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In This Issue

Graduation 2012

Research on EngagingPatients

"Script Your Future"National Award

MPC 40th Anniversary

Center for TranslationalMedicine

New ELP Leadership

Faculty Published inPNAS

School Co-leads NewCenter of Excellencein Pain Education

KUDOS!

Events August 20, noon - 2 p.m.Annual Ice Cream SocialCelebrating the First Dayof the Fall Semester Sept. 7, 2 p.m. White Coat Ceremonyfor First-Year PharmDStudents Sept. 26, 1 p.m. Bruce Anderson,PharmD, director of theMaryland Poison Center,will deliver a speciallecture on the history ofthe Poison Center in

Fall 2012

First EditionDear friends and colleagues,

Welcome to the first of what will be a series ofregular email communications to alumni and friendsof the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.With so many innovative activities taking place inour education, practice, and research initiatives, Iwant you to share in the palpable excitement andenergy at the School. Your involvement in the life of the School of Pharmacy is crucial tomaintaining the expertise, influence, and impact for which we areknown. The beauty of this new format is that it provides a mechanismfor you to respond directly to me with your questions and input, and I dolook forward to hearing back from you with your ideas. Happy reading, and come see us soon. In the spirit of expertise, influence, and impact,

Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCPProfessor and Dean

Graduation of the Class of 2012On May 18, nearly 160 PharmD and PhD studentsgraduated from the School of Pharmacy in multipleceremonies celebrating their academicachievements. Rear Admiral Scott Giberson,assistant U.S. Surgeon General with the UnitedStates Public Health Service and its chief pharmacyoffice, joined us to deliver remarks to the Class of 2012. These studentsnow join the ranks of our nearly 5,000 alumni. Join me in offering

celebration of its 40thanniversary of service tothe state of Maryland October 20

The School's first AllAlumni Reunion Daywill feature continuingeducation courses,special PhD programs,tours of the School'snew Pharmacy Hall aswell as the MarylandPoison Center incelebration of its 40thanniversary, a crabfeast and BBQ, andmilestone reunionclass parties for yearsending in 7 and 2. Formore information, callthe Office ofDevelopment andAlumni Affairs at 410-706-8019 or visit www.umrxalumni.org.

congratulations to all of them. Read more...

Engaging Hard-to-Reach Patients in Health-CareDecision MakingI'm proud to report that researchers from the Departmentof Pharmaceutical Health Services Research were recipients of funding from the Patient-CenterOutcomes Research Institute to include hard-to-reachpatients, who often have multiple medical problems, inhealth care decision-making. The contract, awarded toprofessor C. Daniel Mullins, PhD, is one of only a fewPCORI contracts issued to date for developing models,protocols, or guidelines for including patients in research design andimplementation. Read more...

National "Script Your Future" AwardOur student pharmacists won a prestigiousnational award from the Script Your Future (SYF)Medication Adherence Challenge. The SYFcampaign seeks to raise awareness with patientsabout the importance of taking medication asdirected. Our students, selected from 81participating colleges and schools of pharmacy,won the Target Market Challenge Award for their participation in healthfairs and other local events at which they distributed more than 800medication wallet cards to patients. Read more...

Maryland Poison Center's 40th AnniversaryAs a vital service component of the Schoolof Pharmacy, our Maryland Poison Centeris celebrating its 40th anniversary thisyear. The Center handles more than62,000 calls each year and has servedapproximately two million Marylanders in its 40 years. The MarylandPoison Center is staffed around the clock, seven days a week byspecially-trained pharmacists and nurses who have provided poisoningtriage, treatment recommendations, education, and prevention servicesto Marylanders since 1972. Read more...

Center for Translational MedicineThe School of Pharmacy has launched a Center forTranslational Medicine in our Department of PharmacyPractice and Science, under the direction of JogaGobburu, PhD, MBA, who was recruited from the FDA.Dr. Gobburu, an expert in the field of pharmacometrics,established the center with a goal of improving upon theefficiency of medical product development. The centerintegrates quantitative models into tools that drugdevelopers, regulatory agencies, and other research organizations canuse to guide decisions pertaining to "go/no-go", dosage, patientpopulation, design, endpoint, analyses, and therapeutics choices. Thecenter also has a strong education component with the offering of aMaster's degree and an Executive Master's program. Read more...

New Leadership for Experiential LearningCherokee Layson-Wolf, an associate professor ofpharmacy practice and science, has been named theSchool's assistant dean for experiential learning. Theassistant dean position was created to oversee ELPfunctions and to establish and grow relationships withpractice partners in order to support rotation sites forour students. Dr. Layson-Wolf emerged from within ourown community as the best candidate for the position.Toyin Tofade, PharmD,has been named ELP'sassociate director. Dr. Tofade joins us from theUniversity of North Carolina Eshelman School ofPharmacy in the division of Pharmacy Practice andExperiential Education. She most recently worked at the Wake AreaHealth Education Center where she first served as associate directorthen as director of pharmacotherapy services. For more information please contact them at elp@rx.umaryland.edu.

Faculty Published in PNASThree faculty members from our Department of PharmaceuticalSciences were recently published in the journal Proceedings of theNational Academies of Science on their studies of the molecularworkings of disease. Sarah Michel, PhD, Angela Wilks, PhD, andPatrick Wintrode, PhD, published three separate studies aimed atdesigning better-targeted drugs to fight deadly bacterial diseases andliver cirrhosis. We are proud that this work has earned the recognition ofbeing featured in such a high-impact journal as PNAS - just anotherexample of the important research taking place in labs all across ourSchool. Read more...

School of Pharmacy Co-leads New Center ofExcellence in Pain EducationThe School was notified in late May that it is a co-principal investigator on a new National Institutes ofHealth Center of Excellence in Pain Education. Underthe leadership of Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD,aprofessor in our Department of Pharmacy Practiceand Science, and a faculty colleague at the School ofDentistry, the University will teach the next generationof health care providers to be better equipped tomanage and treat patients living with chronic pain. The NIH hasselected 11 health professional education institutions as Centers ofExcellence in Pain Education (CoEPEs) with the goal of usingeducation to resolve inconsistencies in chronic pain care. Read more...

Kudos!Our faculty, staff, and students are extremely talented individuals whoare often recognized for their expertise by our School, University, andexternal organizations. Here is a short list of recent achievements.

Robert Beardsley, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical healthservices research (PHSR), received the Noel B. Flynn Alumni

Achievement Award from Oregon State University College of

PharmacyNicole Brandt, PharmD, associate professor of pharmacypractice and science (PPS), was elected to the NationalAcademies of Practice.Youjin "Cathy" Chang, third-year student pharmacist, has beenselected to attend the University of Cambridge's 2012 ScienceSummer School where she will spend eight weeks conductingresearch in the Department of Biochemistry.Heather Congdon, PharmD, assistant professor in PPS andassistant dean for Shady Grove, was a member of a team thatreceived the Life Saving Patient Safety Award and thePerformance Award from the Health Resources and ServicesAdministration's Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy ServicesCollaborative. Sandeep Devabhakthuni, PharmD, assistant professor inPPS, has been appointed to a Society of Critical Care Medicinetask force to develop guidelines on medication use safety.Thomas Dowling, PharmD, PhD, associate professor in PPS,received the 2011 Best Paper Award at the annual meeting of theAmerican College of Clinical Pharmacology.Jeffrey Gonzales, PharmD, assistant professor in PPS,received a citation from the Society of Critical Care Medicine.Stuart Haines, PharmD, professor in PPS, has been appointedto the editorial board of the American Journal of PharmaceuticalEducation and was named the School of Pharmacy AlumniAssociation's 2012 B. Olive Cole Honorary Alumnus.Katherine Joyner, graduate student in the Department ofPharmaceutical Sciences (PSC), received the AmericanAssociation of Pharmaceutical Scientists' Graduate StudentSymposium Award.Wendy Klein-Schwartz, PharmD, associate professor in PPS,received the Platform Award from the North American Congressof Clinical Toxicology.Alex MacKerell, PhD, professor in PSC and director of theComputer-Aided Drug Design Center, received a patent for"Inhibitors of the S100-p53 Protein-Protein Interaction andMethod of Inhibiting Cancer Employing the Same."Robert Michoski, PharmD, professor in PPS, was selected bythe graduating class as Faculty Member of the Year. Frank Palumbo, PhD, professor in PHSR, received theDistinguished Alumnus Award from the Medical University ofSouth Carolina.Katy Pincus, PharmD, assistant professor in PPS, wasaccepted into the American Society of Health-SystemPharmacists Foundation's Research Boot Camp and obtainedboard certification in pharmacotherapy.James Polli, PhD, the Shangraw/Noxell Endowed Chair inPharmaceutical Sciences, was elected to the AmericanAssociation of Pharmaceutical Scientist's Executive Council asa member-at-large.Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, PharmD, professor and chair ofPPS, was invited to the White House as a guest of the Center forMedicaid and Medicare Services' Center for Innovation for adiscussion with White House staff on the impact of the patientcare services pharmacists provide on outcomes and reductionsin health care costs.

Mona Tsoukleris, PharmD, associate professor in PPS, hasbeen named to the executive committee of the MarylandDepartment of Health and Mental Hygiene's Maryland AsthmaControl Program.

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