BINGHAMTON, NY – "School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: What’s New and What’s Next" will be the topic of the Binghamton University Forum luncheon on Tuesday, April 12. A lunch buffet will begin at noon, and the formal program will start at 12:30 p.m. in the South Ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton, 225 Water Street, Binghamton.

Gloria Meredith, founding dean of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, will discuss her team’s progress towards preparing the school to open for new graduate students in fall 2017. The $60 million school will be constructed on a 5.49-acre parcel at 96 Corliss Ave. in Johnson City. The 84,100 square-foot, four-story building will include state-of-the-art research and skills labs, a simulation facility, clean room, lecture halls, small group rooms, and offices for 33 faculty and 15 staff. The school’s full enrollment will include approximately 350 students in the PharmD program and an additional 30-40 PhD students.

Meredith earned her PhD at Georgetown University in late 1983, and subsequently took various professorial positions throughout the U.S. and Europe. She became a tenured professor at Rosalind Franklin University of Science and Medicine in 2002, where she took a position as the chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. In 2009, she became the founding dean of the College of Pharmacy at Rosalind Franklin University of Science and Medicine, where the strong foundation she established allowed her vision for full accreditation to come to fruition in June 2015.

Meredith’s professorial experience in academia has led her to develop strong skills in course development and design, small group (clinic case) learning and more formal lecturing. Her success as a nationally recognized classical neuropharmacologist has helped her to earn funding towards research from several organizations, including the National Institute of Health, the Department of Defense and private organizations like the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Her expertise in Parkinson’s disease and drug addiction has led her work to be published in over 160 journals, as well as a Nature article from 2007 testing a neuroprotective drug, which is currently in Phase III clinical trials.

The Binghamton University Forum is a membership organization comprised of business, professional and community leaders that brings nationally known authorities to speak at functions throughout the year. For more information, call the Forum office at 607-777-5801, or e-mail buforum@binghamton.edu to RSVP.