Pharmacy school update

A number of activities surrounding establishment of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have taken place since the SUNY Board of Trustees approved the University’s plans in March. Since then, Founding Dean Gloria Meredith and/or President Harvey Stenger have:
    • Participated with University colleagues in the Global Day of Caring on April 18, by cleaning up the site where the school will be built.
    • Presented to the participants at Innovation Day, held at the Innovative Technologies Complex on April 24.
    • Presented to the Alumni Leaders Conference on April 25.
    • Hosted a very well-attended community meeting with Johnson City residents in the Johnson City Village Hall on May 11.
    • Spoken to the Johnson City School Board on June 9

Meredith has also made progress building her administrative team:
    • Karen Reid, who comes from a position at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and who will assist with accreditation documents among her other duties, has been hired as assistant dean for operations and finance;
    • Leon Cossler, who comes from his position as director of the Research Institute for Health Outcomes at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, has been hired as chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Administrative Sciences;
    • Gail Rattinger, who comes from her position as director of pharmacy practice at Fairleigh Dickinson University School of Pharmacy, has been hired as associate dean for academic affairs and assessment; and
    • Marissa Barbieri has been hired as executive assistant.

On the curricular side, prerequisites are developed and Meredith is working closely with Harpur College of Arts and Sciences Dean Anne McCall to develop strong pathways in pharmacy.

Meredith is also developing a strong international advisory board for the school that she expects to meet a few times each year. “An advisory board is very important for our pharmacy school,” Meredith said. “They serve as important advisors in establishing the program. This will be a select group of alumni, friends and biopharmaceutical leaders and there will be an elected faculty member and a student.”

Meredith sees the advisory board assisting her and key leadership in determining the direction and focus of the school in the coming decade. “I’ve been reaching out,” she said. “The alumni leaders’ weekend was wonderful and many of them have introduced me to others. The school will have a strong focus on research and the board members will help us shape that focus and that of any other ventures we enter into. I’ll receive support and mentoring for myself, students and faculty.”

Accreditation documents will be submitted to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in September, Meredith said, and the campus is waiting to hear about approval from the State Board of Regents. The school’s full application will be submitted to the to the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) in January 2016, and, as the building’s design phase is being completed, the school anticipates enrolling its first class in 2017, pending precandidate status from the ACPE.

The design process has gone smoothly, said Meredith. The building will include two teaching floors and two research floors that are truly state-of-the-art. There will be a pharmacy skills lab with simulation capabilities, a hospital pharmacy, a sterile room and a drugstore counter, and the simulation facilities will be used for interprofessional simulations with nursing, social work, and Upstate Medical University students. 

A groundbreaking has yet to be scheduled, but construction is expected to start in spring 2016.