Letter from the Dean

Dear alumni, faculty, staff, and friends, 

After many days of beautiful fall weather and color, typical chilly Michigan weather has descended upon Ann Arbor. While our evenings may be increasingly shorter, we have many bright spots ahead of us. The University of Michigan Regents approved our new College of Pharmacy building, inclusive of 142,000 sq ft of teaching, community, and research facilities. A special thank you to the donors who are supporting our new Pharmacy building.You can see their names, and the names of all of our supporters in the College’s 2022 Honor Roll of Donors. If your name is not on the list, don’t worry because we still have many naming opportunities for our new building, are constantly working to provide more scholarships for our students, and supporting our faculty’s research innovations!

This October, during National Pharmacy week, I hosted my first White Coat Ceremony where we welcomed 82 pharmacy students into the profession and into their new pharmacy home. It was great to hold this event in person and a big thank you for Dr. Omonye Phillips, Divisional Vice President of Pharmacy Operations at Rite Aid, as our keynote speaker. Later this month, I look forward to recognizing the efforts of our graduate students at our Advance to Candidacy Ceremony, where we celebrate our PhD students who have finished their classes and can now focus on their research. We truly have the best students, I am constantly inspired by their accomplishments and aspirations, and know they will be leaders in their fields before we know it. I have enjoyed attending multiple student events and taking time to get to know them a little bit better. This year our pharm pharmiles are in swing and recently mine got together to take a pharmily photo! New this year is the incorporation of PhD students into our pharmacy phamily structure, which all pharmily members enjoy. 

I am excited to announce three new members of the College’s leadership team: Karen Farris, Regina McClinton, and Duxin Sun. With their vision and leadership, we are pushing forward our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, undergraduate and graduate education goals, and research mission.

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Lastly, we have three faculty members to congratulate: Mustapha Beleh, James Moon, and Kathleen Stringer. All recently earned prestigious awards recognizing their tremendous contributions to their fields.

These first few months of my deanship have affirmed my belief that all things are possible with the continued support and collaborative efforts of our community. Our alumni are raising their hands to network with, coach, and precept our current students. I have enjoyed connecting with alumni both at the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists meetings. I look forward to seeing many of you at these meetings, as well as others like the ASHP Midyear meeting in the near future. In particular, I’m looking to speak with alumni about how we can best develop new corporate partnerships and strengthen our existing relationships to ultimately increase our impact locally and globally. For years we have told everyone that we are “small by design” in recognition of our tight knit pharmacy community. However, even though we are small, I truly believe we are destined to have a worldwide impact, recognizing that everyone reading this issue of the eInteractions has a hand in our college’s success. Thus, thank you for all that you do and I’m grateful for each and every one of you.

Thank you and Go Blue!

Vicki L. Ellingrod, PharmD, FCCP, FACNP (She/Her)