Pharmacy school dean finalists named

The university has named four finalists for dean of the School of Pharmacy, Wisconsin’s only pharmacy school and educator of more than 90 percent of the state’s licensed pharmacists.

“The School of Pharmacy touches the lives of nearly every person in our state, whether it be their own health care or the health care of a loved one,” Chancellor John Wiley says. “I appreciate the search-and-screen committee’s hard work in coming up with four highly qualified finalists for this extremely important position.”

The 17-member committee was chaired by Daniel Rich, professor of pharmacy, and made up of representatives from the faculty, academic staff, non-represented classified staff, student body and community.

The committee forwarded the list of four finalists to the chancellor, who will make a final decision on a new dean.

The eventual choice will replace Melvin Weinswig, who announced in September that he would retire at the end of the fiscal year after more than three decades at UW–Madison. Weinswig joined the university in 1969 as a professor in continuing education for pharmacy professionals. He became chair of Extension Services in Pharmacy, helping turn the school’s extension program into the largest pharmacist re-training program in the nation. He served as interim dean for nine months before being chosen to lead the school in 1995.

The dean, who reports to Wiley and Provost Peter Spear, serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the School of Pharmacy, with responsibility for faculty and staff development, personnel oversight, budget planning and management, research, curriculum, student academic affairs and fund raising.

The school, which is ranked among the finest pharmacy schools in the country, has an annual budget of approximately $15 million and has 110 faculty and staff, 525 professional and undergraduate students, and 100 doctoral and postdoctoral students.

The finalists are:

Margaret James, professor and chair in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. James also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the College of Medicine, and is a member of the university’s Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program Graduate Research Faculty with the Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology and its Whitney Marine Research Lab.

James Kehrer, professor and head of the Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. Kehrer holds an adjunct professorship with the Department of Carcinogenesis at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Science Park Research Division.

Holly Mason, professor of pharmacy administration and associate dean for professional programs at the Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences. He is also a professor and former interim head and associate head in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Purdue.

Jeanette Roberts, professor of medicinal chemistry, associate dean for academic affairs, and adjunct professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. Roberts is also adjunct professor of foods and nutrition in the university’s College of Health.