Dean's Letter: The UIC College of Pharmacy is not just a building

The UIC College of Pharmacy is not just a building

BY DR. GLEN T. SCHUMOCK

It is more than just the world-class researchers and clinicians that make up the faculty, or the staff that work so hard to keep the place going.

It is even more than the hundreds of bright and engaged students, or the network of 10,000 alumni that have passed through our halls and keep giving back in so many ways.

It is synergy that comes from our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external partners working together toward a common goal of being the best at what we do. It is unparalleled pharmacy education and training. It is discoveries made by world-class researchers, and lives saved by expert clinicians. It is advances in the profession, leadership, and advocacy. It is a culture of excellence, collaboration, and inclusiveness.

In this issue of The Pharmacist you will read about some of the many great synergies that make the UIC College of Pharmacy what it is. One of the articles describes the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Traditional Medicine – a program that has existed at the College for 40 years and is one of only 21 in the world, and the only one in the Americas. The WHO Centre, together with the NIH Botanical Center and other efforts in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy are part of a long history of collaboration and leadership in natural products research. Because of this, the UIC College of Pharmacy is the top program in the US for graduate education and training in this area.

Another article focuses on our new student mentoring and professional development program – called Pharmacy Learning, Advising, Mentoring and Engagement for Students, or PhLAMES. The program pairs a faculty member with a group of students (typically one student from each year) to create a “family.” The program facilitates both peer-peer and faculty-student mentoring and networking. It also involves numerous co-curricular activities. Like the other stories highlighted in this issue, PhLAMES is a great example of the power of collaboration.

Many times the comradery that develops between classmates in pharmacy school leads to lifelong friendships, or more. A pair of articles in this issue focus on couples that met at UIC, and who went on to create lives together. Amanda Seddon, PharmD ’12, and Sean Chantarapanont, PharmD ’11, and Scott, PharmD ’06, and Sherry Siegert, PharmD ’09, are examples of the many pharmacist couples that met at UIC. As described in the stories, a dual pharmacist household can be both challenging and extremely rewarding. Both couples have found ways to keep their alma mater an important component of their lives together.

Accompanying this issue of The Pharmacist is the annual report of our advancement efforts. Here you will see evidence of the good that is done via the generous support of our alumni, friends and donors.

One of the best examples of the impact of giving is in the generosity of Carol Retzky and her late husband, Herb, ’46. The Retzky’s established the Herbert and Carol Retzky Deanship in 2016, and they also endowed a student scholarship. Their latest gift of $1 million is to build the Herbert and Carol Retzky Simulation Center. The Center will be in the north wing of the second floor. The state-of-the-art facility will allow students to practice dispensing medications and counseling patients, and also be able to convert into a modern conference space. It will be a wonderful legacy of the Retzky community pharmacies that served patients on the South side of Chicago for so many years.

I hope you enjoy this issue of The Pharmacist, and that you agree with me that what makes the UIC College of Pharmacy so special is the synergy that comes from our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external partners working together toward a common goal of being the best at what we do. Thank you for your support.