully issued patents, and three licenses and options resulting from College of Pharmacy inventions.

2018: Dr. Irina Gaisina develops a drug to treat advanced refractory brain cancer.

Clinical Pharmacy: The College of Pharmacy’s trailblazing efforts in clinical care Led by Herb Carlin, pharmacy director at UIC from 1962 to 1972, and Dr. Richard Hutchinson, the founding head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, UIC transformed the pharmacist’s role to one that shoulders patient care responsibilities. In doing so, they developed a clinical program that became a model for others across the United States and, later, the world.

“The College of Pharmacy is filled with translationally minded researchers,” Pookote says. “They have a strong desire to see their results in the marketplace helping people, and our role is to help bring that innovation to light.”

Spurred by the expansion of healthcare through Medicaid and Medicare in the 1960s, Carlin and Hutchinson both pulled pharmacists up from the basement and embedded them directly into operations to provide direct and immediate expertise in drug therapy.

COVID PL-Pro protease inhibitor

When COVID-19 infiltrated America early in 2020, Drs. Xiong and Thatcher initiated a bold drug discovery campaign to stop the virus from replicating. The researchers invented a Covid PL-Pro Protease inhibitor in under 10 months, a significant achievement considering the limitations imposed by quarantine.

2020: Drs. Rui Xiong and Greg Thatcher develop a COVID PL-Pro Protease inhibitor in just under 10 months—a significant advance in stopping viral replication.

Pharmacists began going on morning rounds, prepared IVs in satellite pharmacies located in various clinical areas, developed modern drug delivery systems, and founded the Drug Information Center at the University of Illinois Hospital to answer drug-related questions from nurses and doctors. Early clinical pharmacists at UIC also decentralized the unit-dose dispensing program that improved both patient safety and pharmacy revenue. In addition, the college established some of the nation’s first clinical-oriented course work as well as one of the first clinically focused pharmacy residency programs. Though the reforms prompted initial pushback, including concern over allowing pharmacists to create notes in the patient’s chart, the value of having pharmacists actively involved in patient care soon became evident. More actively involved in patients’ drug therapy and in closer proximity to nurses and doctors, as well as the patients, pharmacists prevented

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serious adverse effects of medication on a near-daily basis. Their role on healthcare teams became not only valuable, but unassailable.

The College of Pharmacy is a medicinal chemistry powerhouse with aggressive and opportunistic researchers who are nimble and exploring innovation constantly. D R. N E LS O N G R I H A LD E

Quite simply, pharmacists on the floor saved lives and resources. In 1988, in fact, Hutchinson coauthored a report noting that clinical pharmacists saved the UIC Hospital an estimated $364,900 annually and made 36 interventions over a five-week span that preserved organ function or saved lives. Later research led by current UIC College of Pharmacy dean Dr. Glen Schumock reported that every dollar invested in the provision of clinical pharmacy services delivered more than $4 in benefits. Over the last five decades, UIC’s pioneering work in clinical services has resulted in numerous publications, underscored the pharmacist’s knowledge base, and cultivated practice standards now followed around the globe. Still today, the college continues applying a creative, problem-solving ethos to its clinical services that further solidifies pharmacists’ immense value in the healthcare system. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, Dr. Renee Petzel Gimbar, PharmD ’04, and her team of pharmacists in the UI Hospital Emergency Department crafted pragmatic, actionable solutions designed to ensure patient care and staff safety amid a persistent stream of patients into the ER and a largely unknown viral enemy. “When so many others were running out, pharmacists were running into the building,” Gimbar says. Pharmacists studied how patients were presenting, evaluated literature daily, provided on-the-spot education to providers informed by the latest insights, and devised an entirely new workflow and medication regimen, including switching from nebulized meds to single-patient inhalers. By directly managing patients and medications and communicating the latest information, pharmacists, including students and residents, helped to steady a turbulent ER environment. “Things were changing so rapidly, so we doubled down on the basics of communication, including remaining present and close by,” Gimbar says. “We were at bedside and practicing at the top of our license to ensure patient care.”

Pharmacy Education: The College of Pharmacy’s leading role in experiential education and the PharmD degree In the arena of pharmacy education, UIC has long been a cutting-edge leader, including its role as an early pioneer of clinical pharmacy education as well as the now ubiquitous PharmD degree.

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Going back to the 1960s, the college consistently worked to expose students to patient care, then viewed as an emerging frontier in the pharmacy profession. Over the decades, UIC’s focus on clinical education intensified. As students took a more active role in patient care, they gained important skills while also discovering different professional pathways. Today, UIC provides one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive pharmacy practice programs in the nation. The program features faculty practitioners in nearly all clinical specialties as well as preceptors in more than 900 diverse pharmacy practice sites. The college also has also driven key changes in pharmacy studies and degrees. In 1972, amid growing calls for personalized instruction in academia, UIC designed and implemented a selfdirected core pharmacy curriculum as an alternative pathway to the typical baccalaureate degree in pharmacy. With its focus on the needs of students and novel approaches to teaching, technology, and methods, the Investigational Program for Self-Directed Study (IPSDS) helped to reshape pharmacy education in the back end of the twentieth century. Informed by the IPSDS program, the College of Pharmacy introduced the Continuation Curricular Option (CCO) in 1984. A professional, educational program for licensed pharmacists already holding a baccalaureate degree in pharmacy, the CCO offered students a direct path to a Doctor of Pharmacy degree while maintaining their professional practice. The CCO, in turn, prompted the college, then led by Dr. Henri Manasse, BS ’68, to establish the PharmD as its exclusive professional degree—among the nation’s first schools to take that novel step. As one of the nation’s top-ranked pharmacy schools as well as the world’s standard-bearer for clinical pharmacy education, UIC has continually investigated ways to strengthen training and provide its students meaningful learning experiences that adapt to market forces and arm students with the skills they need to flourish in professional settings. Consider the 2016 launch of Introductory Pharmacy Practice: Hospital (PHAR 413). The two-hour course for P1 and P2 students pairs in-class simulations with on-site hospital work at a foundational time in students’ academic journey. Over 16 weeks, students learn how to interpret a medication order, correctly compound an intravenous medication, verify the accuracy of a filled medication order prior to dispensing, and communicate —professionally and collaboratively—with members of a hospital team to ensure positive outcomes.

It serves yet another example of the progressive, practical training that cements UIC’s status as a leader in clinical pharmacy education. “Early on in their studies, we’re getting students into the hospital and into the community, so they get an immediate and clear understanding of the pharmacist’s role, interprofessional team dynamics, and direct patient care,” says Dr. Tara Driscoll, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice who leads the PHAR 413 course alongside departmental colleague Dr. Marlowe Djuric Kachlic, PharmD ’05, and director of experiential education Dr. Allison Schriever, PharmD ’99.

Drug Discovery and Cancer Research Pavilion: The state-of-the-art facility designed to drive translational research Innovation at the UIC College of Pharmacy will gain added steam next year with the completion of the Drug Discovery and Cancer Research Pavilion, an effort conducted in partnership with the UI Cancer Center, the Discovery Partners Institute, and the State of Illinois. Featuring state-of-the-art labs and facilities, the pavilion will bring industry partners, UIC researchers, and students/trainees together under one roof to

Drug Discovery and Cancer Research Pavilion

Coming 2022: State-of-the-art labs and facilities will bring industry partners, UIC researchers, and students/trainees together under one roof to pursue cutting-edge therapeutic development and discovery.

drive pharmaceutical research as well as cutting-edge therapeutic development and discovery. While the pavilion will center much of its initial efforts in oncology, researchers will conduct investigative work in women’s health and infectious diseases as well. The five-story pavilion, which will sit behind the College of Pharmacy building on Wood Street, will also house a 60,000-square foot technology park designed to stimulate public-private partnerships. “This facility will provide us the infrastructure and collaborative environment to accelerate science, develop partnerships between industry and academia, and take the next innovative steps in our drug discovery history,” UIC College of Pharmacy dean Dr. Glen Schumock says. In addition to facilitating ambitious drug-related research projects, the pavilion aims to drive workforce development as well. UIC students will be able to work alongside external partners to cultivate new skills and build professional relationships. “This is truly a landmark building that brings academia and industry together for the common good,” Schumock says. “It will foster collaboration and support forwardthinking research programs capable of impacting lives in powerful, positive ways.”

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Change Agents BY JESSICA CANLAS

Shana Hua, PharmD, RES ’01, FEL ’03

By then, she already had her sights set on a career in science and had a desire to work in patient care.

Today, Hua works at Genentech as medical affairs executive director for mega national accounts, a newly created role for both the company and the industry, she says, that’s focused on creating and driving strategy with the goal of optimizing patient outcomes and experience.

“I wanted to go to the rainforest and find a plant that would lead to the cure for cancer,” she recalls.

“I’m excited to be part of the process for transforming healthcare,” she says.

She was so focused on this goal that she worked a fast food job and did farm labor to be able to meet the expense of a high school foreign exchange program. Then, off to the rainforest in Ecuador she went, where she was able to witness researchers working in the field.

After nearly two decades of working in healthcare innovation, Hua is confident that the future of the system lies in harnessing the power of data and analytics with predictive technology and artificial intelligence to forecast patient outcomes; thus reducing waste, simplifying processes, and lowering costs.

“It was a great experience to see science at that level,” recalls Shana, “and to see scientists who really had a passion for helping patients.”

Hua believes that the industry should be focused on patient wellness.

The year that Dr. Shana Hua spent in Ecuador changed her life.

“I’m excited to be part of the process for transforming healthcare.”

Originally from Wisconsin, Hua went on to attend the University of Iowa, where she earned both her bachelor’s and PharmD. While there, she aspired to a career in academia with a focus on research and patient care in a clinical setting. Hua followed that path to UIC for her residency. “I knew that the program was strong, and [UIC] pharmacists were practicing at the top of their license.” At the time, Hua also had interest in infectious disease and knew that UIC had a top-notch program in that area, so she remained for her subsequent fellowship, where she gained experience in the area of epidemiology and health outcomes research. “I was inspired by the idea that you can impact patient care at a population level,” she says. “I started to learn about the power of data.” After UIC, Hua went on to work in health outcomes research at Walgreens before starting her own consulting firm developing new lines of business and clinical services for medical oncology practices. Through that experience, she became interested in the idea of using technology to improve the efficiency of patient care and moved on to Cigna, where she worked as clinical program manager of oncology strategy before becoming AVP of pharmaceutical strategy and contracting.

Dr. Shana Hua

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“I’d love to see us as a society double down to support all patients so that they have the opportunity to live a healthy life with access to food, clean water, and transportation. “We need to focus our attention there.”

David Hermann, PharmD ’88 It is within populations most in need of these essentials that David Hermann, PharmD ’88, works to transform lives. As deputy director of global health for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hermann is responsible for overseeing their tuberculosis drug portfolio and regimen development from discovery through product approval. According to the World Health Organization, TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, killing nearly 4,000 people daily around the world. “It’s a horrible, slow-progressing disease,” Hermann says. “And it’s curable.” However, the current regimen for uncomplicated TB requires six months’ worth of four different daily medications. Drug-resistant strains can push that to as long as 18 months. With two-thirds of global TB cases occurring in low- and middle-income nations with limited access to basic resources, treatment compliance proves challenging. “There’s a real need to get to a shorter, simpler regimen,” he says. As a young man, Hermann was impressed by the community-focused patient care he witnessed at his Midwestern small-town neighborhood pharmacy, and was curious about “the science behind all the bottles.” A member of the first all-PharmD class at UIC, Hermann took particular interest in his statistics classes. He eventually became a TA for statistics and pursued elective work with one of his professors to learn hands-on statistical programming. He then went on to a fellowship in clinical research and drug development at the University of North Carolina. Hermann believes that the combination of experiences in clinical pharmacology and quantitative skills that he acquired at UIC positioned him uniquely in the marketplace at a time when increasing accessibility of technology was making way for new avenues in the industry. As a result, Hermann spent more the 20 years in drug development with companies like Glaxo, Pfizer, and deCODE genetics specializing in pharmacoemetrics, using modeling and simulation to drive drug development decision-making, particularly around dosing, and optimizing patient care with regard to new treatments. In 2008, he cofounded his own strategic drugdevelopment consulting firm before becoming a consultant to the Gates Foundation in 2012 to support

Dr. David Hermann

their TB program strategy. Hermann was pleased to accept his current, full-time post in 2017. “What a wonderful chapter in my career,” Hermann says. “The Gates Foundation tries to help those who are most in need around the world, and that’s an easy mission to get behind. In my case, I get to try solving the problem of a disease that disproportionately affects the poorest of the poor, so it’s fantastic motivation.

Dr. Hermann sees a light at the end of the tunnel for today’s TB pandemic.

He attributes his empathy for patients to his clinical experience at UIC. “With that training, you get firsthand experience with patients. You see yourself in the shoes of the sick and suffering, and that sticks with you. It did with me.” Hermann sees a light at the end of the tunnel for today’s TB pandemic. “Building new regimens using modern tools makes this problem solvable. “We can do this.” UIC College of Pharmacy dean Glen Schumock admires the groundbreaking work of alumni like Hua and Hermann. “Our alumni are leaders in every sector of pharmacy and healthcare and are distributed not just across the U.S., but around the world. Their collective impact is extraordinary.” “Alumni like Drs. Hua and Hermann are great examples of this. Their work is making a difference for patients nationally and globally and is such a great inspiration for our current students.”

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“

Clinical Professor Karl Larsen

ll you have to do is tell the truth.”

This is what Dr. Karl Larsen tells his students on the first day of his course in expert witness testimony and courtroom demeanor. “You’d think it’s easy, because [telling the truth] is what you’re supposed to do. But our court system is adversarial so each side often tries to shift our testimonies to benefit them. “Our job is to make sure that our analysis and results get represented in a true and proper way.” Larsen, clinical professor and director of the College of Pharmacy’s Master of Science program in forensic science for the last decade, spent the previous 35 years of his career as a forensic scientist in the Illinois State Police’s Division of Forensic Services and has worked on cases like the Chicago Tylenol Murders, a series of cyanide poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering with the over-the-counter pain medication in 1982.

dedicated to training and research in applied microscopy. These collaborations give students access to valuable, hands-on instruction.

UIC’s forensic science program dates back to 1972, when it was housed within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In 1988, when LAS no longer wanted it, Eugene Woods, former professor and department head, recognized the program’s value, and forensic sciences found its new home.

“I had the experience from UIC to get the position simply because of the connection with the ISP and McCrone,” he says. “Customs scientists usually went to McCrone for training as well, so I had that institutional knowledge.”

An expert in drug chemistry and toxicology, Larsen now heads up one of the top forensic science programs in the nation. UIC’s location lends itself to valuable partnerships with facilities like the nearby Illinois State Police crime lab, as well as the renowned McCrone Research Institute, a nonprofit research organization

Jonathan McGrath, MS ’02, credits his unique training at UIC for preparing him for his entry to the field with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security.

McGrath, who also holds a PhD in analytical chemistry, says he wanted to use his education to “make an impact.” Today, he does just that as a senior policy analyst with the National Institute of Justice in the Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences, where he develops strategic policy initiatives for the NIJ’s research and development grant programs, mainly in transitioning emerging technologies into practice as primary program manager for the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence. A specialist in DNA and bodily fluids, Assistant Professor Ashley Hall says her “heart is in the science.” As a molecular and microbiologist who once considered law school, forensic science was a perfect fit.

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Caryn Tucker, MS ’03

Marc Pomerance, MS ’05

“When we answer a question, it is immediately useful,” she explains. At the moment, one of the questions Hall is working on with students is determining activity level propositions.

With a degree in medical laboratory sciences, Snaidauf joined the ISP in 1995 and began teaching at UIC in 2003, a role he continued when he joined the DEA in 2005 and, subsequently, the IRS in 2008, where he remains as a fingerprint specialist.

“Say your DNA is found on the handle of a knife at a death scene,” Hall explains. “The prosecution will say, ‘You held the knife, so you were at the scene.’ The defense will say, ‘You shook hands with the killer.’ We can’t dispute your DNA is there, but we have to work out how it got there.”

In 2013, Snaidauf enrolled in the master’s program. Today, he is an adjunct professor at UIC.

Activity level propositions, Hall says, involve generating empirical data, like quantifying DNA loss, to assign probabilities to possible scenarios in order to determine what is most likely to have occurred.

Celeste Grover, MS ’03, says she learned “great life lessons at UIC—how to be a professional, what is expected of you as a scientist, and what it’s like to work at a government agency.”

“It’s a unique program for a college of pharmacy,” says Dean Glen Schumock. “There are good synergies in terms of the science.”

Now a trace evidence examiner with the Oregon State Police, Grover specializes in hair and fiber analysis. She also serves as a member of of the Trace Materials Subcommittee for the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science, the professional organization that maintains and develops industry standards.

One of those synergies, Schumock explains, is in the growing field of emergency room pharmacy, where knowledge in toxicology and drug overdose is essential. Another is in sports pharmacy, which specializes in safe performance enhancement supplementation as well as the athlete testing for appropriate substance use.

“From a teaching perspective, going back to school in my mid-40s as both teacher and student gave me a better perspective on what students should be learning and how.”

“As an educational program, it’s important and necessary,” Schumock says. “Graduates fill a vital need in society,” James Snaidauf, MS ’15, believes that need is a simple one: to help solve crimes and take criminals off the streets by speaking truthfully for the evidence.

James Snaidauf, MS ’15

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t a h t w o n k to e k i l I , y a d e s h a t w f o o h w d n y e gu e h t n At the a h t er t. t h r g u a a m c s t s e a g to Iw t o n d r a h le y e l l e t a S e r s e g l n i r _ Cha try Jonathan McGrath, MS ’02 After nearly 20 years, Grover admits she still gets nervous in court. “Dr. Larsen would say, ‘You should always be nervous [in court], because you are affecting people’s lives in a very real way.’” Marc Pomerance, MS ’05, doesn’t exactly enjoy testifying before a judge and jury. He does, however, get satisfaction out of helping others understand the work that he’s done to help paint the picture for an investigator before the trial or the for the jury in the courtroom. “We don’t try to sway the investigation one way or another,” says Pomerance. “We care about the facts.” Pomerance, who originally envisioned a career in ecology with his biological sciences degree, joined the ISP 22 years ago and was trained as a forensic scientist in firearms and toolmarks. He believes that the program gave him a well-rounded view of the workings of a forensics lab as a whole, resulting in a broader perspective of his own discipline. Today, he and colleague Caryn Tucker, MS ’03, ISP training coordinator for firearms and toolmarks, assist in teaching that portion of the pattern evidence class– which also includes fingerprints, documents, and blood spatter—at UIC.

Tucker admits to a love of comparison microscopy and considered a career in medicine while studying biology in college. She has been with the ISP since 1995 and says she was drawn to forensics after attending an informational talk and pursuing an independent research project on the topic. She appreciated UIC’s access to medical and lab facilities and believes a strong science background is key to a career in forensics. “This is an exciting time to be in our discipline,” says Tucker. In her own lab, she’s begun researching 3D comparison technology to analyze scanned pieces of evidence. “There’s potential for so much change in the next few years.” Charles Steele, MS ’14, visiting lecturer of physical science and forensic science coordinator at Purdue University Northwest, is on the cutting edge of that change. With a degree in physics and a background in product development, Steele has designed more than 1,300 consumer products throughout his career. More recently, he collaborated with Larsen on a nextgeneration, data-interactive virtual reality crime scene training tool based on real-world physics data modeling. “Forensic scientists are scientists first,” he explains. “But, for us, the next great discovery only means something if it’s improving the human condition or promoting justice. “And, at the end of the day, I like to know that I was smarter than the guy who was trying really hard not to get caught.”

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answering the call

UIC Health-Science Colleges Partner with the Chicago Department of Public Health to Vaccinate Chicago The UIC College of Pharmacy collaborated with the College of Nursing and the College of Medicine for a partnership with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) to conduct COVID-19 testing at highrisk congregate settings in the Chicago area. The team is known as the COVID-19 Rapid Response Team (CRRT). Based on the success of that partnership, CDPH asked UIC if they could expand to include COVID-19 vaccination outreach and administration for congregate settings. Drs. Stockton Mayer (COM) and Rebecca Singer (CON) tapped Dr. Sarah Michienzi, visiting clinical assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy, to assist with the vaccination component of this project. The team also includes Drs. Robert DiDomenico, Renata Smith, and Elena Llinas and Amani Eddins, RN. A core tenant of the CRRT testing team was its collaborative, multidisciplinary nature. As cases declined in Chicago and vaccinations in the highest priority groups increased, there has been a decreased need for testing and the primary focus of the team has been outreach and vaccination. The outreach team targeted facilities (congregate settings identified by CDPH) to perform COVID-19 vaccination education and worked to resolve issues related to vaccine hesitancy. The team provides group education followed by opportunities to answer questions one-on-one.

100,000 Doses and Counting...

University of Illinois System president Timothy Killeen speaks with a patient in the Credit Union 1 Arena vaccination site.

The vaccination team is subsequently deployed to these same sites days later to perform vaccinations. “At some sites, vaccinations are done without a prior visit from the outreach team; however, we strongly promote the success of our outreach team and make every effort to visit prior to vaccination day,” said Dr. Michienzi. “We find that day-of outreach also increases vaccination rates. For example, an additional 10% of residents at one site agreed to be vaccinated after receiving additional day-of education.” Funding support for involved faculty is provided through CDPH—and the impact of this partnership and funding is notable. From February 5, 2021, to April 13, 2021, 18 outreach events were completed at 16 separate sites, including the Cook County Department of Corrections and several congregate living facilities, such as senior living facilities. Thirty-one vaccination clinics have been completed at 24 unique sites, administering approximately 1,300 vaccine doses, including more than 850 first doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

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COMMENCEMENT

Congratulations to the Class of 2021! You are UIC. We honored 219 graduates who successfully completed the requirements for their Doctor of Pharmacy, Master of Science, and/or Doctor of Philosophy degree. Among the graduates were nine PharmD valedictorians (Reham Awad, Taylor Holder, Kristina Karapetyan, Jessica Kulawiak, Andrew McInerny, Johanna Papnikolla, Hunter Patton-Gentert, Fong Kit Tam, and Lisa Wendt); numerous students recognized for leadership and service; and graduates from both the Chicago and Rockford campuses.

Dr. Francesca Cunningham

The Class of 2021 is a stellar group. We know this because, like the class before them, they were thoroughly tested during their time at UIC. Not just in the traditional sense—by their faculty—but in the more important tests that life presents. They have the distinction of graduating during a pandemic! They rose to this unprecedented challenge with poise and confidence. They will do the same throughout their careers as the next generation of leaders of the profession of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. Our commencement ceremony included a tribute to our Golden Graduates—the alumni celebrating their 50th anniversary. This year we honored the Class of 1971 (noted on page 34) for their long commitment to the profession of pharmacy, their service as role models to our new graduates, and their everlasting support for the UIC College of Pharmacy. They are examples for all of us. As the Class of 2021 departs, they received some excellent words of wisdom and advice from our keynote speaker, Dr. Francesca Cunningham, PharmD, RES ’88, FEL ’89. Dr. Cunningham serves as the director of the Center for Medication Safety, associate chief consultant, and program director of outcomes assessment at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Pharmacy

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Benefits Management Services (PBM). Dr. Cunningham was the driving force behind the successful effort of the PBM to establish reliable methods for merging the VA prescription database with other large VArelated databases to evaluate the safe and appropriate use of medications in the veteran population—Dr. Cunningham’s leadership and commitment is what we look for in all of our graduates. The Class of 2021 attended one of the very best colleges of pharmacy in the world. They are ready to conquer the world of pharmacy. While they do, we hope they will stay connected. If we have learned anything in the past year, it is how important it is to stay connected. Stay connected to your roots, to your family and loved ones, and to the College of Pharmacy. We are proud to proclaim the Class of 2021 to be alumni of the UIC College of Pharmacy. Like all of our 10,000 alumni, our exceptional faculty, our Golden Graduates, and our graduation ceremony speaker, the Class of 2021 is UIC!

PharmD

Layalee Beirat

Hamilton Murray Dang

Aaron Patrick Flynn

Juliana Ihm

May 2021

Brandon Raymund Neil Leyson Bontes

Jefferson Dang

Jasmine M. Forrest

Sohee Im

Shadi Deljoomanesh

Mark Stephen Foster

Alexander F. Infante

Dillon Hanna Dickow

Nicole M. Fuchs

Sina Ith

Tatjana Djakovic

Faith Ann Furst

Omar Ismail Jaber

Krystal T. Do

Khareemat Oyindamola George

Rachael Lynette Johnson

Sara Al Azmeh Sleman Alayobi Luis Almazan Naseem Y. Alrafati

Colleen Marie Bradley Eric A. Bulak Xuan Cai Todd Campbell Zheng Cao

Amma Frempomaa Donkor

James Chang

Kathrine Ruth Donnowitz

Rachel R. Grantner

Kevin Chau

Nathan Dufoe

Sylwia Maria Greczek

Reham S. Awad

Yu-Han Chen

Danuta Dukala

Ellen Yarlin Guo

Hamza Hatem Awadallah

Kevin Matthew Chentorycki

Trevor Lane Duke

Timothy Daniel Hamer

Samuel David Dykstra

Kevin Jie He

Annesti Falah Elmasri

Ana Carolina Hinojosa Felix

Arti Aravindan Mehul Amin Crissel Marie Soriano Arban

Catherine Mylene Ayala Joshua Ryan Baczkowski Veronica Lynn Badani Jenna N. Baker Josiah A. Baker Mario Barrios Jessica Theodore Behnam

Sun A. Choi Karolina M. Cieslak William Clafshenkel Brandon Cook Amanda Marie Cotter Chelsea Abigail Cribben Shohreh Dadfar

Nicholas T. Elzinga Faizaan Bin Fahsal Taraneh Farhatnezhad Hamzah Farooq Delashawn Warren Fisher

Lanea M. Glauner

Taylor Alexandra Holder Aaron Edward Hunt Jaimie Lynn Hurd Amy Yu Kyung Hwang Dorina Idrizi

SUMMER 2021

Jean M. Joseph Leena Rusli Kaddo Semir Kamil Kadhim Yoko Kamei Kristina Karapetyan Hanan Samir Khadra Bokyung Kim Hwan Seung Kim Michael I. Kim Sean Kim So Jeong Kim Lidiya Kizyma Miranda Lynn Kopfman

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COMMENCEMENT Paula M. Krzos

Patrick Wanyoike Ndungu

Jessie Elizabeth Riederer

Sarah A. Vandermillen

Jessica M. Kulawiak

Long Nguyen

Erin Renee Roberts

Rohan P. Vashi

John D. Kunstman

James Chien-Min Ning

Donna Vazirnia

Kelli Lam

Alexandria Marie Nudo

Stephanie Maria Rodriguez

Khoa Dang Le

Maria Fides Magaling Ocampo

Clara Hyun Ju Lee Esther H. Lee Michelle Lee

Margaret Rosaire O’Connor

Tina Patrice Saleh Danielle K. Sanchez Craig Schaefer

Carley Nicole Venvertloh Pamela Vitalo Ngoc T. Vo

Timothy Walsh

Yukuang Guo

Samantha Joy Seivert

Yifan Wang

Laura R. Hardy

Vishal Shah

Nicole Warda

Carlo Rosales

Aisha Shajee

Michael Weisshappel

Jacob Veenstra

Supriya Shrestha

Lisa M. Wendt

Alexandria Young

Kareema Siddiqui

Christina Grace Wilkins

Mandip K. Singh

Wesley Jon Wong

Karlo Nicole Angeles Sison

Alyssa Wu

Mofoluwaso H. Ogunlari

Linhong Long

Chinedu Nnamdi Okeagu

Anh My Luu

Nicholas Michael Orslini

Karen Wei Ly

Samiya F. Papa

Megan Malone

Johanna V. Papanikolla

Margarit Mansour

Anushka Suresh Patel

Nnebuhe B. Maraizu

Divya Hitesh Patel

Andrew John McInerney

Krupa Tara Patel

Sally Mei

Ravikumar Amrutlal Patel

Alexander Charles Metzger

Ravikumar B. Patel

Raymund Matthew Fernandez Soria

Ronak C. Patel

Mohammad Sunny

Rushit J. Patel

Christopher Swims-Vernor

Sunny J. Patel

Myesha Tasnia Tabriz

Hunter Patton-Gentert

Fong Kit Tam

Alyssa R. Perez

Alexis T. Tandyk

PhD and MS in Pharmacy Systems and Outcomes Policy

Minnie Thao Pham

Samson Tang

Chandler Coleman

Olga Iwona Piatek

Jennifer Thai

Inyoung Lee

Matthew Przybylo

Alec Craig Thompson

Parth Rajesh Rao

Tiffany Tran

Planned for Summer 2021

Austin M. Reeder

Amy Marie Valkovec

Brian Talon

Fathima Sabria Mohideen Arturo Montero-Hernandez Sylwia W. Mozdzen Ammarah Nadeem Rana Naser Michael Mbah Ndichuck

Zachary R. Ress

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Jessica Cleary

Jacob Aaron Seiver

Kun Lin

Nicholas Charles Moffett

Chase Clark

Seth R. Schiffbauer

Wenchin Li

Marek Luke Mlodzianowski

Julia Austin

Danielle Carolyn Von Ruden

Mogboluwaga Ademiolegan Oginni

Robert D. Meyer

PhD and MS in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmcognosy

Erica Ann Smith

Victor Yap

Jose Colina

PhD in Biopharmaceutical Sciences Ashutosh Tripathi

Rawan F. Zayed Fatih Zecic Eric James Zelhofer

Connie Hon-Ning Yan

MS in Forensic Sciences Reenie Baidya Kristina Bozin Ariana Dindial Kaitlin Keller Kevin Kim Madison MacBain Killian McDonald Anne Pluchar

A Few Inspiring Voices Bound for Residencies BY I M A N I WAT S O N

Any advice for students who are interested in pursuing a PharmD?

Dr. Josiah Baker

You should enter this field because you love patient care. Using your passion and skill set to care for your patients and making your service to them a top priority is ultimately what this career is all about. Keeping this perspective is what will keep you focused on your why and get you through the tough times. This career is certainly not easy, but it’s worth it when you do it for the right reasons. One of the nicest things about pharmacy is the breadth of opportunities and the variety of career pathways your PharmD can be applied in. Not everyone is cut out for direct patient care, and that is OK! Job markets may be a bit more saturated in recent years, but you can always find opportunities if you look in the right places. Hopefully, you will find and/or potentially create your own journey one day.

What are your postgraduate plans? Following a postgraduate residency, I am hoping to practice as an ambulatory care pharmacist.

If you are doing a residency or fellowship, what is the name of the program, the name of the institution, and what will your title be? PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program INSTITUTION: Edward Hines, Jr., VA Hospital TITLE: PGY1 Resident PROGRAM:

What are you looking forward to after graduation? I am mostly looking forward to positively impacting patient care, and training in the VA setting is going to allow me to learn how to practice at the top of my license. I am so excited to get started!

How has your experience at the UIC College of Pharmacy prepared you for what’s next in your career? I feel very well-prepared to begin my next step as a resident at Hines after completing the PharmD program at UIC College of Pharmacy. From the quality of the rigorous curriculum to the rich network of supportive and brilliant faculty members, UIC provided the ideal learning environment to cultivate my professional and personal skills over the last four years. I truly could not have had a better pharmacy school experience and UIC will always be a special place to me.

Dr. Annesti Elmasri What are your postgraduate plans? Postgraduation, I’ll be completing a general PGY1 residency at the University of Michigan Health System!

If you are doing a residency or fellowship, what is the name of the program, the name of the institution, and what will your title be? PGY1 Pharmacy Residency University of Michigan Health System PGY1 Pharmacy Resident

PROGRAM:

INSTITUTION: TITLE:

What are you looking forward to after graduation? I think it will be exciting to be able to practice independently as a pharmacist, instead of just making suggestions. I’m also looking forward to exploring a diverse array of rotations and learning as much as I can.

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How has your experience at the UIC College of Pharmacy prepared you for what’s next in your career? UIC has connected me with such amazing mentors! The pharmacists and staff at UIC are always providing unique opportunities for students like research and presentations and have always pushed me to get out of my comfort zone!

Any advice for students who are interested in pursuing a PharmD? Say yes to as many things as possible in the beginning until you find what you truly love!

Dr. Kevin He

What are you looking forward to after graduation? I am looking forward to further my learning and professional growth by completing PGY1 residency training. I am also looking forward to utilizing what I learned in pharmacy school in real life practice.

How has your experience at the UIC College of Pharmacy prepared you for what’s next in your career? UIC College of Pharmacy helped me build a strong baseline clinical foundation and gain the tools necessary to provide competent and compassionate care for my future patients.

Dr. Michelle Lee

What are your postgraduate plans?

I am going to be completing a PGY1 residency.

If you are doing a residency or fellowship, what is the name of the program, the name of the institution, and what will your title be?

My postgraduate plans are to complete a PGY1 pharmacy residency, then pursue a PGY2 infectious diseases residency and infectious diseases pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic fellowship afterwards.

PGY1 Ambulatory Care Focus Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital, St. Joseph Campus TITLE: PGY1 Pharmacy Resident

If you are doing a residency or fellowship, what is the name of the program, the name of the institution, and what will your title be?

PROGRAM:

INSTITUTION:

PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Michigan Medicine TITLE: PGY1 Pharmacy Resident PROGRAM:

INSTITUTION:

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What are you looking forward to after graduation? I look forward to starting a new chapter in my clinical pharmacy journey and learning from colleagues and mentors in Ann Arbor. I am also very excited to explore Ann Arbor!

How has your experience at the UIC College of Pharmacy prepared you for what’s next in your career?

If you are doing a residency or fellowship, what is the name of the program, the name of the institution, and what will your title be? Although I have been a student at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for the past 8 years, I am not ready to leave—I couldn’t be happier to have matched with UIC’s PGY1 residency program.

What are you looking forward to after graduation?

My mentors at UIC encouraged me to seek out a variety of research, writing, teaching, and leadership experiences. I am thrilled to match with a residency program that has robust opportunities in all areas!

I am looking forward to traveling, spending time with family and friends, attending White Sox games, and dedicating as much time as I can to Jiu Jitsu before I begin my busy residency schedule!

Any advice for students who are interested in pursuing a PharmD?

How has your experience at the UIC College of Pharmacy prepared you for what’s next in your career?

Networking is so important! You might meet your mentor or gain a new opportunity just by putting yourself out there.

UIC College of Pharmacy has extensively prepared me to practice at the top of my license through the offering of not only a challenging, didactic program involving dedicated clinical educators, but also experiential opportunities throughout an abundance of patient-care settings. UIC truly allows their students to develop into the best version of themselves, no matter what the desired career path may be.

Any advice for students who are interested in pursuing a PharmD?

Dr. Danielle Sanchez What are your postgraduate plans?

PharmDs are qualified to work in a plethora of practice settings with a wide spectrum of opportunities to provide your expertise. Not only will a PharmD program allow you to develop into a clinical expert, but it will challenge you to prioritize, multitask, communicate, educate, collaborate, empathize, and persevere. You may feel overwhelmed throughout the process, but the feeling of successfully overcoming every challenge along the way will build you into a warrior, ready to tackle any obstacle that comes your way. Remember to have fun throughout the journey; pharmacy school is going to be the best time of your life.

I am thrilled to continue to build upon my clinical knowledge, as well as patient care, teaching, research, and leadership capabilities as I begin the next step in my professional career as a PGY-1 pharmacy practice resident.

SUMMER 2021

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Golden Graduate Spotlight: A Conversation with John DeNardo, BS ’71, MS ’74, RPh BY I M A N I WAT S O N

UIC Golden Graduates are alumni of the university who are celebrating 50 years of being a UIC alumnus. The UIC College of Pharmacy had the chance to catch up with one of our own Golden Graduates, Mr. John DeNardo, BS ’71, MS ’74, RPh. Mr. DeNardo, who received his BS and MS in pharmacy from UIC, is a highly respected healthcare professional and hospital administrator, serving as the CEO of UI Health from 2000 to 2012, then going on to serve as the head of the Master of Healthcare Administration program at UIC’s School of Public Health from 2012 to 2016. Let’s learn about his career journey after graduating from our pharmacy program in 1971.

What inspired you to become a pharmacist? The first job I had in my life was as a grill man at Walgreens. In those days, Walgreens had a grill believe it or not. I worked there for an entire summer and had the chance to meet the pharmacist and the team. Everyone was kind, and I was glad I had the opportunity to see what pharmacists did firsthand. It was great exposure to the profession. My dad also had a friend who was a pharmacist. My dad told me that being a pharmacist was a professional, respectable job where you “don’t have to work outside.” In my junior year, my friend told me to go into chemistry, as his dad was a chemistry professor, and he knew I enjoyed math and science. I went to the library—there was no Google at the time—and did research to learn more about the job of a pharmacist. After thinking it over, I decided to pursue it!

Tell us about your pharmacy education at UIC and how it prepared you for leadership. Being a pharmacist is a great career opportunity, and the training you receive as a pharmacist prepares you for so much, especially for leadership roles. The clinical education students get at the UIC College of Pharmacy puts us right on par with other healthcare professionals. We see healthcare delivery from the inside out. Whether you’re in the unit, in the store, or an administrator, you see healthcare being delivered. We have to persuade people by using data, which is a skill that sticks with you forever as a pharmacist. You have to be able to defend your position and demonstrate the data to support your stance. Pharmacy departments in hospitals are very diverse—you have couriers, technicians, pharmacists—and having the skills that UIC cultivates in its students helps many of us go on to grow our leadership skills in these significant roles.

Most memorable experience from his time at UIC? I asked my wife this question—she’s a nurse who attended the College of Nursing when I was attending pharmacy school. We both believe that the night we

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got engaged at the Phi Delta Chi party was the most memorable experience we’ve had at UIC. We’ve been married for 51 years now!

What is your favorite aspect of being a pharmacist? During my time as a clinical pharmacist working in the VA, I think about how I had the ability to interact with and impact patients one at a time, and this was so important to me. Pharmacists can play a huge role in so many different arenas. I know pharmacists who have gone into law, medicine, and even dentistry with their pharmacy background. It’s a great profession in and of itself, but there are so many opportunities with a pharmacy degree.

Advice for the Class of 2021? COVID-19 has been an eye-opener. It has shown that there are many ways that the healthcare system needs improvement. The disparities in healthcare have come to light during this pandemic. I hope that we as a society, especially the new generation of pharmacists, can use this as a learning experience to address the issues of healthcare disparities. How can we construct a system that works well for everyone? When you look at the healthcare system of today and tomorrow, you see that pharmacists play a huge role in providing care and health education to their communities. My advice to the Class of 2021 is this: you need to be informed, involved, and engaged in the communities you serve—and push for change that recognizes the pharmacist’s critical role within these communities.

Dr. Darren Toh Tracks Drug Safety and Effectiveness at Harvard BY MICHAEL DHAR

Toh completed his master’s in pharmacy administration at UIC, work now being conducted in the college’s Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy. While at the college, working with Drs. Bruce Lambert, now with Northwestern University, and adjunct faculty member Swu-Jane Lin, Toh was introduced to pharmacoepidemiology, which eventually brought him to Harvard for his doctorate. Toh also learned the importance of focusing on the patient at UIC, which remains a valuable perspective today, he said.

Dr. Darren Toh, MS ’05, didn’t plan a career in academia, but his research abilities led him to an enviable position nonetheless at Harvard Medical School. Toh spends much of his time on the long-running Sentinel program at that hallowed campus, which helps the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) monitor approved medical products. Toh and his team built this system from scratch, and he counts it among his proudest achievements. “We started that when I first joined this group, and we have been doing that the past ten years,” Toh said. “So I’m glad to be part of this very robust surveillance system.”

“Even though I’m doing population-based research using secondary databases, I’m still looking at the risks and benefits for patients,” he said. “So, getting my master’s training at the UIC College of Pharmacy built a foundation from which I grew.”

Toh also conducts research comparing the effectiveness and safety of various medications via pharmacoepidemiologic analysis and develops privacyprotection analytic methods for researchers. “The challenge we face in our research is that people are willing to collaborate, but they are not willing or able to share highly detailed patient-level data,” he said. “So, in order to do the research that we wanted, we needed to develop methods that allow you to do sophisticated analysis without the need for combining patient-level data.”

Toh had initially intended to work in the pharmaceutical industry, but personal reasons kept him in the Boston area, and a Harvard position opened that suited him. Still, Toh recommends that pharmacy students interested in academia make sure it fits their goals. “The best thing about being in pharmacy is that you have a lot of options,” he said. “Academia is just one of the few options.”

Beyond research, guiding pre- and postdoctoral fellows has been some of his most rewarding work, Toh said. “Some of my fellows are getting very good positions in some universities, some in pharmaceutical companies,” he said. “I enjoy being part of their success.”

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We can provide you the language to include the University of Illinois Foundation for the benefit of the college in your will or living trust and also custom language for a beneficiary designation via a retirement plan, whole-life insurance policy, or payable on death (POD)/transferable on death (TOD) account or to further designate your bequest in a way that is meaningful to you. Please contact director of gift planning Jason James Shuba, JD, for more information on how to invest in the future at the UIC College of Pharmacy. Office of Gift Planning and Trust Services 1305 W. Green St., MC 386 Urbana, IL 61801 312.413.3394 | shuba@uif.uillinois.edu

D R . O D I N N A D E R E R · B S N U T R I T I O N ’ 8 7, P H A R M D ’ 9 5

ALUMNI PROFILES

A Bend in the River Leads Dr. Odin Naderer to Unexpected Opportunities “Where preparation meets opportunity is luck.”

to pursue a residency in New York, where he ended up meeting his wife.

This is how Odin Naderer, BS ’87 (nutrition), PharmD ’95, describes the serendipity he’s encountered during his career.

“Sometimes the river takes you down a path you didn’t expect,” says Naderer, who entered pharmacy school expecting to finish his PharmD and go back to working in a hospital. However, a different journey presented itself, one for which he realized both his experience and education had equipped him.

Now vice president of clinical pharmacology and translational medicine at Chimerix, Inc., in Durham, North Carolina, Naderer began his journey as a Downers Grove native pursuing a degree in nutrition and medical dietetics at UIC. Growing up with an interest in sports nutrition, Naderer was referred to UIC’s coordinated dietetics program by a chance encounter his father had with an employee-health professional at his office. The program’s structure, which combined course work and internship hours, allowed Naderer to sit for his registration exam right away, and he moved on to a position in critical care nutrition at Oak Forest Hospital. During his four-year stint there, Naderer worked, essentially, on a team of two with a pharmacist. “We established how we were going to have physicians write orders,” he recalls. “They could check a box for a nutrition consult; then we would come in and write ‘prescriptions’ for dextrose, amino acids, electrolytes. Then, we followed the patients to determine what needed to be tweaked. It was a really good experience that got me thinking, maybe I can go back to school and become a team of one.” By the time he arrived back at UIC, Naderer had developed a focused interest in infectious disease due to his experience with an ID physician at Oak Forest. As such, he sought out Keith Rodvold as a faculty mentor. Naderer eventually started working on research projects in Rodvold’s lab and was introduced to his network in the ID field. “That [relationship] has been a long-term mentorship/friendship since 1992,” says Naderer, who went on, at Rodvold’s urging,

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“Industry was never part of my long-term mental landscape. But, over time, I gained additional exposure. As long as you’ve got a good foundation, you can be open to some of these other opportunities. “That’s what changes things.” After his first-year residency in New York, Naderer went on to a second residency in infectious disease at the University of Texas, then a fellowship at the University of North Carolina, before landing a position at what eventually became GlaxoSmithKline, where he became director of infectious diseases discovery medicine and, subsequently, medicine development leader. “I started down the path of industry and worked as a clinical research scientist,” Naderer recalls. “My first study was an international trial in Africa and the U.S. doing phase 2 HIV trials. I didn’t think, in my wildest dreams, that I’d be doing something like that.” After 15 years at GlaxoSmithKline, Naderer joined the biopharmaceutical firm Chimerix, where he has been able to build his own team and continue working in clinical pharmacology. “I didn’t think I’d do anything other than clinical pharmacy. Now I’m involved in a small biotech company interfacing with the FDA, NIH, CDC, WHO—that wasn’t in my mental wheelhouse as a PharmD student.” Perhaps in more than a stroke of luck, Naderer credits much of the preparation

“He’d say, ‘Always start with the basic research. What was the original study? You need to understand what the labeled use of this drug is.’ Now that I’m in industry, I get it.

“Making sure that you’re solid in the fundamentals—that gives you the foundation to delve into other opportunities that come your way. I don’t think there are limits to where you can go. But you have to make sure that you really understand the basics that you can go back to. That makes you a stronger scientist.”

Dr. Goda Muralidhar Applies the Scientific Method to Portfolio Management at Pfizer Every day, Dr. Goda Muralidhar (PhD ’17) gets a new puzzle to solve at work—and that’s exactly how she wants it. Muralidhar, who completed her doctorate in biopharmaceutical sciences, serves as a senior portfolio manager at Pfizer in the Global Product Development organization supporting the Hospital Business Unit. That means serving as a bridge between project teams and leadership with duties ranging from managing performance data to supporting decision makers for a collection of research and development projects in her portfolio. And while Muralidhar no longer works in the lab, she said, she is running experiments with data systems and decision-making processes. The best part of the job? Muralidhar gets to learn new things and take on new puzzles constantly. “I’ve always liked solving problems, and this role . . . always go[es] back to those problem-solving skills,” she said. “We are constantly working on new things. And that sort of opportunity space is very stimulating because it stays fresh.” Muralidhar added that she honed those problem-solving skills in UIC classrooms; with her UIC thesis advisor, Dr. Maria Barbolina; and as a student analyst at the UIC Office of Technology

Management. “In a graduate program, you are fundamentally training to think like a scientist,” she said. “You’re not learning just how to run an assay or take a test. You’re learning to go through the scientific method when trying to answer questions or solve problems. . . . And UIC was a great place to learn that.”

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he’s had for the opportunities he’s encountered to the straightforward, no-nonsense advice given to him in pharmacy school by Rodvold.

Muralidhar added that the university’s career office provided a great assist in plotting her career path when she was unsure about her next steps. Career counselors worked with her on a battery of exploratory tools like IQ and personality tests. “Going through that process and working with them provided a lot of insights,” she said. “It really helped me understand the things I’m drawn to.” Beyond the preparation she gained at UIC, Muralidhar credits good fortune and a unique professional program at Pfizer for her career development. After graduating from UIC, she completed a two-year professional development program at the company with rotations through different departments and roles. “The rotational program really gives you exposure to all sorts of groups and skill sets. It’s also a great way to meet new people,” she said. “I have also been very lucky to have great managers and mentors who gave me the opportunities to test my potential and grow.”

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Your investments in the college provide both

THANK YOU! YOUR SUPPOR T The UIC College of Pharmacy relies on your financial support to advance our mission of educating the current and next generation of pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, and pharmacy leaders; conducting impactful and cutting-edge research; and providing innovative patient care to serve our local, national, and global communities.

$6,900,366

DEANSHIP & PROFESSORSHIPS

$4,578,147

FACILIT Y IMPROVEMENTS

$4,485,788

ACADEMIC UNIT SUPPORT

$3,000,000

DRUG DISCOVE RY & CANCE R RE SE ARCH PAVILION

$2,434,998

campaign totals $29,953,457 raised thus far SCHOLARSHIPS

IGNITE CAMPAIGN UPDATE

CAMPAIGN TOTALS A S OF 5/15/21

iving impact repor

Your support has made a tremendous difference!

immediate and continuing impact for our students, faculty, and mission.

MAKES IT ALL POSSIBLE. “AS I LOOK BACK OVER THE YEAR, I REFLECT ON THE REMARKABLE GENEROSITY OF OUR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS. I WANT TO PERSONALLY THANK YOU FOR YOUR GIFTS, WHETHER IT WAS A MONETARY GIFT OR A DONATION OF YOUR TIME AND TALENT. PLEASE KNOW THAT ALL GIFTS ARE TREMENDOUSLY USEFUL IN DRIVING OUR MISSION, SUPPORTING OUR STUDENTS, AND ADVANCING OUR PROFESSION. THANK YOU.” P R O F E S S O R A N D D E A N G L E N T. S C H U M O C K

85.5% of $35 million goal reached by 2022 RESEARCH

$8,554,158

I G N I T E : The Campaign for UIC was launched on October

28, 2017, and has set a daunting and significant fundraising goal for the college of $35M by the end of 2022. The college’s future trajectory depends on an ambitious vision combined with the college’s goal in the IGNITE Campaign directed toward priorities that will support: O U R S T U D E N T S by way of expanded scholarship offerings and programmatic and experiential offerings. O U R FA C U LT Y through professorships, improved teaching resources and technology, and corporate partnerships. O U R R E S E A R C H capabilities through new and improved

facilities.

If you would like to make a monthly or one-time gift in support of current students, please visit GIVING.PHARMACY.UIC.EDU. To discuss contributing to our IGNITE Campaign or any questions that you may have, please contact associate dean of advancement BEN STICKAN at 312.639.9069 or BSTICKAN@UIC.EDU.

ALUMNI NEWS

CHRIS (YOO) BAEK, PharmD ’00, and her daughter Allison Baek became the first mother-daughter duo to be crowned Mrs. Illinois American and Miss Illinois for America. “This title is a testament that anyone who sets her mind on a goal can achieve it through hard work, diligence, and faith,” said Dr. Baek.

KASEM AKHRAS, PharmD ’94, recently published a book, Frontiers in Market Access: A Practical Approach to Mastering Market Access in Emerging Markets. LAURA AYENTO, PharmD ’18, started a new position as a clinical staff pharmacist at UI Health.

JERRY L. BAUMAN, BS ’76, dean emeritus and UIC distinguished professor emeritus, received the Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater, University of MissouriKansas City. Dr. Bauman has had a distinguished 40-year career as a pioneering clinical pharmacist, educator, practitioner, researcher, and leader. GEPING CAI, PhD ’13, was promoted to senior scientist II at Abbott in May. ASHLEY CHA, PharmD ’19, started a new position as senior manager, Global Health Economics & Outcomes Research (breast cancer), at Pfizer. KEVIN CHANG, PharmD ’16, started a new position as the PGY1 pharmacy residency program director at Loyola Medicine. Dr. Chang was also promoted to surgical-trauma ICU clinical pharmacy specialist at Loyola Medicine. ANNETTE (PELLEGRINO) CHAVEZ, PharmD ’04, started a new position as senior director, Atopic Dermatitis Program lead, Clinical Development, at Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. DONNY CHAVEZ, PharmD ’02, recently started a new position as a supervisor, PA and UM Programs, at MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc. COURTNEY CHMIELESKI, PharmD ’20, was promoted to pharmacy manager at CVS Pharmacy.

Dr. Chris Baek (right) and daughter Allison Baek

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CAITLIN CHRISTIAN, PharmD ’19, was promoted to pharmacy manager at Walgreens.

Dr. Francesca Cunningham

CHRISTINA (CARRIZALES) CORTEZ, PharmD ’11, started a new position as 340B compliance coordinator/clinical assistant professor at UI Health. FRANCESCA CUNNINGHAM, PharmD, RES ’88, FEL ’89, provided the college’s commencement address, to the Class of 2021. ZENA DARHOOM, PharmD ’19, was promoted to clinical pharmacist at NorthShore University HealthSystem. JOHN DICRISTOFANO, PharmD ’19, recently joined Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas as a clinical pharmacist. KENDALL DUNLAP, PharmD ’16, recently started a new position as marketing manager II, rheumatology, at AbbVie. RACHAEL FREEMAN, PharmD ’17, recently started a new position as a clinical pharmacist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. MICHAEL GANNON, PharmD ’15, started a new position as the assistant director of Specialty Pharmacy Services at the UIC College of Pharmacy. DANIEL GARDNER, PharmD ’12, started a new position as a pharmacy manager at Mariano’s. NIRMAL GHUMAN, PharmD ’12, was promoted to senior advisor for trend management at CVS Health. DAN GRATIE, PharmD ’17, was promoted to associate director, Strategic Consulting, at AESARA. NORMAN HADD, BS ’71, retired from the U.S. Public Health Service and is currently an ordained minister.

NICOLE (JOHNSON) HEUN, PharmD ’19, recently started a new position as a pharmacist at CGH Medical Center in Erie, Illinois.

ROBERT KWAK, PharmD ’10, was promoted to healthcare supervisor of Illinois North Area for Walgreens.

JAY HIGHLAND, PharmD ’15, was promoted to patient care services manager at Jewel-Osco. Dr. Highland was also promoted to residency program director at Jewel-Osco.

ALEX KANTOROVICH, PharmD ’12, started a new position as senior medical science liaison at United Therapeutics Corporation. BRIAN KRAMER, BS ’85, MBA, was recently elected board vice chairman of the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC). “The COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified the critical role of longterm care pharmacies, and I am more than ever honored to serve the mission of SCPC,” said Mr. Kramer.

What has changed in your life?

HAO LEI, PhD ’15, was recently promoted to principal R&D scientist at Abbott.

PLE A SE LE T US K N OW AT

GO.UIC.EDU/ ALUMNIUPDATE

JENNI KIM, PharmD ’14, started a new position as assistant director, Value Strategy & Access Solutions Marketing—Gastric Cancer, at Astellas Pharma US.

BEDRIJA ISIC-NIKOCEVIC, PharmD ’08, was promoted to ambulatory care clinical pharmacist at Sinai Health System. YASH JALUNDHWALA, MS ’10, PhD ’16, started a new position as director, Global Market Access and Pricing (GMAP), neuroscience, at AbbVie.

NORMA LEAL-PRZYBOROWSKI, PharmD ’11, started a new position as a pharmacy manager with Walgreens in Peoria, Illinois.

Dr. David La Coste

DAVID LA COSTE, PharmD ’96, was presented with the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award by the NH Pharmacists’ Association and the NH Society of Healthsystem Pharmacists, an award that highlights a 42-year career at Cheshire Medical Center where he served as staff pharmacist, acting director of pharmacy, and assistant director of pharmacy. Dave helped to implement several clinical pharmacy initiatives, including decentralized pharmacy, multidisciplinary rounds, pharmacy-managed antibiotic protocols, pharmacist-managed medication reconciliation process, and a renal dosing protocol, among other transformative initiatives and service as a change agent.

INYOUNG LEE, PhD ’21, started a new position as a consultant in the Medical and Scientific Services Group, which is part of Real World Solutions, at IQVIA. HONG LIU, PhD ’05, was recently promoted to associate director at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). NICHOLAS LIU, PharmD ’16, started a new position as senior manager, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, at Seagen. IOANNIS MANOLOPOULOS, PharmD ’18, joined Ro, a healthcare technology company. SANJAY MEHTA, PharmD ’01, started a new position as director, Medical Value, at Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Drs. Alexandra Broadus, Yash Jalundhwala, Ken Joseph, Ryan Koca, and Pratik Shah (pictured left-toright) are the inaugural members of our Early Career Council. The council plays a vital role in the growth and advancement of the college by working with the dean and Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs staff to support educational, career, and professional development opportunities for current and future pharmacy graduates.

A special thanks to the college’s Early Career Council members, who met with current students on April 15 to share their experiences, career advice, and recommendations for success and advancement in community pharmacy and leadership. The event, titled Pharmacist for the People: Community Pharmacy and

Positioning Yourself for a Rewarding and Progressive Career, was impressively moderated by Ryan Koca, PharmD ’10, MBA, and the forum provided insightful comments from our panelists—Alexandra Broadus, PharmD ’08; Ken Joseph, PharmD; and Pratik Shah, PharmD ’14. SUMMER 2021

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ALUMNI NEWS

ALBERT MEI, PharmD ’17, started a new position as Clinical Pharmacy and Quality team lead at CareMore Health. JOHN MILAS, MD, BS ’76, retired from medical practice/clinical research after 38 years. Dr. Milas continues as medical director of Hospice in Greenville, South Carolina. Y. LAMBERT NOUDEGBESSI, PharmD ’19, recently took a position with Illiana HealthCare System. MICHAEL NOVARIO, BS ’78, retired from OSF Saint Joseph Medical Center on May 29. CHRISTOPHER OH, PharmD ’19, was promoted to associate director, medical science liaison, oncology, at Novartis. ELISA PARK, PharmD ’04, recently joined Ascendis Pharma A/S as an associate director, medical information. PATIENCE PARK, PharmD ’20, started a new position as senior regulatory affairs associate with Corcept Therapeutics. Dr. Jay Tran

NISHIL PATEL, PharmD ’07, worked on an article that was published on migraine management and how pharmacists can play a role in the care for these patients. Millikan Reeve Professor BRADLEY PHILLIPS, PharmD, FEL ’95, was recently named the director of the Biomedical & Translational Sciences Institute at the University of Georgia Office of Research.

Dr. Rina Shah

ELIAS PITTOS, PharmD ’14, recently earned board certification in oncology pharmacy (BCOP). PATRICK PRUNTY, PharmD ’18, started a new position as senior scientific associate at PRECISIONvalue.

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P H A R M A C Y.U I C . E D U

SHERRY (MAHER) SIEGERT, PharmD ’09, was promoted to senior director, Medical Affairs, at La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company. Dr. Rene (Williams) Rabaza

JOHN SIEVERS, PharmD ’92, was recently promoted. He now serves as southeast regional director of pharmacy for EncompassHealth.

RENE (WILLIAMS) RABAZA, PharmD ’17, was recently published in the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) newsletter. The article, “10 Lessons Learned During My First Year in Ad Promo,” was intended for early career professionals working within the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Rabaza was also recently promoted to senior manager, Regulatory Affairs US Advertising & Promotion at AbbVie as of April.

CAITLYN SOLEM, MS ’07, PhD ’10, started a new position as Global Patient-Centered Outcomes and Patient Engagement Center of Excellence lead at OPEN Health Evidence & Access.

GEORGE RIEDL, BS ’83, and GARRY ZAGE, BS ’77, were selected as Advisory Board members for Harvard MedTech, a digital therapy company. The pair will work to advance the market adoption of the Vx™ Pain Relief Program—a virtual reality therapy combined with behavioral health interventions for the treatment of pain. This program is in response to the opioid crisis that has been impacting millions across the country.

JAY TRAN, PharmD ’07, MPA ’15, joined Capital Rx in May to serve as director, Clinical Government Services.

DANIEL SECKLER, BS ’66, received the 50th Year Florida Pharmacist Certificate in 2018. ZACK SESSIONS, PharmD ’19, started a new position as medical writer, Scientific Communications (Hematology/Oncology), at Vaniam Group DHARMI SHAH, PharmD ’19, was promoted to senior manager, Global Regulatory Affairs Labeling— General Medicines, at Sanofi. RINA SHAH, PharmD ’05, was recently recognized by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) with their 2021 Luminary Award for her impact on advancing women’s careers and her dedication to healthcare.

JAMES STANLEY, PharmD ’09, recently accepted the position of clinical pharmacy specialist in pediatric hematology and oncology at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

NICK TREMOLS, PharmD ’18, was recently promoted at Vineti. He now serves as principal functional implementation manager. BENITO VALDEPEÑAS, PharmD ’18, recently started a new position as clinical pharmacy specialist in solid organ transplantation at Mayo Clinic. MICHAEL WILLENS, BS ’80, retired from Walgreens in September 2020 as pharmacy manager after 43 years. KAREN XIE, PharmD ’14, was recently promoted to manager, Strategic Global Labeling (oncology), at AbbVie. CHRIS YUEN, PharmD ’16, was promoted to medical science liaison at Blueprint Medicines. PATRICK ZUEGER, PharmD ’13, PhD ’18, coauthored a recent New England Medical Journal article titled “Trial of Upadacitinib and Adalimumab for Psoriatic Arthritis.”

MAR

ALEM ASFAW, PhD ’00, married wife, Fanus, on March 6, 2021.

MAR

HANNAH DALOGDOG, PharmD ’20, married Aaron Beley on March 26, 2021.

APR

MADIHA KHAN, PharmD ’19, is engaged to Shiful Malik, and they are planning a June 2021 wedding.

APR

TAMARA POLUS, PharmD ’20, married Kamil Kobylka on April 17, 2021. The newlyweds honeymooned in Key West, Florida.

DAVID UMALI, PharmD ’17, and MORGAN BOLLECH, PharmD ’19, became engaged.

SIERRA DELEHANTY, PharmD ’19, married Andrew Meeks on April 24, 2021. The newlyweds honeymooned in Palm Desert, California.

MAY

CHOLE MAJKOWSKI, PharmD ’18, married Tim Boland on May 1, 2021.

JODI (JENNINGS) SHEAHAN, PharmD ’94, and husband Dan recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

SUMMER 2021

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ALUMNI NEWS

TANYA (UDDIN) CHAUDHRI, PharmD ’18, and husband Arshan welcomed their first child. Son Faris Ziyada was born on January 24, 2021.

Mohammad Hamza Mofarrahi

Olivia Ji-Hye Faris Ziyad Chaudhri

RIJO ALEX, PharmD ’10, and wife Joyce welcomed their first child, daughter Olivia Ji-Hye, on January 1, 2020. SUHAIL ALHREISH, PharmD ’09, and wife Arij welcomed daughter Selma Alhreish on September 2, 2020.

Selma Alhreish

MAGGIE ALLISON, PharmD ’15, and husband Ted Johnson, welcomed their first child. Son Joseph “Joey” Kenneth Johnson was born on January 31, 2021, weighing 10lbs 4oz and measuring 21 inches.

SOURAYA ELSAYED, PharmD ’19, and husband Mohammad Reza Mofarrahi, welcomed their first child. Son Mohammad Hamza Mofarrahi was born on December 19, 2020, at 9:27 p.m. weighing 8lbs 1.7oz and measuring 21.2 inches. BRENNAN ERTMER, PharmD ’11, and wife Kari welcomed their second child. Son Lelan Michael was born on April 7, 2021, at 3:32 a.m. weighting 7lbs 8oz and measuring 21.5 inches. He joins big sister Laila.

Joseph “Joey” Kenneth Johnson

Kora Leigh Hanson

COLLEEN (MURRAY) CAPPELLI, PharmD ’12, and husband Eric welcomed their first child. Daughter Paisley James was born on January 6, 2021, at 10:50 a.m. weighing 6lbs 13oz and measuring 19 inches.

Callie Krzan

MEGHAN (HATZER) KRZAN, PharmD ’15, and husband Chris welcomed their second child. Daughter Callie was born on October 28, 2019. She joins big brother Cole (3).

CHRISTINA BERBERICH, PharmD ’12, and husband Dan welcomed son August on November 24, 2019. LISA BHATTA, PharmD ’04, and husband David are grandparents for the third time to Kaden (3), Quinnlee (2), and Maya (1).

LINDA (SITKIEWICZ) HARMER, PharmD ’09, and husband Rob welcomed their second child. Daughter Noelle Juliana was born on November 19, 2020, weighing 6lbs 2oz and measuring 19 inches. She joins big sister Eliana (1).

KENT AND HALI (RAMIREZ) HANSON, both PharmD ’20, welcomed their first child. Daughter Kora Leigh was born on February 6, 2021, at 4:21 p.m. weighing 7lbs 1oz and measuring 21 inches.

VICKY LE, PharmD ’16, and husband Brandon Wheeler, welcomed their first child. Son Mason Le Wheeler was born on December 15, 2020. WAN-JU LEE, PhD ’16, and husband Adam Wu welcomed their first child, daughter Abigail Xinpan Wu, on December 20, 2020.

Mason Le Wheeler Paisley James Cappelli

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Abigail Xinpan Wu

Micah Shayne Voit

LORI M C GUIRE, PharmD ’14, and husband Eric Quick welcomed their second child. Son Gavin Edwin was born on October 28, 2020, weighing 7lbs 11 oz and measuring 20 inches. He joins big brother Ian. SHALLY (ALENDRY) VOIT, PharmD ’14, and husband Steven welcomed their first child, son Micah Shayne Voit, on November 29, 2020. BONNIE VU, PharmD ’14, and husband Jimmy Seto, welcomed their first child. Daughter Madelyn was born on March 11.

Calvin C. Helmick

Thomas G. Marks

JOHN D. BREEN, BS ’54, passed on December 6, 2017. John was 86 and a resident of Downers Grove, Illinois. He was a U.S. Army veteran and hospital pharmacist for 40 years. CALVIN C. HELMICK, BS ’74, passed on May 30, 2019. Calvin was born in Urbana, Illinois, and he developed polio as a child but never let it hinder him being successful throughout his life. After graduation, he was licensed in several states, working for SpartanNash, a grocery distributor and retailer with over 2,100 locations.

W. Edward Mabry

WOODSON EDWARD MABRY, JR., BS ’70, MS ’75, passed on May 8, 2021. Following his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Ed completed a hospital pharmacy residency and would begin a 41-year career with much of his career serving as pharmacy director for the hospital now called OSF Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana. THOMAS G. MARKS, BS ’71, passed on April 20, 2021. Tom, age 73 years, of Oak Brook, Illinois, was a member of many professional associations and received several notable recognitions, including PCCA

Anthony Lanzito Jr.

MARY YOUKHANA, PharmD ’19, and husband Anthony welcomed their first child. Son Anthony Jr. was born on January 5, 2020.

Dr. Thomas Milan

Annist E. Murphy

Compounding Pharmacist of the Month 1988, PCCA Compounding Pharmacist of the Year 2003, Fellow of American College of Apothecaries 1999, and Illinois Innovative Pharmacist of the Year. THOMAS JULIAN MILAN, BS ’11, PharmD ’16, BCPS, passed on May 9, 2021. Tom served as a clinical pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) pharmacist for CVS Specialty in Mount Prospect, Illinois, and he was a friend to many. ANNIST E. MURPHY, BS ’73, passed on November 19, 2020. Annist was 78 years of age and a resident of Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Alice Romie

DENNIS POGANY, PhD ’67, passed on September 18, 2020. Dennis, age 85, was a Holocaust survivor and a resident of Lake Forest, Illinois. ALICE ROMIE, PharmD ’94, passed on May 12. Alice was born December 19, 1968, in Vietnam, and came to live with her family in the United States in 1975. Following her PharmD, Alice completed a residency at Rush University and was currently employed at Fresenius Kabi, in Lake Zurich, Illinois. She served on the board of directors of Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF).

SUMMER 2021

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8 3 3 S . W O O D S T. ( M C 8 74 ) · C H I C A G O , I L 6 0 6 12

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The Pharmacist - Summer 2021

Articles inside

A Million-Dollar Gift to Support Education at the UIC College of Pharmacy

Where Innovation Shines

Congratulations to the Class of 2021

Catching Up with the Class of 2019

Crime Seen