the
connect
B Y D A N I E L P. S M I T H
Though located some 800 miles apart, the UIC College of Pharmacy and the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, share many similarities.
Both pharmacy schools sport high national rankings, robust post-graduate programs and active research and clinical faculties, realities that attract top students year after year. Among the oldest and largest pharmacy schools in the U.S., both UIC and Rutgers claim extensive alumni networks and graduates involved across the pharmaceutical ecosystem. Both state universities are also located in major metropolitan areas with direct access to industry giants such as AbbVie, Astellas, Pfizer and Merck among others for partnerships, training opportunities and more. Dig beyond the basic factoids, however, and deeper, stronger ties between the two institutions begin to blossom, including a long and storied history of students, alumni, residents and fellows moving between the two schools to enhance their skill sets and fuel their professional futures. Take Dr. Joe Barone, RES ’82. Barone was the first resident in emergency medicine at UIC, where one of his preceptors was Dr. Jerry Bauman, the dean of UIC’s College of Pharmacy from 20072017. When Barone completed his residency at UIC in 1982, Bauman encouraged him to pursue a tenuretrack position in emergency medicine at Rutgers.
24
| pharmalumni.uic.edu |
FALL 2019
An instrumental figure at Rutgers over the last 37 years, and the school’s dean since 2013, Barone spearheaded the launch of an emergency medicine program as well as a clinical program at Rutgers, both of which he modeled heavily after UIC. The interdisciplinary nature of Rutgers’ clinical program, for instance, mimics Barone’s valuable experience as a UIC resident. “There were little nuggets and behaviors I picked up as a resident and connections I built at UIC that helped me form these programs and, quick frankly, do my job better,” Barone says. Dr. Kevin Rynn, RES ’93, FEL ’94, Clinical Professor and Vice Dean, earned his pharmacy degree from Rutgers in 1990. Interested in emergency medicine training, Barone urged Rynn to consider UIC, where Rynn completed a two-year fellowship in emergency medicine and toxicology followed by a five-year run as a clinical faculty member on the West Side. Rynn later joined the faculty at Rutgers before returning to UIC in 2017 to lead the College of Pharmacy’s Rockford campus. “My early experiences at Rutgers and UIC helped me develop a large network of colleagues and mentors that opened doors that might not have otherwise existed,” Rynn says. Over the years, others have similarly leveraged their experiences at both heralded institutions to tackle new professional opportunities, sharpen their clinical skills and improve patient care.
